The most affordable seven-seater on the market gets its toughest test yet
- 2023 Dacia Jogger specifications
- Test details
- Test updates
- May 3, 2023: The ultimate test for the Dacia Jogger
2023 Dacia Jogger specifications
- Model 2023 Dacia Jogger Expression TCe 110
- Base price for this version £19,595
- Price as tested (with options) £20,245
- Options Metallic paint (Moonstone Grey*) £650
- Engine 999cc 3-cylinder turbocharged petrol
- Transmission 6-speed manual, front-wheel drive
- Power output 108bhp @ 5,000-5,250rpm
- Torque 147 lb ft @ 2,900-3,500rpm
- Top speed 113mph
- 0-62mph 11.2sec
- Fuel consumption (WLTP combined cycle) 48.7mpg
- CO2 emissions (WLTP) 130g/km
- VED (road tax) £210 for first year; £180 thereafter
- Kerb weight 1,205kg
- Max towing weights 1,200kg / 640kg (braked / unbraked)
- Seats 7
- Luggage capacity 160 litres (7 seats) / 568 litres (third row folded) / 1,819 litres (all seats folded)
* Moonstone Grey is no longer an option. Shadow Grey and Urban Grey are now available to customers instead.
Test details
- Test period May – October 2023
- Starting mileage 583 miles
Test updates
- May 3, 2023: The ultimate test for the Dacia Jogger
May 3, 2023: The ultimate test for the Dacia Jogger
Having four children is a challenge in many ways, but transporting them to places is one of my biggest considerations. We live in rural Cambridgeshire with no public transport links, so driving is my only option for school runs, clubs and so on.
We have two routes of access to our place and both really put cars through their paces. The dual carriageway on one side, with its 70mph speed limit, is like living in The Fast and The Furious most days.
On the other side of the house is a pothole-strewn, long and winding farm track; it’s still the quickest route to the village and safest route out of here in general but daily use punished my old favourite car, a long-wheelbase 2004 Kia Sedona. I’ll be gentle with the Jogger but it will need to cope with that road one a regular basis.
So interior space, decent performance and robustness are very important to me, but so is affordability.
That makes the Dacia Jogger TCe 130 perfect on paper. The slightly raised ride height and rugged-looking plastic trim around the wheelarches gives it a mild off-road look and should help down the lane, as will the 16in wheels — small (by today’s standards) wheels means taller tyre sidewalls, which is essential on rough surfaces.
And for us, the practicality is a godsend. School runs mean speed is essential — not in term’s of the engine performance but of entry and egress. We all need to be able to jump in quickly and go-go-go, then for the kids to be able to bolt out of the car safely, as close to the school as I can I can get them. They all have big backpacks, sports kits and all the extra stuff for the day, too, which has to be thrown into footwells and held on laps. In reality, we find the boot is often unused when speed is everything.
So seven seats is brilliant. It means the kids aren’t crammed three-abreast in the second row, which as most parents of multiple kids will appreciate inevitably results in screams of “Stop touching me!” and even the occasional physical fight. When you have three in a middle row, with baggage, there would inevitably be the most explosive arguments.
What I’ve found straight away with the Jogger is that one of my lot opts for the front seat, with two taking the middle row — at arms’ length from each other — while the fourth chooses to space out in back row, which is simple to get to with the pull of a handle to fold the backrest of a second-row chair (pull a strap and the whole seat folds forward, as in the picture above, but the children tend to just jump over).
Anyway, it means peace at last again; well only hormones creeping in now to content with.
But just as important is the price. I don’t know of any other seven-seaters that cost this little. Vauxhall doesn’t make the Zafira any more and its Combo Life is electric, which means you pay a premium compared with petrol cars (over £30,000, in fact). Likewise the Citroen Berlingo is now electric-only, and costs from £32,315. You can’t get a new Grand C4 Picasso these days, Ford has discontinued the Grand C-Max and Renault doesn’t make a seven-seater since the Grand Scenic was dropped.
In short, there aren’t a lot of seven-seat new cars these days, and the ones that are around cost a lot more than many families on a budget can afford. Normally I’d buy used anyway (my real car is a hand-me-down and very much on its last legs), but with the Jogger costing from just £18,295 it’s definitely worth a look on finance. There’s a new hybrid Jogger but I wanted to try the less pricey petrol version. Dacia’s deal at the time of writing for the entry-level TCe 130 would cost £234 per month over 49 months with a £2,502 deposit (7.9% APR, max 6,000 miles per year).
That is still a significant outlay for many families, so is it worth it? Dacia has delivered the Jogger you see in the pics to me so I can find out, and it’s fair to say that I (and the kids) will be putting it through its paces. My four children are 11 and 12 years old (I had my first then, to my surprise, became pregnant with triplets almost immediately — something I wrote about in the Sunday Times Magazine when they were all much younger) so they’re out of child seats now but rough and tumble comes with the territory.
As part of looking at affordability, aside from the cost of the car, I’ll be keeping a close eye on fuel efficiency — over 40mpg so far is impressive. And safety is important so I’ll cover that, too.
I don’t mind admitting I’m looking forward to a few of the creature comforts of this mid-spec Expression version, like the DAB radio, keyless entry, front and rear parking sensors, and ability to run Apple CarPlay. Some gremlins with the latter two have emerged in the first days so I’ll update on that next time… perhaps it’s user error, though looking at forums it may not be.
So I’ll get into some more of those aspect next time but if you have any questions, do ask in the comments below and I’ll try to address them.
- Current mileage 851
- Miles to date 268
- Average economy 40.8mpg
If you want to ask Misty a question about the Dacia Jogger, enter a comment below. She’ll post updates monthly so bookmark this page if you’d like to follow her progress.
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Keyword: Extended test: 2023 Dacia Jogger TCe 130 seven-seater review