Dacia Bigster review

What do you get when you make a Duster bigger? A silly name and a real worry for the likes of Ford and Hyundai, writes Illya Verpraet

- Illya Verpraet

The Dacia Bigster is a Dacia Duster, but bigger; sometimes naming cars doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s a slightly silly name, but we'll get used to it. Being named after a household cleaning tool hasn’t been a barrier to success for Dacia’s other SUV, after all, and it’s good to know where a particular model sits in the hierarchy.

WHAT'S IT LIKE?

Despite similarities with the Duster, the Bigster differs in a few respects. Injecting more practicality into the Duster wasn’t the work of an afternoon, and the new car also introduces an improved hybrid system.

Perhaps more significant is that the Bigster is Dacia’s entry into the C-SUV segment — a wildly popular class that includes the Kia Sportage, Ford Kuga and Volkswagen Tiguan, to name just a few.

Whereas with most car makers this class represents quite a step up from the one below in terms of technical sophistication, Dacia actually sticks with the same CMF-B platform for the Bigster. As its name suggests, these are effectively the underpinnings for a B-segment car — a supermini.

Dacia’s general charm and price advantage get it a long way; the question now is whether that extends deep into the lion’s den of one of Europe's biggest classes.

While Dacia's approach still relies on adopting tech developed for use in the wider Renault Group, it has become more sophisticated than it used to be, and is even allowed the occasional first.

Given they're about the same size, you might expect the Bigster to be derived from the Renault Austral. However, Dacia takes a more bottom-up approach to car development, building a model to a budget from the components available around the group, and thus avoiding unnecessary cost.

As a result, the Bigster uses the lower-cost CMF-B platform, though it must be said that Renault's platform strategy seems more flexible than the ones at Stellantis and the Volkswagen Group.