Dacia Duster Tops 35,500 Orders

The vehicle that has been advertised as the cheapest SUV on the market, the Romanian built Dacia Duster, seems to have been the perfect vehicle to launch in the volatile 2010 economy. French manufacturer Renault, owner of the Dacia brand, announced this week the first true SUV in Dacia's lineup managed to put 35,500 orders to its name, in only four months since its presentation at the Geneva Auto Show.

The Duster retails in Europe from EUR13,040 for the Duster Ambiance equipped with a 1.6 16V engine. Its highest price, charged for the top of the line Duster Laureate 1.6-liter 105 horsepower, is EUR 16,630.

The big number of orders can be explained through the aforementioned affordable prices and comes at a time when the Romanian automotive market, Dacia's biggest, shrunk by 26.4 percent. Thanks to the Duster however, the Romanian brand posted an 18.2 percent increase in sales.

The Duster is slowly turning into an European hit. In Germany, one of the markets in which Dacia registered a great deal of (surprising) success last year, wanting a Duster might get you on a six months long waiting list.

“We are pleased with the results for first-half 2010. The Renault group is increasing sales volumes and market share across all its regions and for all three brands, Renault, Dacia and Renault Samsung Motors,” said Jerome Stoll, Renault Sales and Marketing vice president said in a release. In all, Renault Group's sales grew by 21.6 percent in the first half of the year.

We couldn't help wondering what drives the Duster into high gear in terms of sales, so we borrowed one and gave it a spin. You can read the conclusions of the autoevolution test drive by following this link.