Duster buffs up
Dacia does practical, affordable and sensible cars for those people who don’t want to waste money and for whom brand is not important. And Dacia didn’t do cool – until now.
Outside is sitting a Duster Extreme SE and already it has started to get approving looks from the neighbours.
Extreme SE is a new trim level that’s been added to the Duster range and is based on the Prestige but with added pizzazz.
You can have an Extreme SE with any of the regular powertrains starting with the 1.0-litre threecylinder petrol with 90PS, the 1.3-litre four-cylinder with 130PS, and the 115PS diesel. The last is obligatory if you need four-wheel drive.
Our test car is a 130PS version with a six-speed manual gearbox. It’s probably the pick of the bunch because it is no more thirsty and has that extra punch if you fill your Duster with people and kit.
It’s not as if you’re adding too much to the bill, either. Our test car is £19,195 and the 90PS version is £17,845. Any paint colour on a Duster other than white is an option, so you have to add an extra £595 to ours for the Urban Grey paint.
It’s well worth it because in this colour the Duster looks terrific, and what’s more it’s a shade exclusive to the Extreme SE.
This package adds lots of pleasant details, like the gloss black 17in alloy wheels. Orange is the theme with this car and you get plenty of it.
The grey quartz roof bars have the name Duster in orange, the door mirrors have orange detailing, Duster is picked out in orange on the tailgate and finally there’s a dash of orange on the front grille.
The theme continues inside on the door handles, stitching and air vents. It all looks rather tasteful. There’s quite a lot of hard plastic in the Duster, but so what? The steering wheel is covered in leather and that’s what your hands will be holding on to most of the time.
Dacia doesn’t add gadgets that its customers don’t need or, importantly, don’t want to pay for.
This is why the new Dacia Jogger lost an NCAP star in its crash test – it didn’t have a centre rear seatbelt warning beeper. What’s wrong with asking your passengers if they’ve buckled up?
The Duster Extreme SE gets Dacia’s 8in infotainment screen. The system isn’t the quickest but that’s not an issue because Apple Carplay and Android Auto are included and they hook up wirelessly, too. Aston Martin can’t even offer you that.
Not surprisingly the Extreme SE TCE 130 is the same to drive as any Duster with this powertrain. The car
is certainly not sporty but it weighs under 1,300kg which is light by modern standards and has an easy and pleasant-to-use gearbox.
I’ve done long journeys with this powertrain and found it easy to squeeze over 40mpg from it.
If our family Saab went bang tomorrow and I fancied replacing it with a new car, this Duster Extreme SE would definitely be near the top of my wish list.