Dacia Duster

For Forks Sake

Quite a few new posters on this thread #justsayin

166man

MidlandsM wrote: »

in a year or 2, they'll be worth fcuk all in the uk, thats when i'd bay, not new.....



anyways, I'm tottling around in a fluence today with this world famous trouble free well proven 1.5 dci engine..........

.....what a guttless gruff unit ............. Ughhhhhhhhh ........

What do you expect from a 1.5 diesel? It's hardly aimed at people who like to go places fast like...:D

Pottler

well, just my 2p, but the dusters I saw almost everywhere in spaindid not have even a whiff of bargain basement about them - they blended into the streetscape as a compact, smart looking small suv. If you did not know the price, you'd struggle to guess as they looked no less new/well designed/smart than any other car parked in the street. I think people are getting hung up on the "cheap" bit and perhaps ought to change their view to one of "good value". They're also not that cheap...

krissovo

I am in Austria at the moment and two of the lads I am working with have them. One loves it the other has fairly serious structural rust issues as he lives in an area that salt the roads in Winter.

Given the amount of salt on our's and the UK roads it would be a wise investment to drive out the dealership straight to garage to under seal;)

promethius

OSI wrote: »

Bahahahahaha! Live a little? By buying the cheapest tat I can find? I wonder do all these people buying Dusters also live in Portacabins? I mean, why buy proper house with decent materials and the conveniences of a modern home, when you could have a brand new portacabin for half the price!? Sure what's the difference, it's still somewhere to live right?

No thanks. I don't pick the cheapest house my bed will fit into. I don't pick the first girl in the bar that looks capable of bearing children. I don't buy the cheapest TV that lets me watch RTE, and I certainly don't buy the cheapest car that will fit mine, and my family's posteriors into.

lol

tomekdona

price hire is around 5000€ up from rest of Europe. !

godtabh

tomekdona wrote: »

price hire is around 5000€ up from rest of Europe. !

Where did you see that?

tomekdona

Poland price start from 999€

godtabh wrote: »

Where did you see that?

tomekdona

sorry 9999€

tomekdona wrote: »

Poland price start from 999€

colm_mcm

sniffpetrol wrote: »

Dacia is like Renault’s Tesco Value range. They’re quite big in Germany apparently. As of January 2013 they go on sale in the UK with two models. This sort of soft-roader is one of them. It’ll start at £8995.

Day 1: The Duster turns up at the office. It’s in absolute bog basic spec in white (the only option on the bottom model) with minimalist steel wheels (also the only option although, generously, they do give you four of them). The UK base model will have electric windows and central locking but this German-spec test car does not. There’s no stereo either. It’s like a special edition inspired by the Amish. Although I suppose if that was the case it would also have no engine. On a dark and gloomy drive home the Duster feels like a carefully preserved 12 year old car. Which, in a way, is what it is. Maybe that should be the advertising slogan: ‘Dacia Duster – The second hand car you can buy new’.

Day 2: As you poke round the Duster you can spot the ways in which they’ve saved money in making it. Unlike most modern cars, for example, it doesn’t appear to have a pollen filter in the ventilation system. I know this because it was parked under a tree last night, a load of blossom fell on it and when I turned the ignition on, half a kilo of the stuff blew into the interior. On the plus side, I might have been a bit cruel to describe it as driving like a 12 year old car. On closer acquaintance there’s nothing particularly wrong with the way it drives. It’s not the most exciting thing in the world but nor is it awful. It’s just a normal car. I was hoping the ride might be really bungy like on a French car from the 1960s but it isn’t. It’s not bad though. Many things about the Duster are not bad. It feels sturdy too. The dash is a bit rough but right-hand drive cars are getting a nicer one apparently. I hope it’s not too nice. Especially if it’s going to keep getting covered in rotting blossom.

Day 3: The Duster I’ve borrowed is the basic 4×4 version. It has a six-speed gearbox with a very low first in lieu of a proper low range ‘box. It’s so low that on the road if you’re on even the slightly downhill slope you can set off in second and not feel like you’re bumming the clutch. Also, you can pretend you have a dogleg ‘box, just like an old M3. Even so, the lowness of the gearing is slightly annoying. My mate Dan has a two-wheel drive Duster on test and lets me take it for a quick drive. It only has five gears but they’re better suited to normal roads. The steering feels a bit lighter and nicer too. And it’s two grand cheaper.

