Will this French favorite SUV still be low-cost? Its new version offers lots of options and it will be expensive

The new Dacia Duster, revealed this week, will significantly move upmarket. At the risk of distancing yourself from your usual clientele?

Driving in a functional car an affordable price. This could be, in a few words, the summary of the of the Dacia motto. The Romanian brand, bought by Renault in 2000, very quickly established itself as the main supplier of high-performance vehicles. low prices in France, as in Europe. The manufacturer's five models – Sandero, Duster, Lodgy, Spring Jogger – are selling like hotcakes. Particularly the Sandero, a city car, and the Duster, a family SUV. It is the latter which takes the light at the end of 2023. Launched on the market In 2010, the Duster was sold. à more than 2.2 million copies worldwide. A huge success that Dacia hopes to extend with the new generation of the SUV, the third, presented this November 29 and expected on our roads next spring.

< p>If the temptation not to retouch too much; his bestseller was great – the Duster was still the best-selling SUV in Europe in 2022 -, Dacia decided to offer it an in-depth makeover, both from the inside out and from the front. both outside and outside. inside. The body of the Duster, formerly rounded, is now very rectilinear with much more prominent edges which refer to the shape of the body. more robustness. But by copying what we now see almost everywhere (horizontal hood, vertical shield and tailgate, fine headlights, spoiler, etc.), the 3rd generation Duster will no longer stand out. aesthetically of the latest Renault models (Scénic, Austral…), Peugeot (2008, 3008…) or even Volkswagen (Tiguan, T-Roc…), which do not necessarily aim for the same customer.

Let's move on to the physical, not always the most important. Inside, the transformation is even greater. The CMF-B platform  from the Renault group allows the new Duster to take a technological leap forward. Already, under the hood, with the arrival of a hybrid engine. The customer will have the possibility of to switch to the full hybrid, with 140 horsepower by combining the 1.6 liter gasoline engine with the two electric batteries, or to a dual-electric engine. light hybridization. The Duster is thus brought up to date, but inevitably this will have a cost. The full hybrid version, in the entry-level Essential finish, will probably cost between 26 and 27,000 euros.

The Romanian SUV is also becoming more gentrified in the cabin. If the furniture remains quite classic but neat, the dashboard of the future Duster has been redesigned. completely revised. The size of the digital panel dedicated to multimedia increases from 8 to 100%. 10.1 inches and the counter behind the steering wheel becomes digital, in color and customizable on the high finish. The new aids Driving and other comfort elements are abundant: cruise control/speed limiter and automatic switching on of low beam headlights as standard, automatic emergency braking (with vehicle detection). vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycles), traffic sign recognition with overspeed alert, rear parking assist, emergency stop signal, lane change alert, rear parking assist lane keeping, driver attention monitoring system, emergency call (eCall), heated steering wheel and windshield…

The move upmarket of Duster is obvious. That of its prices will also be. His entry ticket will be at your disposal. barely under 20,000 euros, compared to 17,990 euros today. The question now is whether the European low-cost champion will still manage to achieve this. to attract a clientele for whom the price almost always trumps the level of equipment.