Review and test Dacia Duster TCE 100 Bi-Fuel GPF

Some people you meet in life leave an indelible impression. Take Fred, such a character that we regularly encountered at birthdays. Fred managed to get up on Saturday evening during the denouement of an exciting game of Monopoly, declare that he thought it was boring and leave. Without a polite apology. He made exactly zero effort to make it more beautiful than it was, which is why he was so valued. Dacia, and with it the Dacia Duster, is Fred on wheels.

Dacia recently renewed the Duster. Did they replace the hard plastic dashboard with one of nice soft stuff? Do not be crazy. Adaptive cruise control? getsie. A sports mode then? Fascinating. No, the Duster only got much-needed upgrades. Only things that the customer really needs.

New lamps were needed all around, so that it matches the rest of the models. Small aerodynamic changes and eco tires make the Duster less thirsty. This one all season tires have a snowflake, so a change for the months with the R is no longer necessary. Very practical. Slimmer headrests improve forward visibility and the armrest between the front seats is higher and wider. And the buttons for the cruise control are now on the steering wheel, a question from customers.

Limited number of versions for the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, Dacia serves a tailor-made menu. The petrol version with 90 hp does not come here and the diesel is also outside the dietary requirements. The 100 hp Bi-Fuel, which carries both an LPG and a petrol tank, replaces both variants. With the facelift, Dacia enlarged the LPG tank by 50 percent, so that after a double refueling and with a friendly foot you only have to tap 1,235 kilometers further. The only thing you hand in with this version is the spare wheel. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to get a spare wheel on the back of the Duster – that would suit it pretty well.

Switching between LPG and petrol in the Dacia Duster is done with the push of a button on the left of the dashboard. In the previous version, the button was also the fuel gauge for the gas, but now the on-board computer simply shows the LPG level. It all feels less like a thought.

The Dacia Duster accelerates faster on LPG

Switching between the two fuels goes unnoticed. However, there is a small performance difference: on LPG takes the sprint to 100 (feel free to call it a trot) more than a second shorter. We must also say that the Duster feels a lot more sprightly than its 0-to-100 time of almost 14 seconds suggests. The three-cylinder with 100 hp picks up eagerly at the bottom and if you don’t switch too lazy, you can live with it very well.

The tax authorities would like to see a little more monthly pocket money from LPG drivers, which is actually the only downside. With the current petrol prices, the tipping point is a lot less high than with a diesel – somewhere around 6,000 kilometers per year.

Little wrong with it

Furthermore, the Dacia Duster is still very good. The seats are in order, the sound insulation is good enough and the suspension comfort is just as good. The sound from the speakers is also okay. The only real downside is that the car is rather guided by the road surface and here and there is a bit searching. He likes to choose a side, especially when accelerating quickly.

Since the facelift, Dacia offers a Duster for the first time with an automatic transmission and 150 hp – of course without unnecessary flippers behind the wheel. This is not a pre-war shaker, but just a modern automatic from Renault, which makes it a particularly fine powertrain for the Duster. If it costs a little more, then definitely consider this new machine.