The Dacia brand might be known to you if you are, or were, a fan of the UK’s Top Gear show, with Clarkson, May, and Hammond playfully mocking Dacia for being a maker of boring, cheap vehicles in Europe. But the Duster, its rugged little 4×4 crossover that only costs roughly £14,000, is beloved by car enthusiasts in Europe for its inexpensive quality. Unfortunately for the 4×4 system in the vehicle however, not many of its drivers ever actually take the car off road.
Dacia interviewed a bunch of their owners and found that, well, they don’t like driving in the dirt. So, they now invite them to bring the Dusters into a London dealership for a mud bath so they can at least pretend to look the part of a tough little 4×4.
From the survey and presser:
The [mud-wash] launch comes after new research reveals that 4 in ten (40 per cent) of 4×4 drivers have never taken their car off road, while a further fifth (19 per cent) admit they’ve never even driven their 4×4 down a dirt track.
Researchers polled 1,000 city-dwelling 4×4 owners and discovered they’ve hardly got their wheels muddy. According to the survey, over a third (67 per cent) said the closest owners of off-road vehicles have come to tackling “challenging terrain” is negotiating the speed bumps on the school run.
Our ‘Adventure Ready’ Mud Wash is about setting car buyers up for a year of adventure and embracing all that comes with it. The Dacia Duster is the perfect all-terrain vehicle to get Brits out into our fantastic countryside more often. For those feeling like their 4×4 is more at home on the school run than a mud run, the Mud Wash aims to inspire them to swap the telly for wellies and get off the beaten track this year!
17 per cent of those polled also said they wished they could be more adventurous with their 4×4, with one in ten (13 per cent) saying their family isn’t very adventurous.
It’s a funny nod to the ridiculousness of owning a 4×4 with no real reason for it, one that plenty of lifted truck and SUV drivers in the States, who do little but go to Home Depot, might squirm when seeing.
Haha
I knew a fishing guide who would mount every big Walleye he caught. Then if he had a client do poorly, he would offer to sell them a mount that they could take home. Seems like he may have found a job at a car dealership. 😉
I’ve used these a lot in Romania, and they work great off-road. BTW, Dacia is originally a Romanian car manufacturer, but was eventually bought by Renault. This little SUV is reliable and hard to beat for the price.
Is this an “Adventury report” or is fully legit… coz I can’t tell the difference if it’s spoof or for real. Still plausible tho
100% real!
Not much different than the overland craze that’s been sweeping the country for a while now. RTTs, awnings, jerry cans, shovels….you name it, all on spotless scratch-free vehicles. In these driver’s defense, you never know what will happen between the suburb and the office or the soccer field to strip mall, better be prepared and safe rather than sorry, I guess. My favorite is the 4Runner people, dudes who pay way too much for a way outdated vehicle with all the lifts kits and MTs, but has the nerf bars with the really low steps that drop down for the front passengers and separate for the rear. Yeah, that won’t get hung up in the outback or anything.
Hey, nothing wrong with accessorizing your vehicle and keeping it real, real clean.
Given the state of British roads, you don’t need to go off-road to give your suspension a good workout…
The elitism, in regard of elitism, in this thread is fun.
Literally everyone here owns a Subaru. Probably 17 per cent of us wish we were more adventurous.
Maybe Adventure Journal can start a side hustle photoshopping our faces over the models in outdoor apparel ads.