Friday 29th June 2012
DACIA DUSTER FOR £9K
Renault's budget brand lands in the UK - should we care?
Among the more unexpected debuts happening at this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed and today’s Moving Motor Show is the Dacia Duster, launching with the headline grabbing starting price of just £8,995. Not perhaps the most obvious car to be talking about on PH but the Duster is an interesting piece of kit and one blessed with the kind of honest, unpretentious credibility we can all get behind.
No frills but capable and cheap to buy and run
Certainly country folk – those of us who
grew up with Subaru Brats, Panda 4x4s and the like – are going to love it, the Duster’s back to basics, affordable and knockabout toughness a pleasing riposte to fashion victim 4x4s and trendy crossovers. You’d buy a Duster because you need something simple, cheap and dependable – it’s transport, not a status symbol and the kind of vehicle that won’t get much love and affection over its life but will probably do its owners very nicely indeed thank you.
That Dacia can sell you a basic front-driven, 1.6-litre petrol Duster for less than 10 grand or a more fancy – relatively speaking – version with three-mode four-wheel drive, Renault’s excellent little 1.5-litre dCi diesel and all the basic requirements required of modern motoring for the same as a boggo supermini is simply astounding. And while hardly beautiful there’s a certain utilitarian coolness to the looks too. It’s not often you’ll read a press release for a mainstream car that boasts of “making an enemy of the unnecessary” or takes great pride in saying there are only two options (stability control on diesels or metallic paint) but it’s all part of the Duster’s refreshing anti-fashion stance.
4x4 versions start at just £10,995
And with all your transportational, day-to-day needs addressed for such a modest sum that leaves you money to hit the classifieds and buy something more decadent and fun to run alongside it. Or tow behind it to track days if you’re going really hardcore. Reason enough for us to celebrate the Duster’s arrival!
