Attention, rural delivery drivers. Do your routes regularly send you down rutted farm tracks, over snowy mountain passes, or through dense forests? Do you find the £51,729 needed for a Toyota Land Cruiser Commercial a bit steep? Then we have what can only be described as Good News! The Dacia Duster now comes as a van.
Yes, Dacia has launched a Cargo version of our favourite budget-friendly 4×4. It’s offered as a full factory conversion based on the entry-level Duster Expression, and gets the usual car-to-van treatment. Out go the back seats, replaced by a flat wooden loading floor, and there’s a mesh bulkhead and four lashing points to stop loose ASOS parcels from clattering you in the head. Naturally, the rear windows and windscreen are blanked out, and there’s a full-length load cover for extra protection from crims and wronguns.
Dacia Duster Cargo – load bay
In 4×4 guise, the Duster Cargo gets all the same extra off-road kit as the passenger car. That includes a suite of five terrain-based drive modes, adaptive hill descent control and 217mm of ground clearance. It uses a 1.2-litre turbo three-cylinder, lightly boosted by a 48v mild hybrid system and producing 128bhp, hooked up to a six-speed manual.
Those with less need for all-wheel drive but still with the craving for a Duster with no back seats can get the Cargo with the newly-announced front-drive 155 Hybrid powertrain, too. The new range-topper for the Duster, it pairs a 1.8-litre four-cylinder with a 49bhp electric motor to send 153bhp through the front wheels by way of a complicated double-gearbox arrangement involving four speeds for the engine and two for the e-motor.
Dacia Duster Cargo – rear
Pricing kicks off at £22,995 for the 4×4 and £23,595 for the Hybrid, both before VAT, which you should be able to reclaim if you’re using your Duster Cargo for Official Business™. The first ones should land with buyers by the end of the year.
#Dacia #Duster #BudgetFriendly #4×4 #Van