Day 4: A black mark against the Duster: In mainland Europe, where the car has been on sale for a couple of years, you can get up-spec models in very excellent metallic brown paint. But this won’t be offered in Britain because our Dusters will come from a different factory, one in India, and they’re keeping things simple by doing just five colours, none of which are brown. Boo hiss. On the plus side, my dog seems to like the Duster. She wasn’t available in brown either.



Day 5: Finding the Duster increasingly appealing. I think because it’s so simple. It doesn’t turn itself off and on again at traffic lights, it doesn’t have an automatically disengaging electronic handbrake, it can’t Bluetooth recipes to your phone as your drive past Waitrose. You work all the controls yourself and they all do as they’re bloody told. Which, for a new car, is refreshing. Although I would like a radio.

Day 6: People who like cars might sneer at the Duster and point out that if they had nine grand they’d spend it on something second hand and interesting but there are a lot of people who don’t give a monkey’s anus about cars and find the process of trying to buy a used one an absolute and utter ballache. I suspect they’ll like the idea of Dacia. And actually, there’s something quite appealing about getting a decently sized brand new car for such a relatively low price.

Day 7: I’ve just remembered something. In the late 1980s an ad agency offered $200,000 if New Order would re-record the vocals to Blue Monday so that they promoted the soft drink Sunkist. The band agreed, but when they got into the studio vocalist Bernard Sumner couldn’t sing the new words without laughing. After several failed takes their manager wrote $200,000 on a piece of card and stuck it in the vocal booth, after which Sumner suddenly found himself able to concentrate. If I had a Duster I’d stick a piece of card with £8995 on it to the dash and look at it every time I wondered why I’d bought it. Which, actually, might not be that often.

This car was a Dacia Duster Access 4×4 with a 1.6-litre, 103bhp engine. It can do 0-62 in 12.8 seconds and on to a dizzying 99mph. It costs £10,995.

CiniO

tomekdona wrote: »

sorry 9999€

Currently according to dacia.pl website duster price starts at 39,900 zl which equals to 9600 euro at todays currenty exchange rate.

However this is the most basic 1.6 petrol version.
The cheapest diesel like in Ireland costs 50,500 zl which equals to 12,151 euro.

Le Lapin

Just noted that the price on the price list on their site for 1.5 Duster Alternative has gone up by €1000 on the Oct 26th. Fair play to those that got in early.

zinzan

Another view on the Duster from the Irish Times:


http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/motors/2012/11/26/are-we-ready-for-simpler-cars/

I have been spending some time lately with a Dacia Duster. I hand’t intended to spend quite so much time, in fact, but a scheduling snafu meant that it was needed for a couple of long drives, en famille, so by the time I handed it back, I had racked up more than 1,400km in it.

Now, we all know the headline grabbing bit. You can buy a new Duster for just €14,990 and finance one on a personal lease for just €149 a month, depending on how much of a deposit you can afford and how big a bubble payment you’re willing to leave dangling.

How can Dacia do it for the money? How is is possible to bring a brand new Qashqai rival to the market with an effective €10,000 discount? Simple really; by building it in a low-cost environment in Romania and making it from old Renault bits whose investment cost has long since been amortised by all those Clio and Megane sales.

Buying a Dacia is the equivalent of going into a major electrical retailer and finding out which cheap-o brand you’ve never heard of uses the same electronic parts as last year’s Sony or Panasonic. As long as you’re not bothered about the badge, you’re still getting something that works just fine.

Except just fine doesn’t really cover it. Really quite very fine might actually be a better assessment. The Duster may be cheap and it may use parts from way down the back of the Renault warehouse (I spotted switches and buttons that Is suspect came from a 1990 Clio in there) but it proved mostly comfy (the seats are a bit to narrow if you’re tall and, ahem, broad like me), spacious (plenty of room in the back for the kids) and surprisingly dynamically adept. OK, so no-one is going to confuse its light steering and roly-poly suspension settings for those of a Lotus Elan, but pounding back up the M9 in thoroughly horrible rain, coping with spot floods as we travelled, the Duster felt secure, planted and unflappable.

