Dacia Bigster: First pictures of rugged sub-£40k family SUV

Dacia is putting the finishing touches on its largest car to date, the Bigster SUV, ahead of its launch next year. New images of a camouflaged Bigster testing on public roads suggest that the production car’s design remains largely faithful to the concept unveiled in 2021. It retains its 4x4-inspired chunky proportions and slim LED headlights, bearing a strong resemblance to the smaller Dacia Duster SUV. Related articles Indeed, the Bigster is effectively a stretched Duster: it's based on the same Renault Group CMF-B (Common Module Family) platform but at 4.6m in length is 0.3m longer. This makes the Bigster the Romanian brand’s largest car to date, taking on hot sellers such as the Ford Kuga and Toyota RAV4. Dacia CEO Denis Le Vot believes that the Bigster’s value-focused approach gives it a chance to capture the attention of car buyers who are steadily being priced out of the mid-sized segment.  Speaking to Autocar last November, he said: “Less than 10 years ago, you bought something for €33,000 [£28,500], and then you go to the same dealership [for your new car] and they say the new car is €40-something thousand. Then lots of people will say: ‘Oh, no, I’m not doing that. It’s too expensive.’ This is where Dacia makes sense, because we’re coming with, in the case of a C-[segment] crossover, the Bigster, and it’s not going to start with a four.” As such, the Bigster is expected to undercut its key rivals on price, likely starting just below the £30,000 mark. For reference, a new Kuga is £32,095, while the Skoda Kodiaq starts at £36,645. The new Duster is expected to be priced below £20,000. Le Vot suggested that Dacia would keep prices low by building “the essential car”, omitting unnecessary technologies and equipment where possible. “We design cars with zero superfluous content: no screen when we can put no screen, no electronics when we can put no electronics, no ADAS when we can put no ADAS,” he said.