Dacia Jogger Review

The Dacia Jogger’s appeal starts with its honesty. This is not a fashion-led crossover trying to convince you that slightly chunky wheelarch trim and a high bonnet somehow make it adventurous. Nor is it a premium family car dressed up with a giant touchscreen and a long options list. The Dacia Jogger is simply a practical family car that focuses very clearly on space, flexibility and value.

That makes it surprisingly refreshing in a market increasingly dominated by expensive SUVs and overspecified family cars. There are plenty of buyers who need seven seats occasionally, a lot of boot space regularly and an affordable monthly payment all the time. The Dacia Jogger speaks directly to that group in a way few new cars now do.

Mechanically, the Dacia Jogger shares much with the Sandero and broader Renault Group small-car engineering, but it stretches that formula into something much more versatile. The longer body, stepped roof and standard seven-seat layout give it a practical edge that no regular supermini-based crossover can match.

It is not a true full-sized MPV replacement. The third row is clearly designed for occasional use rather than as somewhere adults will want to spend hours. But that still leaves the Dacia Jogger with a uniquely useful place in the market. It can take seven when needed, five plus lots of luggage most of the time, or behave like a small van when the rearmost seats are removed.

The current UK line-up is also a little clearer than it was at launch. The main engine choice is between the TCe 110 petrol and the hybrid 155, while Essential, Expression and Extreme trims make up the walk-up. That structure makes the Dacia Jogger easier to understand than some early reviews suggest, and the latest trim updates help keep it feeling reasonably current.

Where the Dacia Jogger still shows its budget roots is in refinement, interior quality and active safety. It does not feel especially plush, the petrol engine can sound gruff and the one-star Euro NCAP result is a significant black mark. For some buyers, that will stop the conversation immediately. For others, the price and practicality will keep it firmly on the shortlist.

For most buyers, the Dacia Jogger hybrid 155 in Extreme trim is the version to go for. It is more expensive than the petrol, but the extra refinement, automatic transmission and stronger efficiency make it feel like a much more rounded family car.

The hybrid is especially easy to recommend if much of your driving is around town or on mixed routes, because it can spend a useful amount of time running on electric power alone. That gives the Dacia Jogger a smoother, quieter feel in urban use than the regular petrol can match.

Trim-wise, Expression is good enough if you want to keep costs down, but Extreme looks like the sweet spot because it adds the equipment buyers actually notice day to day, including navigation, heated front seats and a more complete overall finish.

The regular petrol still has a place if your budget is tight and you do not mind the manual gearbox or the extra noise. It remains one of the cheapest ways into a brand-new seven-seat car, and that still counts for a lot.

The Dacia Jogger now starts at £18,995 in Essential TCe 110 form, while the range stretches to around £24,000 in hybrid 155 Extreme specification.

That remains a major selling point. There are not many new cars with seven seats and this much flexibility available for that sort of money, and certainly not many that can still be bought new rather than as older used alternatives.

Even once you move into the better-equipped trims and the hybrid model, the Dacia Jogger still looks remarkably well priced against more conventional family cars. The key question is not whether it is cheap, because it clearly is. It is whether the compromises required to hit that price are ones you are happy to live with.

The Toyota Corolla Touring Sports is one of the clearest alternatives if you like the Dacia Jogger hybrid idea but do not need seven seats and want a more polished overall car. It is more expensive, but it is also quieter, better finished and backed by a stronger safety story.

The Skoda Octavia Estate is another sensible option if your priority is space and family usefulness rather than occasional seven-seat flexibility. The MG 5 is worth considering if you want an electric estate rather than a petrol or hybrid one, while used van-based MPVs such as the Citroen Berlingo and Peugeot Rifter are still relevant if genuine seven-seat practicality matters most.

The biggest rival of all, however, is often the used market. A buyer considering a Dacia Jogger may well also be looking at older Citroen Grand C4 SpaceTourer, Ford S-Max or Vauxhall Zafira Tourer models. The Dacia’s defence is simple: it is a brand-new car with a warranty and much lower buying risk.

Practicality is the whole point of the Dacia Jogger, and in many ways it delivers brilliantly. The front of the cabin is spacious enough, with decent seat comfort, plenty of visibility and a pleasingly straightforward layout.

The second row is where the Dacia Jogger really starts to prove its worth as a family car. There is enough legroom and headroom for adults to travel comfortably, and the upright shape helps the cabin feel airy rather than cramped.

The third row is more of a compromise. Children will be fine there, and smaller adults can use it for shorter trips, but it is not the sort of rear-most seating you would want to rely on regularly for grown-ups. Access also requires a fair bit of agility.