It isn’t particularly economical though, and average fuel consumption over those 1,400km of 35mpg wasn’t especially clever. But even this flaw comes with a caveat; our test model was the range-topping four wheel drive version. So not only is it lugging more weight around than its cheaper front-drive brethren, it’s also hamstrung by lower gearing, designed to make it more agile off-road and on rough tracks. So you should be able to pretty easily break the 40mpg barrier in a front-drive Duster.

Quite apart from the fact that the Duster is arriving at an auspicious time for a car offering such value for money, there is the fact that it is the future. In a big way.

You see, much has been written about the current crisis faced by the European car makers. Aside from the big premium brands, and Volkswagen (if you can describe Volkswagen as anything other than a premium brand) they’re all making too many cars, in too many expensive factories, for too few buyers. It’s a toxic recipe that makes fixing the banks look like child’s play (ultimately, we all still need banks; we do not necessarily need a car, or at least not a new one) and as it all plays out it will get bloody. Ford has already made dramatic cutbacks, Fiat is considering canning anything but future spin-offs of the 500 (no more Punto, no more Bravo – a shame on both counts) and Peugeot, Citroen and especially Opel are all in deep trouble. Europe’s car industry is looking worryingly like Detroit’s did in the dark days of the seventies. Will we go the same way as Motown?

“I don’t think that has to happen here, but certainly it’s a possibility” Dr Mia Grey, an economic geographer from Cambridge University told us. “That’s the sort of thing we really want to be careful about, and policy makers need to be aware of. But that route is not one that we have to take. I think we need to look very carefully at the industry and at nourishing the industry and keeping it healthy. And what that means often is really helping these firms pursue non-price competition, help them to compete on things other than price, to move upmarket if you will, in order to retain those jobs.

“That scenario that I laid out, the permanent shedding of skilled, well-paid jobs, is by no means likely, but at the same time we want to make sure that isn’t the path we take.”

The Duster though represents the road to some kind of survival, even if it will take a major shift in both marketing and customer perception to make it work. Ever since the early nineties the levels of sophistication in everyday cars has been rising and rising, a trend triggered by the explosion in sales of the premium brands. If BMW, Mercedes and Audi set the benchmark for quality, luxury and toys, then all others must to a greater or lesser extent follow. Sit inside a current Ford Mondeo or Opel Astra and see if you can tell the difference between its quality and that of a 3 Series or A6.

It doesn’t need to be this way, though. Possibly, it shouldn’t even be this way. After all, as long as your car is reliable, comfortable, economical and has sufficient equipment (let’s set air conditioning, Bluetooth and a decent stereo as a bottom end, shall we?) then do you really care if your plastic have the same soft-touch sheen as a Beemer? Should you?

No, you shouldn’t and as any of us with kids can attest, the interior of any car swiftly becomes nothing much more than a mobile skip. Hardy, hose-down surfaces are a positive boon.

Such is the Dacia model. The Duster (and the forthcoming Sandero) has sufficient sophistication to make it a viable modern car. In fact, given its excellent 1.5 diesel engine, its ABS, the fact that it can be specified with air conditioning and stability control (both of which should really be standard, but let’s gloss over that for the sake of argument) it is vastly more sophisticated than any of the cars we were driving when I got my provisional licence almost two decades ago. And I don’t recall any of us thinking our cars were under-specified back then.

If, as the experts tell us, Ireland’s economy and GDP has reverted back to 1993 levels, then perhaps it’s appropriate to drive a car whose cabin plastics seems to have come from that year. We will need to dramatically recalibrate our expectations of what a car can do and can be if Europe’s car makers are to survive. No car maker, save Volkswagen, has ever successfully negotiated the tricky path from mainstream to premium (and even VW has to keep a couple of stripped out price-point models on its lists) and expecting any of Opel, Renault, Peugeot or Citroen to be able to do the same is laughable at best. We see them as everyday cars, no matter how much sophistication they may tout. The world of BMW-like premium is simply beyond them. Harsh, perhaps, but true nonetheless.

Their only hope is to turnabout and do a Dacia, do a Skoda. Make simple, effective cars whose desirability comes from their usefulness and their prices, not their shiny badges or extensive options list. It may seem a radical idea, but the success of Skoda and Dacia, and of Hyundai and Kia, proves that it’s not merely possible, it’s essential.

