Dacia, the budget brand now owned by Renault, continues to impress Irish motorists. The official SIMI figures for the first seven months of the year show that Dacia were in 11th place, just one place behind Nissan and well ahead of long-established brands like Ford, Mercedes, Suzuki, Opel, Seat and Volvo.
Overall, it has been a fairly good year for the Irish motor industry with sales for the first seven months up 3.7% compared to the same period last year. Sales in July saw a 4.3% increase compared to July 2024.
That’s all by way of introducing you to this week’s test car, the Dacia Bigster. It might not be a brilliant name, but it’s yet another ‘shockingly affordable’ car from the Romanian company, which was established in 1966, and 33 years later was sold to Renault. Now they are only two places behind Renault in the SIMI new car sales chart.
Dacia describes the car as a compact crossover which is based on their Duster with an extended body length and wheelbase. At first, I thought it was a seven-seater, but surprisingly there is no third row of seats.
However, that boot area is massive and it would hold sets of golf clubs for the whole family, if you are into golf. When I saw the official photographs of the boot, I was thinking that you could place a coffin in there. Wonder how long it will be before we see Irish funeral undertakers using a Bigster.
Yes, the boot is huge and there is plenty of room for a spare wheel, but as is normal with most new cars in recent years, no spare is provided. August is traditionally a holiday month and if you are on a Staycation, you could clear out a lot of junk from an attic or shed with a Bigster.
On the outside, it’s very impressive at the front with the DC logo on the grille; two roof rails add to the rugged look and I felt it the car was saying to to me, “take me off-road”.
Inside, the décor is minimalistic and very dark. I think it could have done with a white roofline to brighten the décor. But then colour is a personal thing.
It’s available in mild or full hybrid. I drove the 1.8-litre Hybrid version, which with a full tank on board had a range of 980km; now that’s impressive. It was very frugal and that fuel gauge moved very slowly. Prices start at €29,990 for the 1.2-litre, while the1.8-litre version will cost you €37,540.
There are no luxury touches and the Bigster might not be everybody’s ‘cup of tea.’ A friend told me that his brother who is a farmer in Mayo, loves his Dacia Duster and might be tempted to upgrade now to the Bigster. There is great ground clearance for that rough terrain.
Dacia’s logo is now a conjoined D and C. This, they say is to symbolises the strong connection and trust between Dacia and its customers. The DC logo is used the grille and also on all the seats and it reminded me of my young days in Kerry. My father, Den Creedon, owned sheep and when the sheep were shorn, he then needed to put his initials in red paint on the side of the sheep for identification purposes as they mingled with other sheep in the uplands; his initials were also DC.