The upside is flexibility. With all seven seats in place, boot space is just 212 litres, which is not much. Remove the third-row seats and the Dacia Jogger opens up into something far more useful, with 699 litres available. Fold everything down and the Dacia Jogger can swallow up to 2,085 litres.

That means the Dacia Jogger works best if you treat it as a roomy five-seater most of the time and bring the extra two seats into play only when needed. Used like that, it makes a huge amount of sense. In five-seat mode, the Dacia Jogger is actually more useful than many conventional estate cars.

The modular roof bars on Expression and Extreme models also add a helpful practical edge. They can be repositioned to act as cross bars, which makes the Dacia Jogger even more appealing for buyers with bikes, roof boxes or outdoor gear.

The Dacia Jogger measures 4,547mm long, 1,784mm wide and 1,632mm high.

Those dimensions put it close to an estate car such as the Volkswagen Golf Estate in footprint, but the taller roof and more upright body help the Dacia Jogger feel more spacious and versatile than a normal estate of similar length.

The Dacia Jogger’s technology offering depends heavily on trim. Essential uses Dacia’s Media Control concept rather than a conventional touchscreen, with a phone holder and app-based connectivity instead of a built-in infotainment display.

That is cheap, simple and arguably clever in its own way, especially if you plan to keep the car for years and would rather rely on your phone than on ageing built-in software. But it also feels very basic.

Expression and Extreme are much easier to recommend because they add the central touchscreen system. It is not especially fast or slick, but it brings Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and the top trim also adds built-in navigation plus wireless smartphone connectivity.

The Dacia Jogger still gets physical controls for the ventilation and other key functions, which makes it easier to use than many more expensive cars that insist on burying everything in a touchscreen menu.

No one is going to mistake the Dacia Jogger for a premium family car. The plastics are hard, the finish is very plain in places and the overall atmosphere is budget-led.

That said, the Dacia Jogger does not feel badly assembled. It feels built to withstand family life rather than to impress on a brief dealership poke around. The cloth trim and simple dashboard styling are enough to stop it feeling bleak, even if it is never especially rich or plush.

The current Dacia Jogger line-up is built around two engines.

The TCe 110 is the cheaper and simpler option. Because the Dacia Jogger is relatively light, it does not feel as underpowered as the numbers suggest, and in normal driving it gets along well enough.

The hybrid 155 is the more convincing engine overall. It brings a smoother feel in traffic, more relaxed everyday performance and better efficiency. The automatic gearbox also suits the Dacia Jogger’s family-car brief much better than the petrol’s manual does.

The Dacia Jogger rides decently enough thanks to its modest wheel sizes and softly tuned suspension. It does not feel sophisticated, but it is more comfortable than some buyers might expect from a budget seven-seater.

Handling is tidy enough. The Dacia Jogger is not especially sharp, but it grips reasonably well and remains predictable in corners. The relatively compact footprint helps here, because it never feels as cumbersome as a bigger MPV or SUV alternative.

Refinement is the weaker area. The 1.0-litre petrol is quite noisy when worked hard, and there is a fair amount of wind and road noise at speed. The hybrid is the calmer option, particularly at lower speeds, where electric running helps make the Dacia Jogger feel far more relaxed.

The Dacia Jogger earned a one-star Euro NCAP rating in 2022. That is a poor headline result, and it is impossible to ignore.

The detailed picture is a little less bleak than the star count alone suggests, because adult and child occupant protection scores were more respectable than the overall rating implies. The biggest reason for the poor result was the limited active-safety technology and weaker pedestrian protection.

Even so, many buyers will see one star and stop there, especially in a family car. The Dacia Jogger does include automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assistance, rear parking sensors and, on upper trims, blind-spot warning and a reversing camera, but it still falls short of the broader safety-assist packages now common elsewhere.

The TCe 110 petrol returns up to 48.7mpg, which is respectable for a seven-seat family car at this price. Drive it hard and the real-world figure will fall away, but in everyday use it should still prove sensibly economical.

The hybrid 155 is the more efficient choice, with up to 58.9mpg on paper. In real-world mixed driving, it should still deliver a clear advantage over the petrol, particularly in town where it can run on electric power for useful stretches.

Dacia’s standard warranty remains three years or 60,000 miles. That is acceptable rather than outstanding, but the Dacia Zen programme can extend that cover up to seven years or 75,000 miles if the servicing conditions are met within the Dacia network.

Insurance groups range from 13 to 16 depending on engine and trim. That is reassuringly low for such a practical family car and should help keep premiums manageable.

From the second year onwards, the Dacia Jogger pays the standard VED rate for petrol and hybrid cars, which is now £200 a year.

The helpful point here is that the Dacia Jogger sits comfortably below the Expensive Car Supplement threshold, so there is no larger annual tax sting from years two to six.