BrianD3

Re: safety. some more bad news for Dacia in the EuroNCAP set of results released yesterday. Every car got 5 stars except the Dacia Lodgy (a small MPV) which got 3. The side impact was ok and the dummy readings were not too bad but the structure in the frontal test did not fare well. I don't think there are any plans to sell this car here but it seesm to me that as a brand Dacia is quickly getting a reputation for lagging well behind in passive safety.

euroncap wrote:

In the frontal impact, the screen pillar was heavily deformed at the top of the windscreen and the roof was bent in front of the B-pillar. The rear passenger floor panel and tunnel were completely separated, extending into the driver's footwell and the transmission tunnel was deformed between the front seats. The car was penalised for the instability of its passenger compartment in the test. Dummy readings indicated marginal protection of the passenger's chest and structures in the dashboard presented risk of injury to the knees and femurs of driver and passenger. Protection of the driver's feet and ankles was rated as marginal, owing to deformation and rupture of the footwell area

It will be interesting to see how the new Sandero fares. I don't think I'd buy one unless it has a 4 star rating at least. The car may be cheap but if it fares as badly as the Lodgy and Duster then a used Clio/Corsa/Polo etc. that's a few years old may be both cheaper and safer.

wyndham

Are these arriving here this week?

jimmycrackcorm

captainspeed wrote: »

Jaysus lads, a lot of people being VERY enthusiastic about what is a thoroughly unsophisticated and unremarkable vehicle. It's the new poverty spec Toyota if you will. I wonder why there is so much promotion of the anti-car person's ideal car on a site which is supposed to be about liking cars?

The OH just bought a seven month old corolla. For the money it cost she didn't get electric rear windows nor air conditioning. The wheels are steel, and turning on the rear demister detunes the radio. The hinge bolts on one of the doors get loose and the boot had a major leak. I reckon the Dacia looks a much better bet.

zinzan

wyndham wrote: »

Are these arriving here this week?

Hopefully! Looking forward to hearing how people get on with them.

kaahooters

so, its the 7th now, and the guys buyin this should have them, so , what's the day to dy living with them like for the short time youve had them, surprises, good and bad!

colm_mcm

Have you picked up your dusters delthedriver?

WIZE

still waiting

MidlandsM

he was probably full of sh!t .......until I see the 2 dusters with 131 reg pics he can GTFO!

delthedriver

colm_mcm wrote: »

Have you picked up your dusters delthedriver?

Later this week .Hopefully

Thanks

ION08

Are these right hand drive Dacia's Romanian built?

Padraig Mor

ION08 wrote: »

Are these right hand drive Dacia's Romanian built?

Indian.

Lutecia

Dacia said they have 500 orders to date and hope to sell 1200 cars in 2013 (including the Sandero):
http://www.carzone.ie/news/Dacia-Sandero-hits-Irish-market-newsitem633.html
500 is quite a lot, we won't miss them when they'll be delivered

ando

I drove one of these about a month ago as my other half was thinking of trading in. Have to say it felt very slow and light. Reminded me of my old Renault Kangoo van from back in 2001. Wasn't impressed, but I suppose they're not trying to impress. My only concern in recommending it as a cheap alternative for a 4x4 would be the safety concerns of it

Stallingrad

It will be interesting to see how enthusiastic new owners will be after a period of ownership. It is a cheap, basic, utilitarian device for transporting stuff and people around, which is fine, and the cars timing is spot on. But once that new smell is gone, will they miss the 'surprise and delight' features that some car makers work so hard to instill, which you appreciate with each drive. Is it a car you would really care about?

Lutecia

Stallingrad wrote: »

It will be interesting to see how enthusiastic new owners will be after a period of ownership. It is a cheap, basic, utilitarian device for transporting stuff and people around, which is fine, and the cars timing is spot on. But once that new smell is gone, will they miss the 'surprise and delight' features that some car makers work so hard to instill, which you appreciate with each drive. Is it a car you would really care about?

It looks like there is something about that car, and the brand, about being cheap and straight forward. It has caught well with the Europeans, for sure the Irish buyer who loves his base spec models and dreams about going up the plates despite recession will look at this brand.

