Ownership Verified: Good news, it's the 2015 Dacia!

[Hemihead]

As always, a picture for verification.

This is my newly bought 2015 Dacia Duster. It's white. That's a good color because you blend in. It also makes your car look like a freezer box on wheels.

Apparently, this is the facelifted model. I have no idea how the pre-facelift model looks but i have a sneaking suspicion that it ain't pretty.

The rear. It's got a trailer hitch and some parking sensors. The parking sensors like to screech. A lot.

It has an engine. A 1500cc turbodiesel rattling out 109 horsepower, mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox. It's very frugal. It also has an insane amount of pipes going everywhere.

The interior contains a lot of plastic. It's dark grey, black and feels somewhat cheap. No surprise there, the base model could be bought for around €9900 new. Someone splurged on this car though.

Cloth seats. Mmm, cloth seats. Quite firm without being uncomfortable. It also got butt toasters. Mmm, butt toasters.

Behold, the infotainment or whatever it is called. Radio, navigation, bluetooth connection, USB and 3,5mm port. AC and cruise control can be spotted too.

My colleauges at work also gave me this soda, insinuating that it would fit the car.

Pros:

Low fuel consumption
Roomy
Surprisingly comfortable

Cons:

Cheap interior plastics
Tire noise
One times out of five, the bluetooth connection is a steaming pile of garbage

More to come when i have had more time behind the wheel, just owned the car for three days.

 

[avanti]

helt lagom

 

[Redliner]

As always, a picture for verification.

This is my newly bought 2015 Dacia Duster. It's white. That's a good color because you blend in. It also makes your car look like a freezer box on wheels.

Apparently, this is the facelifted model. I have no idea how the pre-facelift model looks but i have a sneaking suspicion that it ain't pretty.

The rear. It's got a trailer hitch and some parking sensors. The parking sensors like to screech. A lot.

It has an engine. A 1500cc turbodiesel rattling out 109 horsepower, mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox. It's very frugal. It also has an insane amount of pipes going everywhere.

The interior contains a lot of plastic. It's dark grey, black and feels somewhat cheap. No surprise there, the base model could be bought for around €9900 new. Someone splurged on this car though.

Cloth seats. Mmm, cloth seats. Quite firm without being uncomfortable. It also got butt toasters. Mmm, butt toasters.

Behold, the infotainment or whatever it is called. Radio, navigation, bluetooth connection, USB and 3,5mm port. AC and cruise control can be spotted too.

My colleauges at work also gave me this soda, insinuating that it would fit the car.

Pros:

Low fuel consumption
Roomy
Surprisingly comfortable

Cons:

Cheap interior plastics
Tire noise
One times out of five, the bluetooth connection is a steaming pile of garbage

More to come when i have had more time behind the wheel, just owned the car for three days.

I still find it strange to see "Dacia" since those are sold as Renault around here.
People that own them like it. Good purchase!

 

[Tram]

May it serve you well! I liked the Duster ever since it came out, because it alledgedly does its job fine, while not braking the bank. A bit strange to me to see one that's seemingly fully loaded, but I guess that's normal in Western Europe.

Oh, and I hope the gearbox is better than the one in Logan and Sandero, because that one is hopeless garbage.

 

[Hemihead]

May it serve you well! I liked the Duster ever since it came out, because it alledgedly does its job fine, while not braking the bank. A bit strange to me to see one that's seemingly fully loaded, but I guess that's normal in Western Europe.

Oh, and I hope the gearbox is better than the one in Logan and Sandero, because that one is hopeless garbage.

The gearbox is okay, the stick is a bit wobbly but that might just be the cables and general construction. 6th gear is overdrive deluxe, 100 km/h is around 2000 rpm.

 

[Matt2000]

I have lots of respect for these, a properly priced tool. You can see the economy in places like that odd gap between the airbag pad and the steering wheel (unless it's just a shadow) but it still looks nice and modern. I actually like that pattern on the seats and door cards quite a lot.

I'd still like to thrash one of these around off road, I know it isn't an off roader as such but I bet it could take the knocks well enough.

 

[gaasc]

Congratulations!

 

[thomas]

I'd still like to thrash one of these around off road, I know it isn't an off roader as such but I bet it could take the knocks well enough.

Have you seen the driveshafts on those? It seems about as thick as my thumb... I am not sure how much trashing they'd actually survive, if any..

 

[Matt2000]

Have you seen the driveshafts on those? It seems about as thick as my thumb... I am not sure how much trashing they'd actually survive, if any..

From what I could find the smallest part of the driveshaft is about 28mm, which certainly doesn't seem much until you consider that the halfshafts (the weakest point) in my Land Rover are only around 31mm. They're much longer and in a heavier vehicle, for something as light as the Duster and with modest torque I think they should be OK for a bit of abuse. I'd like to find out.

 

[93Flareside]

Finally, some Good News!

Anyway...

 

[Hemihead]

Every time it rained, the car got squirmy and wanted to hydroplane even though the thread was fine on the tires. Took a closer look on the manufacturing date and...

Week 40, 2009. Six years OLDER then the car itself and probably hard as bakelite by now.

Luckily I have a great garage a short drive from my house and he set me up with new Toyo Proxes CF-2 SUV in 215/65-16. The car now rides much better and the tire noise is drastically reduced.

 

[public]

I went with Nokian Line SUV in the same size. No complaints so far and rain performance is certainly OK.

 

[Perc]

We have that same infotainment in the van at work, a 2018 Opel Vivaro which is the last of the Renault built ones. The main gripe I have is that it boots into the main menu every time you start the engine. Otherwise it seems to work well.

I certainly believe the diesel is the one to go for in the Duster, at least if the option is the naturally aspirated 1.6 16v that's too weak to propel a 1990's Laguna, let alone an taller crossover with AWD. The diesel has a couple hp less but twice the torque... and it's good enough for Mercedes to put in their smaller cars, after all.

Having the cruise control switch in a silly place seems to be a Renault thing. The Vivaro has the same switch but vertical and placed somewhere near your right kneecap. Because putting everything on the same steering wheel spoke is just too difficult.

I like the Duster. It's honest.

 

[Hemihead]

Passed 100k km the other day, only thing bothering me is that weird lines have appeared on the infotainment screen when it's in standby mode. The disappear as soon as you turn it on so no biggie. Slapping the winter wheels onto it coming wednesday.

 

[Hemihead]

104k km and the first issue have arrived. There is a exhaust leak somewhere and the fumes comes into the cabin via the heater. It goes away after a few km of driving which is kinda weird but it's going to the repair shop on the 2nd. Can't be arsed crawling on the snowy, frozen ground to try and find the leak myself.

 

[Perc]

Does it have a parking heater?

 

[Hemihead]

Does it have a parking heater?

Nope. The first owner didn't splurge that much money on the car sadly.

 

[Perc]

Nope. The first owner didn't splurge that much money on the car sadly.

Just wondering if maybe a badly running heater could be what's causing the smell. I guess not then.

The Peugeot 1.6 HDI that's in everything from Toyota vans to Volvos has a bit of a reputation for blowing injector seals and it smells really rancid.