Dacia Duster Journey Hybrid - long-term review

While Top Gear has a long-standing love affair with fast and expensive cars, we also know how to give credit where it’s due when it comes to value and practicality. Enter the all-new Dacia Duster, the latest addition to the TG Garage and none other than the winner of Top Gear’s ‘All The Car You’ll Ever Need Of The Year’ award. Yes, that’s a bit of a mouthful, but the sentiment stands.

This particular example, finished in Sandstone (£650) – a kind of creamy tan colour – is the full-hybrid version in ‘Journey’ trim. It promises a mix of efficiency, practicality, and some clever features we’ll be exploring over the coming months.

I went to collect it on a crisp morning from my local Dacia retailer, where things were… busy. Seriously, it felt like half the town was driving away in new Dusters. Dacia fever, it seems, is alive and well. Hardly surprising, considering they sold their 100,000th Duster in the UK alone last year.

I was met by Matt Downing, Dacia UK’s product performance manager. Matt’s the kind of guy who knows his stuff, and he gave me a proper tour of the car’s clever quirks. Take the front and rear skid plates, for example. Matt pointed out they’re not painted but ‘dyed through the mass’, meaning the plastic is the same colour throughout. So, scrapes and scratches are easier to buff out. Handy if parking isn’t your forte.

Matt also showed me the YouClip system, a brilliantly simple set of attachment points scattered around the cabin. Currently, it’s for accessories like cupholders, phone mounts, and so on. Naturally, being Top Gear’s video guy, I’ve already asked what the payload is. My ideas? Cameras, rigs, and maybe a bit of 3D printing, but more on that in a future report.

Under the bonnet, our full-hybrid Duster features a 1.6-litre petrol engine paired with two electric motors (generator and motor) and an auto-box, delivering a total of 138bhp. The system allows for short bursts of electric-only driving at speeds of up to 30mph. But it’s worth noting that you currently can’t opt for four-wheel drive on the full hybrid. If off-roading is on the cards, you’ll have to settle for the bi-fuel or mild-hybrid versions, which are cheaper anyway.

Dacia claims 55.4mpg for the full hybrid, but in the real world, I’ve been seeing closer to 49mpg so far. That said, I have a habit of gamifying the regen system to set some high scores, so I expect that number to creep up as I get more competitive with myself. Who needs an Xbox when you’ve got Dacia’s energy flow display, right?

The ‘Journey’ trim is a step down from the range-topping ‘Extreme’ version and includes 18in alloys, automatic air-con, a 10.1in infotainment screen, and a multi-view camera. Dacia knows what their buyers want, and it’s not Nappa leather seats or Harmon Kardon sound systems. But £26,700 for a hybrid SUV? That’s undeniably good value. Still, it remains to be seen whether the full-hybrid is worth the premium over the other powertrain options, especially considering the base-spec bi-fuel version is just £18,850.

So far, the Duster is proving itself to be as capable as you’d expect from an affordable SUV, but the real fun is yet to come. With Dacia’s accessory catalogue in mind, I’m already scheming ways to kit this thing out. Top of the list? The Sleep Pack, which turns the Duster into a mini camper. Watch this space, it’s going to be an interesting few months.