Wonder if these gatherings will be organized as well in Ireland ?
Renault PR on their annual picnic, very "middle-class" activities:

• The fourth annual Dacia picnic will take place on June 17th at the Château de Rambouillet, southwest of Paris, France.
• The day’s festivities include the picnic’s popular programme of activities, including free entertainment for all the family, guided tours of the château and a special concert starring big names from the 1980s.
• More than 10,000 people have already registered for this year’s not-to-miss Dacia owners’ gathering which promises to be every bit as successful as previous events.

DACIA: A SOCIAL PHENOMENON

In the space of just a short period of time, the Dacia brand has developed a thriving community of owners who never miss an opportunity to be together or communicate. Its web forums are twice as busy as those of other brands, while ‘word of mouth’ sharing of news is a characteristic of the ‘Dacia spirit’ and, again, twice as active as the average for the market. This sense of community, the popularity of Dacia models and the diversity of its expanding range have given rise to a whole new approach to motoring.

The Dacia picnic provides this community with an opportunity to attend a unique annual event where owners are able to share values such as simplicity and conviviality. This year, the brand’s annual picnic will be held at the Château de Rambouillet, near Paris, where participants will be treated to a programme of surprises, in a warm, festive atmosphere. The French event comes after a similar gathering – the ‘Dacia Dag’ – of some 1,000 owners on the beach at Almere, Flevoland, in the Netherlands. In 2011, more than 10,000 proud owners took part in a variety of events across Europe.
DACIA: THE ‘SMART BUY’ BRAND

For several years now, the Dacia brand has pioneered a revolutionary approach to car ownership. Buying a Dacia is seen as a ‘smart buy’ which allows customers to purchase only what they really need:
- Generous vehicles: for the average price of a given segment, Dacia customers have access to a vehicle from the next segment up, with plenty of space for passengers and luggage.
- Reliable vehicles: Dacia is ranked among the very top brands for reliability and low servicing costs.
- Straightforward vehicles: fuss-free ownership, from the day the vehicle is bought to its resale. Dacia customers don’t have to waste their time negotiating prices, while the brand’s models are among the market’s very best when it comes to holding their value.
Dacia allows countless motorists who previously had to settle for a used vehicle (often of up to 15 years’ old) to own a new vehicle – with a uniquely extensive specification – for the first time. Dacia vehicles are known to be simple, generous, robust and 100 percent functional. They also deliver exceptional cabin space for the sort of price tag that was normally only associated with used vehicles, and their outstanding reliability provides real peace of mind, with low servicing costs backed up by a three-year/100,000km warranty.
DACIA: A SUCCESS STORY THAT DATES BACK EIGHT YEARS ALREADY

Dacia sales in Europe and its Mediterranean Rim markets amounted to 343,000 vehicles in 2011 alone. That takes the total number of Dacias on the road to almost two million since the brand’s launch in 2004. In the past eight years, it has emerged as the brand which has progressed the most in Europe, while the Dacia range has expanded to feature no fewer than nine models, including the most recent additions, Lodgy Dokker and Dokker Van. Earlier this year (February), a survey of 30,000 vehicle owners in five European countries listed

Dacia as the market’s most reliable brand, with customer satisfaction rated at between 92 and 98 percent, depending on model.
Meanwhile, the recently-introduced Lodgy has seen the Dacia name become synonymous with the availability of functional and practical technologies, including a first for the brand in the form of an in-dash MediaNav navigation system, incorporating seven-inch touchscreen display, which is unique in its segment, as well as USB, jack and Bluetooth® connectivity for audio-streaming, hands-free telephony and playback of music stored on portable music systems. Safety has been enhanced, too, with the availability of a speed limiter and steering wheel-mounted controls.

It comes as no surprise to learn that equipment specifications like this for such unbeatable prices have seen Dacia has become France’s seventh best-selling brand!

I know that's a lot PR Bullsh*t but there something about this I can't pin (like most of us petrolheads I suppose). Really curious to know if it's going to work here.

pred racer

Stallingrad wrote: »

It will be interesting to see how enthusiastic new owners will be after a period of ownership. It is a cheap, basic, utilitarian device for transporting stuff and people around, which is fine, and the cars timing is spot on. But once that new smell is gone, will they miss the 'surprise and delight' features that some car makers work so hard to instill, which you appreciate with each drive. Is it a car you would really care about?

