My neighbours Jon and Lisa have a couple of young boys who have outgrown the family Renault Captur. I suggested replacing it with a new Dacia Jogger, which is, without question, the most capacious family car you can buy for the money.
They took it off on a camping holiday and, in Jon’s words, this is how it went:
The last time I went camping, I was 17. I borrowed a tent from a mate and drove an Escort estate from Woking to Scotland with three other lads. Finding out I’d been given a ‘Wendy House’ instead of a tent was the beginning of a memorable week with little comfort. Fast-forward 40-plus years, and I’m camping again.
This time with my wife and kids, aged two and five. What could go wrong?
The Jogger had to fit an eight-man tent and all the other camping paraphernalia. With only four of us, we removed the two rearmost seats to give us maximum luggage space.
The seats were easy to lift out and stash at home and there was more than enough space for all our gear – including a camping fridge that plugged into a 12v socket in the back. Our two child seats fitted easily, and more good news was that the roof rails on the Jogger move so they become roof bars, and it was easy to do.
Dacia should shout about this as it means you don’t have to buy separate roof bars.
We had the top-of-the-range vehicle with all the options (metallic paint and emergency spare wheel), and it’s still less than £20k. The car drove nicely, with the controls set out clearly.
For a car at this price point, I was expecting it to feel a bit “cheap”, but from the fabric on the door armrests to the soft-feel steering wheel, it certainly didn’t.
Even fully loaded and with the roof box, the Jogger had decent acceleration and enough power to cruise comfortably.
The only slight drawback was if you were in sixth gear, you had to drop down to fifth if you wanted to accelerate on uphill sections on the motorways.
We arrived at our campsite in Devon. This is where the fun began. History was repeating itself. Our tent was a duffer. After 90 minutes of trying, I conceded defeat and retreated to the car while the rain started.
Luckily, after a shout-out on social media, an old university friend of my wife’s came to the rescue with a four-person tent.
If only Dacia made tents.
The Jogger was good to drive on day trips and nippy enough in the traffic. It handled the single-track roads well, taking most of the bumps and holes in its stride, and the front sensors gave reassurance negotiating the narrowest of hump-back bridges. The 30% hill to the beach wasn’t a problem, and neither was getting back up it.
Packing up to come home was easy, and the Jogger managed all the gear we took with us and the other tent we borrowed too. Replacing the seats, removing the roof box and changing the roof bars back to roof rails when we returned was easy. We got 37 mpg, which I thought was good considering the car was fully loaded and with a roof box. It was time to say goodbye to the Jogger, and with our newfound love of camping, we will be looking to buy one.
There were only a couple of negative things about the car – that was the open boot warning sensor left it until we were on the motorway to tell us that the tailgate was open, and with the child seats fitted, there isn’t enough room to lift the tray tables without moving the front seats forwards.
But it does have the added benefit for London driving by not being subject to the new ULEZ charge starting in Outer London in August 2023.
The facts
Dacia Jogger TCe 110 Extreme SE five-door estate
Price: £18,745
Engine: 1.0-litre three-cylinder, 107bhp
0-62mph: 11.2sec
Fuel consumption: 47.1-49.6mpg
Co2: 132g/km
