Dacia Duster or Nissan Qashqai?

[AnIncandescentGlow]

Looking for a new family car and would appreciate your thoughts. 😊
We'd like an SUV with a large boot. It would mostly be for small daily trips and occasional longer ones. These are the 2 we're looking at. I'd be grateful for any feedback from those of you who have/had either of these cars. Thank you. 😊

I have the new quashqai love it, lots of bells and whistles for the money.

Op I recently had a car because our car was in the garage (luckily it made it out but we weren’t sure for a while!) and I’d say whatever you go for make sure to do a decent test drive and read reviews/ watch reviews online. I have to go on the motorway regularly and the car I drove felt like it was breaking down on it. Looked up reviews and all said it was made for city driving and absolutely not for speed. When I was first handed it I was oohing and aahing over it.

You are, unbelievably, not (quite) alone! My grandad called ours a ‘squashy’ by mistake once and it stuck in my head at least .

I loved our Squashy but ultimately it did have a lot of problems. In the end it was a parade of knackered cam belts and ruined engines and we reluctantly had to get rid.

My first car was a Micra so I’ve got a soft spot for Nissans but I’d probably be mad to get one again.

We had a duster. We got it because we could fit 2 prams in together - but then didn’t need to 🙄. It was a good price new and was excellent on fuel. My DH loved it, until it developed a problem that the dealership didn’t want to fix. It went back and forth so many times and we ended up getting rid. We still miss that massive boot though.
it was functional but comfortable. The trade in price was dire though which was disappointing after only 2yrs and meant we could only afford a much smaller car.

Thanks so much for sharing, it’s really lovely. Did your grandad live in Pembrokeshire too?! Do we have the same family member?!

My best friend had a Micra and it was advertised so well… but it was the most unreliable piece of crap… but it looked like a bubble so it was cute?! No!

We have a Skoda Karoq for towing and camping. It's a lovely car to drive and carries loads in the boot.

My friend is on his second one (only because he is a taxi company & our stupid borough has ridiculous rules around the age of their cars, otherwise he'd happily still have his first one!). He's had all kinds if cars/vans over the years & used to be a mechanic. First one was diesel , this one petrol. He really rates them and they go for a good price . An excellent price if you don't mind one a few years older.

previous to these he had a couple of Skidas which he liked, but prefers these.personsllh you couldn't pay me to drive a Skoda (old man's car when I was a teen & can't get past that!)

i thought I wanted a Dacia Duster, until I test drove a couple (hated hated the first one. Thought it might be a one off & I should give the benefit of the doubt... second was exactly the same.

My Qashqui was rubbish beautiful shaped really practical for kids but it broke down on motorway was 7 years old so not worth a great deal by then and needed a new engine it only had 48000 miles on it and cost of new engine was more than car was worth. It got scrapped 💔 But I did love it up until then cheep to run and very practical.
I know of 2 other peoples who went like this 1 of them was still on finance.

Was that the 1.2 engine and the problems caused due to the timing chain by any chance?

We have a 5 yo Qashqai and my husband loves it. It’s very comfortable and reliable. We are a family of
4 and do regular holidays to Cornwall. Boot space is fine - we have a roof top box and only use that for when we go to Cornwall for bodyboards and beach kit. Boot space is totally fine.

Me too.

If a karoq is too pricey then a cx5 definitely will be - plus the boot is the size of a postage stamp. Ridiculously small in relation to the size of the car. Lovely car though

I discounted the Duster immediately due to the lower NCAP safety rating relative to the other cars I was looking at.

Regardless of how cheap it was it wasn't worth it to me. If this a factor for you you need to do more research.

Didn't like dacia - felt platicky... Although pals say they are workhorses.

We ended up with 2019 squishy... Lots of extras if you get too spec... All of which make it easier to drive safely.

I also have a Q3 and much as I like the cabin space the boot is tiny compared to other small SUVs. My previous car was a Honda Civic and the boot capacity was far bigger. There is only DH and me using it so it's not a great problem...but I wouldn't make it my first choice for a young family.

Compare the Which? safety ratings of both cars. If you can’t decide between the two, that could be the deciding factor.

We’ve had our qashqai for 10 years now. No problems at all! Very reliable and we’ve used it for holidays abroad.

We have the Citroen Grand C4 Spacetourer which is a people carrier - we have 3 kids. Insane boot when the last row is flat.

If you don’t need or want a 7-seater, we’re looking at the Citroen C5 Aircross for when we upgrade DH’s car. Large boot and spacious inside.

Loved my Tucson until the engine just blew up completely out of the blue. Literally driving along fine, tried to pull away at some lights and it died. One of the pistons had blown a hole in the side of the engine. £7000 to replace the engine with a refurbished one! Still on finance so not much choice.

Won’t get one again.

@Kalimerasthe cx5 boot is massive. I had one and fit a double bugaboo donkey in it with 2 suitcases for a holiday.

My husband worked for Nissan and Dacia. He said price wise the Dacia is ok but he wouldn’t recommend either.

My current car is a Seat Tarraco which I love. It’s huge and not too bad on price either

Boot definitely too small
for us in the qashqai. Had a consistent fault with the stop/start which the dealership kept telling me was my fault for having my foot on the clutch too much which was BS. The DPF went when it was 10 years old. Piece of shit TBH.

I recently purchased the Ford kuga. I looked at all the other models mentioned and the kuga came out on top for the things that were most important to me.

I'm going to caveat this post by saying we are not car people and don't really care about all the modcons. We have a duster (I think the comfort) and love it - it drives, fuel consumption seems good. We've been able to fit everything in going on holiday with two kids and a massive pushchair (although it can be a squash).

Just don’t get the Duster bi fuel model if you ever want to use channel tunnel. You won’t be allowed to even if you’ve never used LPG in the tank :-(

Wow thank you for all your responses, this is all really helpful!
Some of the cars recommended we'd absolutely love, but are sadly quite a bit out of our price range.
I'm aware the Dacia only has 3* on safety ratings, so this is a bit of a worry.

We used to have an estate car a while back, so I'm not against them. But we need a higher car, hence the suv. My dad is getting on a bit and if the time comes where he needs to give up driving, I want a nice high car to drive him in, as low cars are uncomfortable for him.

I've bookmarked a Seat Ateca and a Hyundai Tucson. They're a grand or 2 more than we're hoping to spend, but if they tick all the boxes we may have to stretch a bit. Thank you for those who recommended them! Let me know what you like about them/any problems if possible.
And please let me know anymore recommendations too. I know very little about cars and you cant beat the first hand experience from others. 😊