Dacia today celebrated a decade in Ireland and can proudly boast that it has a footprint in 44 countries. With seven million vehicles sold so far, Dacia’s Sandero and Duster remain the number one car and number one SUV sold to private customers in Europe.
While marking the special celebration at Keary’s Belgard, we got a sneak peek of the new flagship model for Dacia which will go on sale in 2024. Heading up the budget brands SUV offering, the Bigster will encroach on the family hatchback and mid-size SUV segments and will be based on the same CMF-B platform as the Sandero.
They’ve done well in catering for buyers who are looking for more space, without too much cost, as we’ve seen with the award winning seven seat Jogger. They might offer the Bigster as a seven seat option too but this has yet to be confirmed.
Dacia are planning a hybrid version and seeing as LPG already exists in their arsenal, it would add a valuable consumer choice, even if it’s not yet as widely available as petrol, diesel or even electric, LPG would offer a decent fuel efficient alternative choice for consumers.
Dacia tell us the Bigster is “a 4.6-metre-long SUV with no more or no less than the essential, the Bigster is the Dacia way of making the C-segment accessible, delivering a larger, more capable vehicle at the cost buyers would expect”. The exterior design is robust looking and can probably handle some tougher tracks and scrapes but full off roading probably won’t be on offer.
The design has no chrome trim or imitation-aluminium and has a beefy stance, they’ve definitely upped their game with the looks on this one. However, don’t expect the spec to get overly complex or bloated, you’ll get what you need and nothing more. This may affect its Euro NCAP rating but Dacia suggests that perhaps it’s the Euro NCAP which needs adjusting. For instance, look at the number of cars sold which have distracting systems, some of which require adjustment at the start of every journey, all for the demands of Euro NCAP ratings.