How small can a pickup truck bed be while still maintaining some usability? Some settle for nothing less than an eight-foot bed, some find that the 4.5-foot bed of a Ford Maverick is exactly what they need, but one thing’s pretty much certain: Nothing is pushing the edge of that envelope quite like the new Dacia Duster Pickup.
If you aren’t familiar with the Dacia Duster, don’t feel bad. This Romanian crossover is built on a low-cost variant of the Renault CMF-B platform you’d find under the new Nissan Kicks. It’s one of Europe’s most affordable crossovers, features a variety of sub-two-liter engines, and is even still available in certain markets with a four-speed automatic on the 1.6-liter hybrid model. However, before you go thinking that this is some penalty box, just know that Dacia’s spent its money where it counts on making it feel like great value. The Duster gets air conditioning, a built-in smartphone dock with audio controls instead of an infotainment screen, heated door mirrors, a pleather-wrapped steering wheel, and all the modern safety features you need. Not bad for €17,200, or about $20,383 at current conversion rates.
However, here’s where things get weird: For its home market of Romania, Dacia has partnered with coachbuilder Romturingia on a sort of crew cab pickup truck version of the little Duster crossover. Not only does it simply not look like any other pickup truck, its bed is small enough to have you questioning its usefulness.
The Ford Maverick has a 54.4-inch bed, and the Hyundai Santa Cruz has a 52.1-inch bed, but both look enormous compared to the new Dacia Duster Pickup’s bed. It’s 41.3 inches long, or three feet and 5.3 inches. What’s more, the bed on this strange Romanian creation is only 39.3 inches wide, so it’s not exactly ideal for lumber runs. I suppose some end tables will fit just fine with the tailgate up, but really, is it worth the tradeoff over a crossover to have a hose-out cargo area at the expense of folding rear seats?
At the same time, the Duster Pickup looks quite unique, with stubby roof rails and a strange C-pillar. The factory quarter windows are partially covered from behind by the bed walls to effectively form buttresses, and the plastic bed rail trim butts right up to the quarter windows. It genuinely looks like a crossover with a bit at the back cut off because that’s what it is. Ever seen a baby donkey? Similar sort of cute factor, one that used to be called adorkable. It’s a little gawky, but awww.
Anyway, assuming you’re something like an independent landscaper hauling bags of something dense like stone, the Dacia Duster Pickup does have a payload capacity of 948 pounds. Plus, lowering the tailgate ought to be good enough for what, an additional foot or so of bed length? Granted, the tailgate does look relatively narrow, but considering the bed’s only set up for small loads, maybe it will do. I guess the other big question here is whether pricing will prove a bit strong. A base Duster starts at €17,200, but the cheapest pickup variant starts at €26,000, or about $30,825 at current conversion rates. Still, I can’t help but admire the courage to launch this unapologetically weird variant of one of Europe’s best-selling cars. The new Dacia Duster Pickup is a gloriously strange thing, and really ought to be celebrated.
Top graphic image: Dacia
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About the price : it’s not 10k more expensive than the standard version, because it is only available with a 1.2 turbo 4×4 or the hybrid engine, which are the more expensive. So, that’s at least 5K who are easy to explain. The rest of the difference feels logical given this is an artisanal conversion.
That being said, I don’t really get what kind of market they are targeting here. Romturinga did a single cab pick-up of the previous Duster, which looked much better and felt more useful. Plus, there is now the Bigster in the Dacia range, which is basically a bigger Duster and would feel like a more obvious choice for a double cab truck, with its elongated rear overhang. Hey, we’ll see.
https://www.largus.fr/images/styles/max_1300x1300/public/2022-11/dacia-duster-pickup-GPL-01.jpg?itok=J0Bdm8Te
I like it, but to pay roughly US$10K more for it than the plain Duster is crazy.
The tiny bed is fine: with the tailgate down (and occassionally up) it’d still be possible to bring home a dishwasher or washing machine or decently sized piece of furniture (well, maybe not a queen sized mattress, but maybe with enough rope). And those trips are very occasional for most folks. Dirty bags of compost or potting soil or whatever can go in the bed, leaving the back seat area clean for people or less dirty stuff like old computers or whatever it is you’re dragging home. Plus it’s cute as F, always a plus.
But again: a $10K premium to get the bed instead of the regular compact crossover version with a hatch? No way.
I drive a hatchback. Sometimes I have to pick up gas for my mower, or return a core charge for some oily part, or take my waste oil to the closest parts store. All of those things are transported inside the car so I smell the smells and contain the fluids. This little outside bed would perfectly fit all of those needs outside of the cabin.
I was actually thinking the same thing. Though, to be fair, a receiver hitch and a platform from harbor freight would also fit that bill, and could be out of the way when not needed.
Wow, this ought to be in the “phoning it in” series! They just carved out the pick up bed from the trunk of a hatchback/crossover/stationwagon/whatever (you know, a regular car). How very Dacia, I love it! 😀
I grew up with Dacias being totally shitty (but VERY cheap) East Block Renault 12 knock offs (yes I know they are owned by Renault), so I’m just happy they’ve moved on and found their own language/niche. If I ever need a newer car, I would probably go for a no bs Duster..
People who buy ginormous trucks with 8 foot beds but then don’t actually use them for more than a Costco run. I suspect this is as much truck bed as many truck buyers need.
I think it’s fantastic.
I’m getting distinct Suzuki mini-SUV vibes from this. I remember seeing a Renault Duster in Colombia about ten years ago and thought it looked interesting.
We should compare the Duster’s bed with a Daihatsu HiJet Deck Van, since that a Kei truck with a similar rear treatment. For extra fun how big is a Suzuki Mighty Boy?
