FIRST DRIVE: New Dacia Duster: Still The Ultimate Budget Hero?

The Dacia Duster is a car we love, because it’s designed for real life and honest about where the money has been saved to get the price down. But there’s now a new, third-generation Duster – and might it have ideas above its station? It’s been styled, for a start, can be had with a hybrid powertrain, and comes with a bunch of electronic safety kit the brand previously eschewed. To put it to the test, we took one to Morocco. In part because Dacia has a healthy share of Moroccan new-car sales, due to its French ownership and the country’s former colonial status. But also in part because, just as the new Duster is a somewhat different from what went before, so is the Dacia brand. It’s even getting into motorsport, the Dakar Rally no less, and with amazing coincidence, testing in the Moroccan desert during our visit was Dacia’s new Sandrider racer. Over to Top Gear Magazine’s Associate Editor, Jason Barlow, for a road trip to the middle of nowhere… Subscribe to Top Gear for more videos: WATCH MORE TOP GEAR: First Looks:   First Drives: American Tuned ft. Rob Dahm: LISTEN to the Top Gear Magazine Podcast: Sign up for our newsletter: Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:38 Walkaround 02:54 Interior 06:13 Driving 09:54 Dacia Sandrider 12:54 Conclusion MORE ABOUT TOP GEAR: Welcome to the official home of Top Gear on YouTube. Here you’ll find all the best clips from your favourite episodes, whether that’s Ken Block drifting London in the Hoonicorn, Chris Harris in the latest Porsche 911 GT3 or classic Top Gear clips from Clarkson, Hammond and May. You’ll also find the latest performance car reviews from the crew, our brand new series American Tuned with Rob Dahm and the fastest power laps from our in house performance benchmark: The Stig. This is a commercial channel from BBC Studios. Service & Feedback