Story: DAVID WILKINS
VALUE-CONSCIOUS business car buyers keen to get their hands on the new Dacia Duster when it arrives in the UK in January need to get their cheque books out now.
Dacia is the budget brand of Renault, and clearly Dacia’s budget-priced SUV is mining a deep vein of demand for honest-to-goodness budget priced business car transport.
The Dacia Duster has already attracted 1,000 pre-orders – three months before it officially hits the showrooms.
About a sixth of prospective Dacia Duster buyers have put down their £100 returnable deposit on the “shockingly affordable” bare bones £8,995 Access model but half of all pre-orders are for cars with the top-of-the-range Lauréate trim more suited to company car drivers.
Renault says it wants to give business buyers the chance to pay only “for what they value”, so the Dacia Duster range gives business car buyers plenty of scope to mix and match features such as diesel engines, four-wheel drive and air-con according to preference and company car tax allowance.
Monthly company car tax is as low as £35 a month while the top-spec Dacia Duster 1.5 dCi Laureate 110hp costs just £43 a month in company car tax.
The Duster is one half of a two-car launch range for Dacia in the UK.
It will be joined in the Dacia brand’s 135 UK dealerships by the five-door Dacia Sandero supermini hatchback.
Prices for the Dacia Sandero start at just £5,995, while company car tax is as low as £17 a month for the Dacia Sandero 1.2 16v Access model.