Dacia done and Dustered

By now we should have been able to pop into a Dacia dealership and pick up a nice cheap car here in the UK, but Renault pulled the plug on its cheap brand for us last year, claiming demand in Europe is too high to consider expanding further. Well, it's about to get higher...

What's all the fuss about?

Again, Dacia is supposed to be a budget brand - all cheap, grey, boxy and undesirable: the opposite of the Duster. (Well, apart from it being grey.) It's a proper concept of the old school; there's no chance Dacia will put anything like this in its showrooms, but the grille or wing mirrors of another car will no doubt be 'inspired' by it at some stage. That's a shame, because this coupé-cum-MPV looks stunning, it's spacious and very frugal.

Any new technology?

Nope, just good old 21-inch-chrome-wheeled concept car frippery. That said, for a concept, the Duster has a surprisingly detailed spec sheet: it gets a 1.5 dCi diesel unit with 103bhp and 177lb.ft of torque, good for a 9.6-second 0-62mph dash and, better still, 53.3mpg combined with just 139g/km of CO₂. It also seats four in easily accessible comfort thanks to rear-hinged 'suicide' doors and has a 470-litre boot - about 100 litres bigger than a Mégane's.

Will it ever see the light of day?

Like we said, probably not. But as a halo product for Renault's cheap and easy daughter, a production version of this sleek crossover would work a treat. Obviously the showroom car would have nowhere near the exterior or interior wow factor, but there's definitely something in it for our money.

Mark Nichol