Used test: Dacia Duster vs Suzuki Ignis interiors

Interiors

Driving position, visibility, build quality, practicality

A tall adult will be comfortable in the front of either of these cars. Both offer plenty of leg and head room as well as a height-adjustable driver’s seat (although adjusting the seat height is more of a faff in the Dacia Duster). However, neither gets adjustable lumbar support, and their steering wheels have only limited adjustment, moving up and down but not in and out.

Cheap but durable-feeling plastics abound inside both cars, but the Suzuki Ignis has a variety of colours and a gloss finish to make it a more interesting place to spend time. The touchscreen sat-nav in the Duster is easier to use than the Ignis’s, but Dacia charged you extra for it when the car was new. The Ignis’s standard touchscreen, which includes a sat-nav, is rather fiddly; you have to prod it quite hard, and sometimes it’s tricky to find menu options that should be obvious. The Duster’s system, meanwhile, is more logical and benefits from bigger on-screen icons. Both cars get a DAB radio, Bluetooth and a USB port as standard.

Remarkably, it’s the smaller Ignis that provides more head and leg room for rear passengers. This little car’s boxy shape gives it seriously impressive interior space, so you can comfortably sit four 6ft-tall people inside. The Ignis even has 50/50 split-sliding rear seats with reclining backrests. However, there are only two seats in the back with this option, although lesser versions of the Ignis can seat five, whereas the Duster can seat three, albeit at a squeeze.

The price you pay for the Ignis’s roomy rear seats is evident when you open the boot. Luggage capacity is half that of the Duster, and even with the Ignis’s seats slid all the way forward, the Duster’s boot is still longer and wider. The Duster even has room to hide a full-sized spare wheel beneath its boot floor, whereas the Ignis makes do with a tyre repair kit.

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