GOOD THINKING
“This isn’t meant as a solution for a week-long family holiday. Our use case is the fishing enthusiast who wants to sleep near the river or lake and then go out really early in the morning; the cycle fan who wants to drive to a remote spectating point and then get some sleep before the racers ride past” delivers several key qualities: it is simple to use (even for one person), it still allows boot space (the area beyond the drop-down table retains up to 220 litres of storage) and it is removable (the entire 50kg unit is secured using the tie-down hooks in the boot).
“These were all important aspects that we thought of right from the start,” Aupierre explains. “Some of the early proposals had a kitchen, extra seating and so forth, but these are extras that our customers can choose to buy themselves. In lots of cases, they’ll already have them – so what’s the point in us asking them to pay for them again? And of course, the fact that the box is removable means that during the week, the car can be a normal Jogger – even a seven-seat version, if you want it to be. Plus we can also sell it to existing owners, if we want to.”
There’s a second version of the box at the other side of the room, designed to show how the initial idea progressed. It’s noticeably neater, of course, and the fold-out flaps at the top edge of the bed support – designed to make use of extra space around the doors – have been replaced by elements that slide out instead.
But at the centre of our presentation area is a Jogger itself – equipped, we’re told, with the very late prototype of the Sleep Pack; it’s so fresh, in fact, that when Lionel Jaillet, the company’s vice-president of performance, turns up later in the day, he admits it’s the first time he’s seen this version. The box is tidier again – though still unmistakably derived from the original idea. But as Aupierre and Doublet set to work, pushing forward the front seats, folding down the second row, sliding the parcel shelf out of sight and then opening up the box, it’s hard not to giggle. The Jogger is no longer a five-door hatchback; it’s somewhere you could lie down and sleep.
This is our cue to jump aboard. It’s handier to remove the side bolsters from the mattress, since this frees up a bit more space for you to slide your knees up as you climb through the open rear door. The scalloped roof lining of the Jogger helps to give you enough space so it doesn’t feel too claustrophobic. And it is seriously solid – as in, I’ve spent nights on full-blown camper beds that didn’t feel as fundamentally supportive as this. The jury’s out on mattress thickness (see page 58 for our full test), but as a place to crash overnight – with the window covers in place – it feels ready.
Aupierre says that it’s important to not consider the Sleep Pack as an alternative to a proper campervan. “That’s not what this is about,” he says. “This isn’t meant as a solution for a week-long family holiday. Our use case is the fishing enthusiast who wants to sleep near the river or lake and then go out really early in the morning; the cycle fan who wants to drive to a remote spectating point and then get some sleep before the racers ride past; even someone going to the Le Mans 24 Hours, who wants to go to the car park in the middle of the night for some rest.”
But Dacia clearly thinks there are some people who may want to go further with their cars, because the rest of our presentation room is filled with a large tent. At a moment’s notice, it gets strapped to the Jogger’s open tailgate to make a fairly substantial living area for you and yours (the tent is around 11 metres long, in fact).
Aupierre and the team are a little less sure about this set-up; it’s a useful brand extension (the tent is finished in the firm’s new khaki colour, and sports Dacia’s logo), but it’s so cohesive that
it might be considered a little bit (whisper it) flash. Nor would it necessarily be much more of a home for a full-blown family holiday.
But we can see straight away how it could be assembled to form a day base where friends and family can gather, shelter, spend time together – one that’s considerably more usable and easier to access than a roof tent, and one that could be set up in most areas where a Jogger can go. Those traits alone make it a pretty remarkable accessory, even before prices are discussed (and we’d expect them to be reasonable).
Dacia’s recent rebranding focuses on how its value-led approach empowers its owners, gives them freedom to move, to explore. In some ways, the Sleep Pack is as good an example of that as any of the cars themselves. Not bad for a box, really.
“Dacia’s recent rebranding focuses on how its value-led approach empowers its owners, gives them freedom to move, to explore”