The new Dacia Duster is designed not to mess with a winning formula. This has been Europe’s bestselling SUV bought by private retail customers every year since 2018, remember. They’ve gone to great pains not to throw the baby SUV out with the bathwater.

So the new third-generation Duster looks very like its predecessors, but with a newfound sleekness to the design. Dimensions are almost identical – it’s a little wider and lower, but the same length, for a similar footprint. And it’s still a tough-nut that can walk the walk off-road, as well as talk the talk on it, with some butch styling details in keeping with Dacia’s outdoorsy image.

Starkle: the new sustainability arms race to use recyclable material
There’s plenty of cladding on the car, including what Dacia calls the ‘snorkel’ (the protective plastic sheath running up the front door to minimise parking scuffs). It’s made of Starkle, a sustainable new material that’s composed of 20% recycled plastics, part of Renault Group’s continued focus on improving its sustainable multi-use creds.

Developed with chemical giant LyondellBasell, the cladding is used on the wheelarches and skid plates and features a fleck that proudly showcases its reused ingredients. In case you were in any doubt, there’s a virtue-signalling recycling logo embossed by the fake cooling duct beneath the door mirror.

Dacia Duster: a quick history
The original put the Romanians on the map back in 2010, proving that a great-value, no-nonsense SUV with off-roading creds and a utilitarian vibe backed by proven Renault mechanicals would resonate with buyers fed up with ever-more complicated cars. They hit the bullseye with v1 and 2017’s lightly refreshed v2: the Duster cemented its place alongside Sandero as the brand’s biggest seller, notching up 2.2 million registrations in 13 years.

Which explains why the design and engineering chefs have been briefed not to mess with the recipe too much. It’s more of the same, but the 2024 debutant plays catch-up with the technological and sustainability agenda to keep up with society’s fast-moving expectations.

Key to the upgrade is the adoption of the Renault Group’s CMF-B platform, the oily bits that already underpin Sandero and Jogger. It is an entirely new architecture from Duster 1 and 2, ushering in hybrid powertrains, superior connectivity and compliance with ever tighter GSR2 safety regulations imposed in Europe. You can blame these rules on the proliferation of touchscreens, cameras and tech, additions at odds with the company’s back-to-basics mantra.

Engines, specs
Headline news is a set of cleaner engines, all of them familiar from elsewhere in the Dacia range. Entry-level models start with the TCe 100 Bi-Fuel, continuing the company’s lone-ranger mission to continue with LPG. Not a big seller in Britain, but popular on the Continent, it packs a regular fuel tank and a 50-litre autogas bunker for an impressive 807-mile combined range without stopping. It’s quite the long-range hero.

If LPG’s not your thing, the TCe 130 brings mild hybrid tech to the familiar 1.2-litre three-cylinder engine, for lower emissions (down -10%) thanks to a 48-volt system harvesting energy into a small 0.9kWh battery that’s then fed back to assist acceleration. This is the powertrain that offers two- or all-wheel drive; note that Europe will no longer take the diesel engine (although it continues for African markets). No great shakes, as it accounted for just 5% of UK sales.

The first Duster hybrid, too
The range-topping Hybrid 140 powertrain is carried across from Jogger, marrying a 93bhp 1.6-litre four-pot with a 48bhp electric motor fed by a 1.2kWh battery. Dacia claims it’s so efficient that it can drive around town on electric mode up to 80% of the time, reducing average fuel consumption by a fifth.

Note that no fuel economy mpg figures or CO2 outputs are available yet. We’ll update this article once the full and final specs are homologated and published.

Practicality and interior
Switching to the CMF-B architecture brings packaging benefits, too. There’s considerably more interior space and the boot floor is lower, while the tailgate opening is wider and taller – meaning the boot capacity grows by 6% to 472 litres under the parcel shelf.v

CAR has already sat inside the new Duster and can report it’s roomy in both rows with easier access now that the rear door aperture is considerably wider. The upticked rear side window makes you worry about a pinched, sporting SUV roofline, but it’s a trick of the eye; there’s actually plenty of space for limbs and luggage.

Dacia is rolling out a series of useful, practical features in the new Duster. The headline act is the clever YouClip modular storage system which places eight mounts around the cabin and boot allowing owners to attach anything from device holders to torches, coat hooks to handbags in the footwell or to the front seatbacks. It’s a patented clip, so don’t go expecting third parties to get in on the act like iPhone accessories. Duster gets YouClip first and it’ll quickly spread across most models in the range – and maybe even back to the Renault mothership, engineers reveal.

Dacia’s digital overhaul
One feature that may perturb minimalists is the creeping influence of digitisation. Dacia has historically spurned tech for tech’s sake (even banning electric seats in all models to date), but Duster v3 has actively embraced more digital features. A 10.1-inch touchscreen is joined by an electronic parking brake on all but the base model; over-the-air updates refresh the software; and a suite of safety systems will nudge you back into lane and auto-brake in an emergency. Has it gone too far? It’s a tightrope the brand must tread, as customers expect a certain degree of connectivity nowadays and regulations insist on nannying safety features.

Reassuringly, the Duster should still hold its head high off road and Dacia claims class-leading ability in the rough stuff ‘unparalleled in the non-expert 4×4 market.’ By which they mean it’s better than anything without a close-ratio transfer ’box. To boost aero efficiency, ground clearance is lower than before, but there’s still 217mm between tarmac and axle to scramble over obstacles and Dacia quotes 31deg/36deg approach/departure angles, while a new 4×4 Terrain Control lets drivers pick from five driving modes, modulating drivetrain and chassis settings to optimise traction in all conditions.

When can I buy the new 2024 Dacia Duster? And how much will it cost?
With prices promised to begin at less than £20,000 when the first right-hand drive cars arrive in July 2024, we’d predict that Dacia will continue to hoover up market share from buyers seeking better value without compromising on core capability.

Trading on its Renault group parentage and cheaper manufacturing footprint in Romania and Morocco to produce more car for less cash has never seemed smarter.