Dacia Bigster Hybrid - long-term review

Speed and handling. Two things that aren’t actually that applicable to the Bigster, if we’re being brutally honest. And no one ever bought a Dacia for the cornering G or neck-wilting acceleration, but there’s goodness in here. The e-motor that lives in the transmission provides up to 50bhp of instant torque and the Bigster always moves off under electric power - so the pulling away part is always sprightly. A 0-62mph time of a leisurely 10.1 seconds therefore doesn’t tell the whole story of how the Bigster moves down the road.

Similarly, the car actually handles pretty well - it’s just that the limits of the big wheels (they’re 19s on this ‘Journey’ spec) are defined by their 205/55/R19 tyres. Which is a tall wheel and tyre that’s only modestly wide - so you get decent reactions from the steering, but not a whole heap of grip. Bluntly, you’ll be understeering - especially in the wet - well before anything more ‘exciting’ can happen.

Again, the ride is pitched in that middle ground where you can feel the lumps and bumps, but they’re not terribly intrusive, and although there’s wind noise at motorway speeds, even Radio 4 can render it inert. It’s all very regular and predictable, and goes some way to show how far we’ve come in terms of suspension dynamics; ‘budget’ cars even 15 years ago would have, for the most part, terribly wayward suspension kinematics and weird handling characteristics. Not what you want in a family bus.

So what have we been up to? Well, in the absence of a blatant party-piece, we’ve been doing the usual grind. Support car for various photoshoots, airport run car, moving people and things. The Bigster is big enough to carry a decent amount (and the seats are easy to fold flat), it’s comfy enough to do long trips (and it’s been to Scotland a couple of times in one driving hit), it’s small enough to be very useable in town (and more efficient when it's there). Honestly, having a narrow but capacious car these days feels like luxury.

As for other stuff, the harder plastics around the door tops and cards are showing light signs of wear, but I kind of expected that, given their texture. But one thing that’s been very impressive; the seats are a kind of neoprene/wetsuit material called Microcloud synthetic TEP, which can be wiped-down to as-new with a wet cloth. Something endlessly handy when you’ve had a dusty moment or mucky dog where they shouldn’t be - something that happens in my house every week.

Other than that, we’ve been getting the same sort of mpg - between 53 and 57 - no matter what we do, more in town, less when blasted down a motorway at 70mph. So far, so good. It’s a practical triumph.