We can’t help but feel sorry for large families who are looking for a vehicle big enough to cart around not only themselves but all their belongings too. Clearly choices on offer are more limited than for those of us with 2-4 children and for many couples with 4 or 5 children, budgets can be very tight which further limits their options. Then the Dacia Jogger 5 door MPV enters the arena. The Jogger is the cheapest seven-seater available in the UK today, costing about half the price of more premium brands and it comes with a choice of petrol or hybrid engine. The Dacia Jogger engine range starts with a turbocharged 109bhp 1.0-litre petrol, which we have been driving.
The exterior design is quite attractive and a notch up from the Ford Tourneo which is the second most affordable 7 seater around. On the inside, the detailing has some tasteful cloth trim, with satin chrome accents on air vents, door handles and dials and there is even more space in the front than you would expect with loads of leg and headroom. The second row seats are a wee bit restricted with legroom but plenty of headroom, whilst the third row occupants have plenty of wriggle room. Boot space is limited unless you remove the third row seats, which can be done easily but that is the case with all 7-seaters, or they can be split too to give more flexibility. Driver’s seat is adjustable and the high driving position feels great.
There are 3 trims on offer, the Essential, Expression and Extreme.
Essential trim includes Bluetooth, a USB slot and a dashboard cradle for your phone, but for infotainment on this version, you need to install an app on your device and connect it up. It comes with keyless entry, cruise control, rear parking sensors, LED headlights, manual air-conditioning and basic infotainment.
The Expression trim level adds an 8.0in colour touchscreen system and includes Android Auto and Apple Carplay smartphone mirroring so you can use apps from your phone for calls, music and navigation, front and rear parking sensors, heated and electrically-adjusted wing mirrors and automatic windscreen wipers, blind-spot monitoring and a helpful reversing camera. On Extreme versions, you also get wireless Apple CarPlay and a built-in sat-nav system.
Essential and Expression trim have steel wheels, whilst Extreme has alloys. Electric seat adjustment isn’t an option, but you do get heated seats as standard with the top trim level. Extreme adds 16in wheels and a copper exterior and interior trim package, heated front seats, and second row seat-mounted trays.
Out on the road, the drive may not be the smoothest in the world but perfectly acceptable for a car of this price. It grips the road well and the steering is light but positive. It is a bit slow on the uptake, doing 0-62 in 11.2 seconds but trots along nicely once cruising. There is a bit more road noise than we would like whilst moving through the gears but it does calm down. Good visibility from the large windows is a bonus when reversing.
Safety is the one area that is less favourable according to Eura NCap stars, but to be fair every Jogger is fitted with tyre-pressure monitoring, six airbags, hill-start assist, Isofix child-seat mounts for the outer two places in the second row, and e-Call emergency assistance. Automatic emergency braking is included too, but it doesn’t recognise pedestrians.
MPG – from around 41-48mpg depending on which model you choose
Price from around £18,000
Ally says – The Jogger is clever, a genuine spacious 7 seater, with lots of equipment at an affordable price.
Lorraine says- I am so old, I remember the pre seat belt days when family holidays consisted of 4 adults, 4 kids and a dog plus luggage in a Morris Minor Traveller. How times have changes, wish there had been a Jogger around then!
