Dacia started as a kind of second-hand warehouse for all the technology Renault could no longer use, but instead of sitting around during the pandemic eating chips, Dacia put a lot of effort into creating a new look. So now we've got a completely fresh Dacia range (the Sandero and Duster look lovely) and even a completely new model, this seven-seat MPV/estate mash-up. And it also uses the latest Renault technology, which is very good.
It might seem a little strange to try and accept the idea of Dacia as a 'lifestyle' brand rather than an overly cheap basement brand, but the cheapness remains, it's just that the company color is now khaki green rather than navy blue, and the new logo is a minimalist Christmas cake made of from the letters D and C mashed together. And why not?
As we said, the lifestyle will last as long as you don't have to shell out the price tag. You get seven seats as standard here, and the big number is the £18,295 Dacia will ask for an entry-level car, which is less than half the price of a Land Rover Discovery Sport or under a third the price of an Audi Q7. Dacia thought the car would compete with the new Citroen Berlingo XL, but they made the car electric-only and it costs around £33k (although you can now get a five-seater version with petrol or diesel power).
The Jogger certainly doesn't feel like a premium car – there's a lot of hard plastic and bits of metal all around, but you won't feel left out, the Jogger doesn't pretend to be anything more than a premium car. he. What you get is a cheap family car that won't mind the abuse of everyday life.
For a long time, Dacia's way was to wait until a Renault was old, give it a post-life facelift, and sell it for cheap. The second generation Dacia Sandero that went on sale in 2020 is based on a platform originally developed for the Renault Clio in 2002. Phew.
Luckily the latest Dacias are all based on Renault's CMF-B platform, although the Duster doesn't ride on vintage underpinnings, it will only be around for a while. There's nothing about the Jogger that makes it feel dated, or even decent enough to ride. The petrol version feels very mechanical, and there's a lot of fun to be had using the small 109bhp 1.0-litre turbo three-cylinder engine driving a six-speed manual gearbox.
The hybrid uses a 1.6-litre 4-cylinder nat-asp petrol engine and a small e-motor producing 138bhp to offer a combination of electric-assisted petrol operation and EV-only propulsion.
Of course, it's not a sports car, but yes, the Jogger drives well – and this is thanks to the efforts Dacia made to reduce its weight. It weighs a truly astonishing 1,200kg (the hybrid adds 180kg to that figure), which is light by any car's standards, let alone a seven-seater family car.
The front feels proactive and alert when entering corners because there isn't too much weight weighing on the front wheels. There's also good steering feel, and even a slight kick on the gear lever when you release the clutch. This is one aspect of the car that feels old-fashioned, but refreshing. The hybrid weighs more with a bigger engine and e-motor, but the car still feels sprightly when moving.
It could be that we're driving too many electric vehicles these days, they're all powered by cables, but the Jogger has a pretty comfortable mechanical feel to it. It's quite fun for a family bus, although considering we only drove it without a full complement of passengers, perhaps we need to include everyone before we pass a definitive judgment.
You might find yourself looking at the Jogger and thinking of a little thing or two that could make it better. Would it benefit from more? Maybe not: for this price and with its ruthless attention to detail, the Jogger is great as is.