They are very popular here in France, and French cars normally tend to have all the bells and whistles, so the frenchies dont seem to mind.

ION08

You havent driven a proper dacia until youve driven a 1300 model

pat25c

i just herd that my duster that i ordered in october will be arriving in march

WIZE

I guess mine will arrive then too

Wossack

oof, bit of a wait..

might be worthwhile holding off for a 132 plate (:pac:)

copacetic

I saw a new one on the back of a transporter leaving Sandyford industrial estate on Monday, white one, couldn't see if it was rhd.

WIZE

copacetic wrote: »

I saw a new one on the back of a transporter leaving Sandyford industrial estate on Monday, white one, couldn't see if it was rhd.

:eek: I ordered a white one .

Guess in still going to have to wait till March

MidlandsM

pred racer wrote: »

They are very popular here in France, and French cars normally tend to have all the bells and whistles, so the frenchies dont seem to mind.

yeah, but the french as basically a bunch of communists and peasants...:pac:

Deisedarren

When I was walking my dog today I notice that h&h motors had four Dacia sanderos four different colours

Deisedarren

When I was walking my dog today I notice that h&h motors had four Dacia sanderos four different colours

tk123

I wish they did an automatic Duster!

Lutecia

tk123 wrote: »

I wish they did an automatic Duster!

They have one in South America and Russia, but that's with 1.6 and 2 liter petrol, and that would put you here in the 1200€ road tax band so forget about it
They could put the EDC gearbox that the Megane/Fluence/Scenic already have with that same engine, but I suppose they gonna wait for the next generation (or for the gearbox to become cheap and reliable).

delthedriver

delthedriver wrote: »

Later this week .Hopefully

Thanks

Colm,

Did not arrive today. Seems to be a slight delay. Keep you posted!

WIZE

did anyone get an update.

I ordered one back in October ( white Basic model. )

GranGruba

Dealer told me yesterday he was expecting delivery of a batch on Friday this week but mine would not be on this.

1st or 2nd week of March for mine.

I think he was expecting 15 this week out of dealer allocation of 50.

Lutecia

GranGruba wrote: »

Dealer told me yesterday he was expecting delivery of a batch on Friday this week but mine would not be on this.

1st or 2nd week of March for mine.

I think he was expecting 15 this week out of dealer allocation of 50.

The allocation for the quarter ? (it was mentioned a 400 units allocation nationwide)
When did you order yours ?

GranGruba

Mid October - just before the price increases.

I believe that there were 9 dealers originally each of whom got an initial allocation of 50 vehicles each.

Lutecia

Makes sense ... I guess all the Duster buyers who were 131-shopping around in November aren't going to get theirs anytime soon.
This Duster had a 6-month delivery delay in the continent the first year of production, looks like it's heading the same way here.
Wonder why though. Are the indians so fond of it that they can't produce enough, or maybe transportation issue (it's a bit more complicated than getting cars from Romania I suppose)

WIZE

I called Joe Mallon is Naas today and was told hopfully mid feb

I ordered the basic model in white Start of October

Lutecia

From

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/motoring/oldfashioned-family-value-3350335.html

2 interesting info:

Dacia plan to sell 800 Duster units and 400 Sandero units this year (4X4 versions of the Duster will be available from July).

The company plans a Logan MCV estate in the second half of this year and a groomed up version of the Sandero called the Stepway early next year.

tf2

I spoke to my dealer today who told me that the Duster 4X4 I ordered is in the country. Apparently its at the port waiting to be inspected and cleared by Revenue. He expects them to be ready for customers who pre-ordered early (I ordered in august) to pick them up by the end of this month.

The 4X2 version won't be available until the end of march I was told. And that is if there are no further delays to production/delivery.

delthedriver

delthedriver wrote: »

Colm,

Did not arrive today. Seems to be a slight delay. Keep you posted!

Colm,

It could be this time next month before cars arrive.

Issue is outside the control of the Dealership.

Demand for the cars has exceeded expectations?

Keep you posted!