Tell me about your Dascia Duster

[AffIt]

We're looking to get a second car (we live rurally and the one-car experiment didn't play out very well).

Looking at a basic 'gets the job done' 4WD and the Dascia Duster seems to fit the bill: if you have one, can you tell me about it, please?

We’ve had ours (bought second hand) for about 5 years now. We also live rurally and my DH is a joiner/handyman so he uses it for work. It really is a workhorse. I actually bought it because the boot was big enough to transport seals needing taken to rehab 😂 That’s another story though! Nothing fancy, but has more than earned its keep and has hardly cost us a bean in maintenance. Parts are cheap and plentiful, and it’s easy to drive with cheap insurance too. The only downside is (as with most SUVs) that you don’t want to go hurtling around sharp corners at a rate of knots. Otherwise I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend and I’d happily get another one when ours gives up the ghost.

We've just test driven a lot of cars and if you have anyone tall going to drive it I would say its not the best. DH and DS are 6ft 4 and 6ft 2 and they both found it a bit tricky to get in the driving seat. Either hitting their heads or having to bend a lot. That's with the seat as low as it would go. It was fine once they were in though.

Oh and meant to add - my son is a mechanic, and tells us that they’re one of the easiest cars to work on.
@Littletreefrog that's interesting! My DH and DS are both 6ft 2 and haven’t had any issues with the height (and it’s definitely something my DH was looking at when we bought it as he has an absolute hate for not having enough headroom). Yours doesn’t have a sunroof does it?

We didn't get one in the end just test drove them and they got discounted because of it. We got a Qashqai in the end. I dont know if it had a sunroof or not or maybe my family are just not very bendy. They said it was fine for headroom when sat in it was just getting in that was the problem. I dont have these issues being short.

Brilliant!

@Fourfurrymonsters, I am a) incredibly envious of your houseful of practical people and b) REALLY need to hear about this seal rehabbing!

@Littletreefrog, I am 5'8" and the OH is a smidge over 6', so not unusually tall, I don't think?

I just bought mine 2 months ago. You can get them relatively low mileage for a reasonable price. Absolutely no complaints at all. I've done some long drives in mine to Brighton, York and Norfolk. No issues whatsoever.

😂 I did a stint as a marine mammal medic for a charity called British Divers Marine Life Rescue (they’re the ones you call in the UK if you see a seal pup in trouble, or a dolphin or whale stranded) and ferried a few seal pups to the rehab centre after they were rescued. Very very cute, but also very vocal! More than one time I was loudly berated for the entire 2.5 hour drive to the centre.
And as much as it’s so tempting to pet them because their coats are just amazing, best not do that if you want to keep your fingers 😂
They're also super smelly and can carry all sorts of diseases that, being marine life, we don’t have any immunity to, so I needed something that would be easy to hose down and disinfect. Honestly the Duster was perfect for that.

I've been looking at them too Op... I need a car that can fit my large dog, toddler, buggy etc and that we can go camping with.
At the mo it's a toss up between the Duster and an (older) Freelander 2.
The F2 has bigger boot space and is definitely more comfortable...but more expensive to run.
I haven't test driven one yet, but does anyone know if the rear seats fold flat to make a massive space like the Freelander?

I love mine. I needed a bigger car for dad's wheelchair and it's perfect. Good on petrol, comfortable and plenty of room.

We got ours in December 2020 when new cars were having supply problems and Dacia were one of the few makes available.
We chose mid-range for the seat comfort as the basic model seats were very flimsy. Quite noisy inside and basic finish (the gear stick is just a metal stick with a vinyl bag around it). Fuel economy is good but the bodywork is SOOO thin. You can make it warp just by leaning on it!
I know it had low scores in crash tests so if that’s a concern maybe look it up.

I had to drive one as part of my job about 7yrs ago. I thought it was a great car!

We test drove one and didn't like how it cornered- too boat like 😬 But we are very rural with lots of hills (and snow in winter) so ended up with a Subaru Forester which isn't really in the same league. I think if you only need the 4wd occasionally and mostly just need a big vehicle it'd be grand.

love mine. 5 full seats, handles the welsh mountains admirably and cheaply, never get's stuck anywhere. 6'5" son drives it with plenty of room to spare. boot is cavernous, mechanic loves it.
As long as you aren't a badge snob then you'll be grand, but be prepared for the 'it's no VW' brigade to advise you to avoid them because their <insert 5 degrees of ridiculous separation> had one and didn't like it. Never found another owner that didn't think they were cracking cars myself.

I've test driven a few and very nearly bought one. For the price, they're really good value for money. Good solid cars, lots of Renault components but main problem is that they look pretty naff with no "sleek" looks to them at all. What we really liked was their simplicity - minimal modern gimmicks - quite an old fashioned feel with few bells and whistles. The only reason we ended up not buying was lack of stock - we were wanting new or nearly new. The dealership had, literally, none in stock, other than some older ones, and they couldn't say when new ones would become available (this was a couple of years ago when Covid, the Suez blockage and the chip factory fire were really causing supply chain problems). We ended up with a Volvo instead at twice the price!