Great News! The Dacia Duster Is Still A Bargain

It won’t have escaped your attention that new cars have become quite expensive. There are a whole load of quite boring industry reasons for this, but the upshot is that it’s not unusual for even quite a basic family hatchback to cost over £20,000. The new Dacia Duster, though, stays true to its very affordable roots.

UK pricing has been revealed ahead of the first deliveries here, and you can get a whole entire family crossover – about the most popular genre of car around right now – for £18,745.

That gets you a Duster in Essential trim, which still gets you things like air con, roof bars and a docking station in the dash for a smartphone that allows it to effectively become the car’s infotainment system. You can only get this most basic of trims in front-wheel drive with the TCe 100 Bi-Fuel engine, a 1.0-litre turbocharged triple with 99bhp that can run on petrol or LPG.

Above this, the Expression, Journey and Extreme trims begin to throw in things like digital instruments and integrated infotainment displays, alloy wheels, parking sensors and (gasp) electric rear windows.

Other powertrains, meanwhile, include the 1.2-litre three-cylinder, 128bhp TCe130 petrol with either two- or four-wheel drive; and the Hybrid 140, which pairs a 93bhp 1.6-litre four-pot with two electric motors for a grand total of 138bhp.

Even if you want to go the whole hog, though, and throw everything you possibly can at the Duster, the most you’ll have to pay for one (before options) is £26,745, which nets you a top Extreme model with the Hybrid 140 drivetrain. Even the most bargain-bucket version of the new VW Golf starts at £27,035.

Other neatness in the Duster includes the YouClip system, which provides mounting points throughout the interior for things like tablet holders, and the various bits of exterior cladding made from up to 20 per cent recycled materials.

Available to order now, it’ll arrive with UK customers from November.