Customer reviews for Dacia Duster

Fantastic 🚗

Good car but!

I love my car

Joy to drive

Na

NA

This is the sixth Duster I have had - all but one have been from new. So when I purchased the latest I felt I that I would know what to expect. This has not been the case. The issues are as follows:

1. The driving seat is uncomfortable and it is very difficult to engage the seat belt (the stalk is too short).

2. The start button and hand brake button cannot be seen due to the instrumentation on the steering wheel furthermore the hand brake button seems to be on the wrong side. I have had the occasional difficulty applying this automatic hand brake.

3. Gear ratios are different to previous models - only on the motorway was I able to get into fifth and sixth gears. I seem to constantly be using third and fourth gears the consequence is that fuel consumption is never greater than 35m/g.

4. The engine seems noisy.

5. The over complicated electronics are not easy to use and are distracting to the point where they are more dangerous than if using a mobile phone. It does not seem possible to turn off some features. The most annoying is the lane control feature where you seem to fight the car with this being on.

6. The shorter rear windscreen does not allow good visibility.

7. With the thickness of the rear seat the room inside is less convenient.

8. The spare wheel-well is very useful but the cover over it is very flimsy – heavy shopping tools etc. cause it to bend and sag.

9. The roof rack is not as practical as I had imagined.

As you might imagine I have not found this latest Duster to give a pleasant hassle free driving experience and it looks as though this will be the last Duster I will be purchasing. In short I wish I had kept the earlier model I traded in.

The re-modelling has been a bit of a disaster. Visibility has been greatly reduced giving the sensation of sitting in a tank. The “improved” touch screen is very frustrating and at times is a real danger to safe driving. The controls for the functions displayed along the bottom of the screen being so far divorced from the screen itself means that too much time and attention can be spent adjusting functions, thus creating dangerous situations. The hazard warning lights are all too easy to switch on while trying to adjust heater controls.

The layout of the cockpit has been rendered almost useless by daft areas that serve no purpose which means that there is now barely any space to put items, phones, drinks etc. and the central cubby with the lid just gets in the way. God forbid dropping a phone between there and the seat as it’s almost impossible to retrieve without mangling your hand. The boot space, which was one of the great selling points of the Duster, has been severely reduced. My wife doesn’t feel safe driving this car. It is our third Duster and as she says, the first two were great to drive. Everything was in the right place to access without taking your eyes off the road whereas she feels with this model you need a passenger so you can ask them to adjust heating or the rear window demister. In all honesty she hates it and would never recommend it to anyone as it’s so poorly designed and would gladly have our old diesel duster back.

This is my second Duster, and 4th Dacia. This is the worst version by far. Driving position isn’t great, the switches seem very old fashioned. Whatever I ask the car to do, there is always a delay between using the control and it working. The constant green light is infuriating at night and so is the musical start up! Also the Lack of basic things needed for a family car, such as cup holders, the boot space is shorter then previous model as well.

The car frequently “gets confused” as the dealer said, and will cut out for no reason, it needs a lot of revs compared to other cars for it not to stall. I drive multiple cars, and even other family members won’t drive this car. This car is a lot thirstier on fuel compared to previous model. Such a shame as I have always enjoyed Dacia and found them great cars.

The actual car is 5 star, the customer relations dealing with the car is poor. Having paid for the car in full and given the keys there was an issue with the paint work, the sales department left me hanging with a lot of leg work and pushing for repairs to be made, 7 weeks in total and not a single call from Renault/Dacia with regard the issue. Car bought at Lincoln showroom