The funny thing is the original Dacia Duster or ARO 10 from the 70s and 80s was available with a decent sized flatbed. Of course it was also a reworked Renault 12 under the Communist SUV bodywork so it was neither fast nor comfortable
It may have a justification for farmers or exterminators since I recall the UK requires pesticides be kept outside the passenger compartment, part of the justification for the old Defender 110 Double Cab.
If this had a lockable bed cover and a mid-gate, it would handle 95% of residential homeowners’ Home Depot trips and still fit in the garage with room to spare to store a utility trailer for the big stuff.
Someone cut the butt off that SUV.
This might be the single dumbest thing I have seen this month. I live in Trumpistan, so that is saying something. Why? What possible point is there to this? Especially when you can rent a nice little utility trailer for peanuts at just about every gas station in Europe! And EVERYBODY has a hitch on their car. I even had one on my Trabant, and I used it a couple of times.
Now we just need an enterprising person to design a camper shell for it, so it can be just like the original version of the same vehicle…
It will be interesting to see if these sell at all – does it 9 thousand euros more usefulness than the regular Duster?
In my opinion, it would have been better to make it a 2-seater with a longer bed. The tiny truck-bed trucks are not terribly useful. But that’s just my point of view, from my life experience, in which pickups are used by college students to move from one house or apartment to another, or to take a load of trash or tree trimmings to the dump, or move appliances in their huge boxes, or carry a load of lumber, firewood, gravel, rocks or soil… this parcel shelf of a Dacia truck bed won’t be able to do much of any of that. So what, exactly, is it designed to do?
This is the definition of adorkable. I love it.
Dacia Duster Oroch is pickup sold in South America. This Duster here is a conversion for Romanian market.
I’ll keep my DD ’23 Santa Cruz Night for now. It’s paid for and only has 26k miles.
But it’s good to know a 3/4 size vehicle exists if I ever want to go even smaller.
Subaru sold a kei van where it had a ute bed. Other makes since it was a re-badge. Dunno who asked for it but it existed.
That’s not a “pickup” or a truck. Its a small suv with a small notch hacked out of the back to put 2 bags of groceries in.
Exactly
Fridge Delivery guy here. Shut up and take my money.
Those better be Euro-size fridges you are delivering, because my full-fat American side-by-sides are not fitting, even if the thing could handle the weight.
I like it. Install two jump seats in the bed and you have a Romanian Brat [translation: Herkermer Homolka] that can haul 6 people around town.
You know what? I like it, or at least the idea of it. Would I buy one if it was sold in Trumpsylvania? Probably not. I do like small pickups best of all, but this isn’t big enough to be small. It reminds me a lot of the South American Ram 700 four-door pickup. If the Dacia offered a two-door version with a longer bed (like the Ram 700) my interest would be piqued. I’ll give it one thumb up because there’s no way I’m getting both thumbs into the back of that feather Duster.
Would.
Not every bed has to be big. I’ll take a durable bed that can be hosed out over the biggest carpeted wagon space.
Also having a quality tailgate to sit on is quite nice.
Everyone who says “vans are best for hauling” are apparenty not hauling top soil, mulch, wet dogs, mountain bikes, my husbands’ t-shirt after a work day in the summer … that shit goes in the BED.
That is why God invented utility trailers. A useful sized, much lower load floor open deck that you don’t have to drag around with you unless you need the thing. Well other than your husband’s shirt. Eeew He should take a shower before he comes home. I would never put a dog in the bed of a pickup any more than I would put a kid back there. My cousins lost a dog that way once – stupid thing jumped out at highways speed and got flattened.
Agreed, if you have somewhere to park said trailer.
If you don’t, then just rent one. U-Haul is everywhere, $20/day.
Or get one of the folding ones, which is still FAR more useful than a teeeny-tiny bed like this.
You still need somewhere to store the folding trailer…
If you live somewhere so tiny you don’t have room for that, why would you need one in the first place?
The excuses for owning a joke of a “truck” get quite hilarious.
Or you could…. buy an actual truck and easily be able to hose it out.
I want a compact pickup and I’d I’d prefer a long bed single cab compact pickup, but good luck finding a new one.
I’ll take this over the non-pickup variant
Ford Maverick.
It’s the size of a Ford Explorer, I wouldn’t call that compact.
I think there’s a bit of a category error going on here. The idea that people buy pickup trucks based on the utility of the truck bed is probably best described as quaint. Sure, some people actually use them as work vehicles and do ute things with them, just like the ads on TV. But most people use them as family daily drivers for commuting, supermarket trips and the school run and for them it’s all about the aesthetics. Does it make them look cool? So from that perspective, a tiny truck bed isn’t any less useful than a big one. As long as people still think this looks cool, it’s doing it’s job. I’d love to know how many they actually sell though…
This is not a bed but a goat holder
There really should be a Dacia Duster GTO edition then! Adding the GTO trim level includes real-live goat, and of course a more powerful engine.
Hmmm. Nice area thats outside. At times I haul out a few field dressed game or gutted fish like a dime a piece/100lb, so I could see this, properly lined/sprayed & drained so that regular good clorox hose-outs are fine, as an alternative to what I currently use, which is a hitch haul with home made tall rails like a basket. So I guess I could see a use case for this tiny bed. Or instead, just keep calm and carry on.
It’s totally stupid but I like it.
We need more stupid cars.
Thank you for describing exactly how I feel about this vehicle. The utility is dubious, but I love that it exists.
Have you seen the Daihatsu HiJet Crewcab Deckvan?
https://share.google/images/RfnTk5SoA0z7wBmvE