Dacia Duster May Show Braking Problems

The international opinions on Dacia’s latest model, the Duster SUV are starting to follow two different pathways.

At first, there were a number of reviews that offered the model a good overall score. Then the Dutch ANWB (the correspondent for the German ADAC) together with the Autokampioen made a series of handling test which showed that the Romanian low-cost SUV might have handling issues.

Now, it’s the French who come to show us that they have discovered a weak link in the Duster chain. Automobile-magazine.fr has published a complex braking test that included multiple SUVs, among which the Duster was included.

The conclusion for the Romanian car was that the vehicle can be included in the list of those that show a braking distance which exceeds the segment’s average, with the all-wheel-drive version of the class registering an even longer braking distance.

The test, which is ISO 9001 certified (only one person is inside the car), requires vehicles to accelerate up to a speed of 100 km/h or 130 km/h and then measures their braking distances (up to a standstill). All the cars that exceed a distance of 40 m (for 100 km/h) or 70m (for 130 km/h) fail the test.

The session included the following vehicles: VW Tiguan, BMW X1, Skoda Yeti, Honda CR-V, Ford Kuga, Renault Koleos, Dacia Duster 1.5 dCi 4x4, Mitsubishi ASX 4x2 and Dacia Duster 1.5 dCi 4x2.

The test showed that the Duster 4x2 needs 42 and 70 meters, respectively to come to a halt, while the Duster 4x4 offers a stopping distance of 46 and 75 meters, respectively.

The worst results were registered by the Koleos, which needed 77 meters to stop from 130 km/h. At the other end of the scale, the testers found the VW Tiguan, BMW X1 and Skoda Yeti, which needed 63, 64 and 65 meters respectively to lose all their speed.

You can see the complete list of results (for the 130 km/h speed) in the adjacent image. All the tested vehicles were fitted with Continental CrossContact tires.

Dacia was confronted with the results and debuted an internal investigation in order to see if the tested vehicles had any malfunctions.

autoevolution tested the Dacia Duster. You can read the review here.