The Dacia Bigster is a larger, more practical version of the popular Duster SUV. It offers impressive boot space and excellent value for money, but feels flimsy throughout and has an average safety rating. The engine can be noisy, but it's hard to argue with the sheer amount of space you get for your money.
Pros:
- Roomy interior
- Lots of equipment
- Great value
Cons:
- Feels flimsy throughout
- Average safety rating
- Engine can be noisy
Dacia Bigster Review
- What is the Dacia Bigster?
- How practical is it?
- What's it like to drive?
- Technology, equipment & infotainment
- Three things to know
- Which one to buy
- Dacia Bigster running costs
- Dacia Bigster reliability
- Verdict
What is the Dacia Bigster?
Take the Dacia Duster SUV, and make it bigger. That, basically, is the premise behind the new Dacia Bigster – as you can probably guess from the name. The idea is simple: a larger option for buyers who think the Duster doesn't offer enough space.
The Bigster isn't actually all that big; it's about the size of a Kia Sportage, and smaller than the seven-seat Dacia Jogger. The Bigster, by contrast, can only be had with five seats – meaning it targets cars like the Sportage, not to mention the Nissan Qashqai, Hyundai Tucson, MG HS, Citroen C5 Aircross and Volkswagen Tiguan.
The big difference, of course, is that like every other Dacia, the Bigster is much cheaper than its rivals to buy. In other words, it isn't in direct competition with them – instead, it's aiming to undercut them, to serve as a bargain basement alternative. It's intended to appeal to buyers, particularly those with young families, looking for maximum space for minimum outlay.
How practical is it?
Practicality rating: 5/5 stars
Practicality is one of the Bigster's strongest suits — boot space in particular. Go for one of the two mild hybrid engine options, and you get a simply vast 677-litre boot. No similar-sized SUV, not even one that'll cost you much more money, can compete with that.
You do get a bit less space in the Dacia Bigster hybrid, as some space is taken up by the larger traction battery – but at 612 litres, it's still a huge space that'll cope with pretty much anything a family can throw at it.
The rear seats don't slide or tumble like they can in a Skoda Karoq (you can't have everything for this price), but they do split in a 40/20/40 formation, which means you can keep two child seats in place and slide longer items through the middle.
Space in the back seats isn't quite as cathedral-like, though it's still perfectly adequate, and few will complain about the amount of head, knee and legroom on offer. And the big, square door opening and high-mounted rear seats mean that it's a doddle to install your kids.
Up front, once again, the seats are high-mounted, which makes climbing in and out really easy, even if you've limited mobility. Headroom is plentiful despite this, and there's plenty of storage for odds and ends, with nooks, crannies, cupholders and lidded bins sprinkled liberally throughout the doors, dashboard, centre console and armrest.
There's a good view out over the front of the car, with the blocky, crenelated bonnet stretching out before you. This means you're easily able to see where the edges of the car are, which makes it easy to position the Bigster on the road. At the back, a large rear screen and good-sized rear windows help when parking, too.
What's it like to drive?
Driving rating: 3/5 stars
It'll come as little surprise to hear that a cheap and cheerful family SUV isn't all that much fun to drive, and so it goes with the Bigster. In corners, there's very little feedback from the steering, the front end feels vague and not too eager to turn in, and the whole car leans over quite a bit. It's not a complete disaster – there's enough grip that the Bigster does change direction when you ask it to – it just doesn't feel very happy about it.
The payoff for this softness is that the Bigster is really very comfortable most of the time, and especially on the motorway, where it wafts along like a much more expensive car. Around town it can get caught out by sharper, more sudden bumps, and the suspension is quite noisy, too – you hear a few clonks and twangs from below you over more churned-up stretches of road. But for the most part, the Bigster feels pretty comfortable.
You can choose between three different engine options, all sourced from Dacia's parent company, Renault. There's a 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol mild hybrid with 138bhp, front-wheel drive and a six-speed manual gearbox; the same engine with 128bhp and four-wheel drive; or a 153bhp 1.8-litre full hybrid with an automatic gearbox and front-wheel drive.
Want more specs? Well, all three engine options have a top speed of 112mph; the two mild hybrid cars hit 0-62mph in 9.8 for the front-wheel-drive version, and 11.2 for the four-wheel-drive. The full hybrid will hit 62mph in 9.7 seconds, meanwhile.
We haven't driven the mild hybrids, but we know from experience of them in other models that they deliver good low-down punch but can feel a little breathless at higher speeds, especially when tasked with hauling around a car of the Bigster's stature.
The full hybrid powertrain, meanwhile, delivers solid performance at all speeds, with good low-down punch and still plenty in reserve on the motorway. It isn't going to set bales of hay alight with its pace, but it'll be more than adequate for most family buyers' needs.
It can also be really quiet, because there are times when it'll run solely on the electric motor, which means you can go long periods without hearing any engine noise at all. There's a flip-side to this, though, which is that when the hybrid system brings in its petrol engine, it can sometimes emit a gargling, growling sound, which can be intrusive.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
Technology and equipment rating: 4/5 stars
Dacias have a reputation for being sparsely equipped, but even the entry-level Bigster comes with a few fripperies, to wit: adaptive cruise control, keyless entry, parking sensors, dual-zone climate control, a multi-view parking camera, and a touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
This is a pretty good touchscreen, by the way, unencumbered by fancy graphics – which means it's easy to find your way around and fast to respond – yet still looking fresh and modern, thanks to the lime green accents. Below it, a line of piano key switches allow for physical control of the climate functions – a welcome addition.
