Dacia Duster...Reviews And Opinions.

[welsh hunter .22]

I'm changing my car and quite fancy the Dacia Duster,not the 2024 model,I've got about £12,000 to spend.
Must be the petrol model and I won't be off roading in it.
Any members got one or have had one?
Reviews and opinions please.

 

[dmax17]

Son had a brand new one engine went bang at 20k due to oil cooler leak common with them

 

[gtfreight]

I have a friend who has a 23 model and he says he quite likes it but he feels that the trim feels cheap and the key fob is bulky but barring that he's pleased with it.

 

[Campervan]

Dont!!

 

[CJD]

As I’m sure you know by now they are Renault based, generally using their slightly older tech - which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
My Dad had one- broke a headlight, which was on back order for 6 months and they just couldn’t get one.
Anyway the car was coming up for its first mot - which it obviously won’t pass with a broken headlight.
Renault ended up doing him a good deal on a new Clio .
Just a warning that spare’s aren’t necessarily that easy to source.
That’s why so many newish car are being written off for apparently very minor damage.

 

[One more job]

I'm changing my car and quite fancy the Dacia Duster,not the 2024 model,I've got about £12,000 to spend.
Must be the petrol model and I won't be off roading in it.
Any members got one or have had one?
Reviews and opinions please.

Not read any of the other posts yet but my wife brought a brand new Duster four years ago and she has been over the moon with it!
I was also very happy as for the last twenty years she has had a new car every four years and they have all been Mercedes SLKs or similar. When she said she wanted a cheaper car and fancied a Duster, I nearly fell over and tried to talk her out of it, as I couldn’t see her switching and being happy. I went with her and had a test drive and was very impressed especially at how cheap they were!
She is now looking at getting another one and they have gone up quite a lot to what they had been but are still excellent value. The Stepway is smaller but also worth a look. She has had no problems with her Duster in the four years she has had it, just takes it to Norwich one a year for a service. Clearly not a direct comparison with a Mercedes but much cheaper and at our age we don’t need a prestige car. The Duster will serve you well

 

[Stockscrew]

I'm changing my car and quite fancy the Dacia Duster,not the 2024 model,I've got about £12,000 to spend.
Must be the petrol model and I won't be off roading in it.
Any members got one or have had one?
Reviews and opinions please.

I had a Duster in which I did over 90,000 miles. It was not petrol engined but had the Renault 1500 DCI diesel engine. With 127000 on the clock it was still going strong and using no oil or smoking If you are buying the petrol engined type I think you may be disappointed. Clarkson tested the diesel Duster and gave it a stunning review. If I could have found another locally I would have purchased it without any qualms.

 

[Dazzer1966]

2 mates have new ones. Small engine, constantly changing gear just to get up hills, on a recent trip to south sea fishing. M3. M27 he left it in 5th gear as 6th couldn’t cope with the hills

 

[Grey Man]

Build quality is variable and parts availability erratic.

 

[Blackhill]

I used to service the time clocks in a lot of the main garage franchises .I was once told off a Renault mechanic never to buy a Renault as he said the cars weren't well built .A lot of VW mechanics also owned Japanese cars .I was told that off the mechanic in 2006 and it's always stuck in my mind .That's also why I drive a Japanese car

 

[JacquesC]

The amount of prejudice is quite unbelievable...
Can't vouch for the petrol engine but the diesel version served our family well .

Mechanical parts are mainly Renault previous generation technology and are therefore no more difficult to come by as any Renault 's.
Sourcing bodywork parts should not be that difficult either since it is one of the best sellers on the continent...
The front bumper off my Kia, that my youngest generously knackered, took over three months to get to the garage. So... Rather blame the Just In Time / No Stock economy.

Build quality, well, you get what you pay for so don't expect Mercedes!
Comfort? Good enough but then again, not top tier. Go and try one out for yourself. We did some quite long journeys with it and it was OK.
Value for money? Excellent.

My main complaint was the carpets were a little low quality and mostly the lack of all these extra spaces to put your junk in familiar separate places : glove compartment, that's it.

Plastics are a little hard but do the job.
Tyres: worth getting a quieter set when you change them.

Main expense was having to change two injectors in the last year we had it. Sold it on for a 1/3rd of what we bought it ten years previous. It was in very good nick though.

PS : anyone wanting to drive uphill in 6th gear should try that on a bicycle and learn what gearboxes were invented for...

 

[mjr1983]

A neighbour of mine bought a brand new Duster a few years ago. One of the earlier ones, and he had to take It back to the main dealer about 3 times because the drivers door would suddenly open up without any warning while he was driving around.

But after the 3rd time that It happened he got rid of It and bought a Nissan Qashqai, and has never been happier with a car

 

[Splitpin]

I'm changing my car and quite fancy the Dacia Duster,

One of my daughters has a Dacia Stepway, bit smaller than the Duster but they are well pleased with it, it goes very well and no problems with it so far.

 

[no country members]

I have a MY2016 Volvo XC60 which is probably worth less than £12k now but there's no way I'd swap it for a brand new Duster unless it came with topless cheerleaders in the back seats.

Predictive text wanted to call a Duster a dustbin nuff said.

 

[mitch21]

Your budget gets you into a Nissan either Quashqi or Juke, drive around the world in it then let us know what you think,petrol engine super quite gearbox cvv can't recommend highly enough good luck mitch21

 

[JacquesC]

A neighbour of mine bought a brand new Duster a few years ago. One of the earlier ones, and he had to take It back to the main dealer about 3 times because the drivers door would suddenly open up without any warning while he was driving around.

But after the 3rd time that It happened he got rid of It and bought a Nissan Qashqai, and has never been happier with a car

S**t happens as they say.

You do realise that Nissan Qashqai are manufactured by the same group, don't you?
Shares many internals...

It's just not at all in the "budget" range.
Good luck getting a New Qashqai or Juke for the same price as a New Duster.
They are likely better cars with better QC to start with no question. NOT the same price range at all.

Buying recent SH is most likely the OPs best bet IMHO.

Edit: just checked and that was the OPs intention from start. Sorry.

 

[mitch21]

I thought after this weeks upsets, people were going to think a bit before hitting the blue button and perhaps not imply other people are stupid quite so quickly mitch21

 

[JacquesC]

If that's for me, I don't think you are, or am implying any stupidity on your part.
Sorry if you felt that way.

The OP was asking for hands on experience of the brand and range. Then, some people have just gone and made prejudiced remarks about Dusters.
Dacia are good, affordable cars, just not in the same range as more favoured brands.
Any brand has problems, even very reputable ones.

I thought he just wanted to have an idea of what he might get into by buying one. And that's what I've tried to give him. Trying to actually answer his question.

 

[Sniper Kitty]

Worth mentioning that there are reports that some Nissan Quasqais and Jukes with the small reanault petrol Engine
have had catastrophic Engine failures, said to be a known fault but denied by Nissan.

 

[JacquesC]

Worth mentioning that there are reports that some Nissan Quasqais and Jukes with the small reanault petrol Engine
have had catastrophic Engine failures, said to be a known fault but denied by Nissan.

There are reports of engine and other failures in just about every brand except, maybe, Rolls Royce cars .
The point is, have YOU personally experienced one on the quoted model(s)?
I'll leave it at that.
ATB