Advertisement
Frankfurt Motor Show

It's a brand new Dacia Duster!

One of the most likeable SUVs on sale gets fancier styling and 'voluminous haunches’

Published: 30 Aug 2017

Stop the internet, because there’s a new Dacia Duster. One of the most likeable cars on sale (seriously) has been given some new, fancier styling. We’ll see it for real at the Frankfurt motor show in a couple of weeks.

And doesn’t it look, y’know, designed? It’s always been a proudly utilitarian thing, the Duster. Intentionally simple because that helped make it, in Dacia’s words, “scandalously affordable”.

Advertisement - Page continues below

Now, though, there are LED lights. A paint scheme called Atacama Orange. A ‘satin-chrome-finish’ skid plate. It’s trying to nab buyers of Qashqais and Sportages with some actual styling accoutrements. There’s even talk of ‘voluminous haunches’, which sounds more like a band you’ll find in session on 6Music than anything else.

Dacia’s also bigging up the Duster’s completely new interior, though without any pictures of it, we’ll have to wait until Frankfurt to see what it’s like. Expect all that’s good and proper about the Duster to remain so: a choice of front- and four-wheel drive, and a choice of small petrol and diesel engines to haul its titchy kerb weight about.

And a small price, too. Dacia’s sold a million Dusters since 2010, and it’d be foolish to mess with its most defining feature.

Like it? Or has Dacia made its most honest model a bit too fancy?

Advertisement - Page continues below

Top Gear
Newsletter

Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.

More from Top Gear

Loading
See more on Dacia

Subscribe to the Top Gear Newsletter

Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, you agree to receive news, promotions and offers by email from Top Gear and BBC Studios. Your information will be used in accordance with our privacy policy.

BBC TopGear
magazine

Subscribe to BBC Top Gear Magazine

find out more