Upgrade to the plusher (though in a Bigster, such things are relative) Journey trim, and you add some little luxuries to the kit list: a heated steering wheel, heated front seats, an electric boot lid, live traffic navigation, a wireless mobile phone charger, 19-inch alloy wheels, and a digital instrument cluster.
There's also an Extreme trim, which is more geared toward off-road adventuring; consequently, it loses the electric tailgate of the Journey, but gains instead hill descent control, a panoramic sunroof, and Dacia's modular roof rails, which can turn clockwise to become roof bars. You also get 18-inch wheels with chunkier tyres, which helps improve the ride quality.
All trim levels come with a 'My Perso' button, which enables you to set up the safety systems to an individual profile that can be accessed with two quick taps. This is handy, because it means you can disable the nagging lane-keep assist and speed limit warning systems quickly and easily, each time you start the car.
Three things to know
- One of the usual problems with Dacia cars (the smaller Sandero in particular) is their poor results in Euro NCAP crash tests. The Bigster's aren't quite as bad as most – its child protection scores are about what you'd expect – but it still offers adult protection levels that fall some way short of the majority of its rivals'. In other words, you can at least feel confident putting your children in the back of a Bigster; it's just the adults up front that will come off worse. You don't want to get hit by one, either; its score for the protection of pedestrians and cyclists is also sub-par.
- We like how easy the Bigster's interior is to use, but as you might expect given its price, the actual plastics the interior is built from feel pretty cheap and flimsy. This, along with light-feeling doors and a slightly flighty feel to the steering at speed, results in a sense of the whole car feeling somewhat insubstantial. We also noticed a couple of trim rattles in our test car, despite it having covered only 2,000 miles.
- The Bigster doesn't come as standard with a spare wheel, though one can be specified at an extra cost of £300. It's well worth doing, because it'll get you out of trouble in a wider range of circumstances than the puncture repair kit that comes as standard.
Which one to buy
- If you're buying on a budget: the most basic model, the Expression 140 Mild Hybrid, is the one to have. This is 'essence of Bigster': all that space for as little cash as possible. Choose the standard Glacier White paintwork to avoid paying extra for one of the five metallic shades also available.
- If you want the best all-rounder: go for the Journey 155 Hybrid. Yes, it's a little bit more money than the mild hybrid, but the excellent fuel consumption will mitigate the extra cost.
- If you're planning to tow: go for the Extreme 140 Mild Hybrid. You might think you'd want the extra heft of the 4x4 model, but actually its towing capacity is identical to the front-wheel-drive model – and the 4x4's lower power output means it'll be more difficult to tow with. The Extreme version's modular roof bars, meanwhile, will make it easy to install a cycle rack or roof box.
- If you want the cheapest Bigster to run: choose the Expression 155 Hybrid. It's the most fuel efficient model in the Bigster range, and because of its smaller wheels and lighter weight, gets better fuel efficiency figures than the Journey and Extreme models with the same engine.
Dacia Bigster running costs
Running costs rating: 5/5 stars
One of the main attractions of the Bigster is its price: nowhere else will you find this much new car for this little cash. Instantly, then, it's onto a winner in terms of its running costs.
And the good news just keeps on coming. The basic mild hybrid in front-wheel-drive form should manage around 45mpg on average in the real world – and it should even slightly outperform some of its pricier mild hybrid rivals.
It's even better news if you go for the full hybrid model. It's possible to see fuel economy figures of 55, or in some circumstances, even 60mpg in the real world, with the attendant low emissions you'd expect. If you're doing enough miles, that'll be enough to negate the fact that this version costs almost £3,000 more.
Service schedules are a little more generous than the norm, with Dacia recommending that you get the Bigster serviced every year or 12,000 miles – giving you 2,000 miles more between services than most manufacturers if you're doing higher mileages.
And because of the Bigster's low list price, it's literally impossible to incur the luxury car tax surcharge, meaning your tax costs will only ever be as high as the basic flat rate.
Whichever way you square it, then, the Bigster is an affordable car to buy and run.
Dacia Bigster reliability
The Bigster is still too new for us to have any real-world reliability data as yet, but we do know that Dacia makes dependable cars: the company came sixth out of 31 car manufacturers to feature in the 2024 What Car? Reliability Survey. That suggests the Bigster should be a trusty companion.
That impression is backed up by the fact Dacia now offers a good service-activated warranty option on all its cars. What this means is that if you get your Dacia serviced at a main dealer, you'll benefit from an extra year, or 18,000 miles' worth, of warranty, up to a maximum of six years or 75,000 miles old.
Verdict
Overall rating: 4/5 stars
The Dacia Bigster is the perfect family SUV. That's what we'd be saying if its crash test results were a little better; as it is, it has to make do with the caveat 'almost'.
Mind you, look at what else the Bigster does get right, and you might be able to put that particular qualm to the back of your mind. The Bigster is comfortable, hugely roomy, well equipped, and endowed with a good quality touchscreen and an interior that's a doddle to find your way around.
On top of that, it's easy to drive, cheap to run, and should prove to be reliable, backed up by a long warranty. Granted, the interior plastics are a bit cheap, but no more so than you'd expect given the price.
If you can avoid crashing it, then, the Bigster is a brilliant buy.
