Dacia Jogger camper
This successor of Dacia Lodgy seems to be boasting everything you need from a good car for camping – SUV features to take it off-road, MPV size with 7 seats + a long and spacious boot at a very affordable price. This could be the next best everyday camping car – if you are prepared to let go of a few comforts, slightly lower boot height or accept a lower safety rating.
Combined with Dacia’s own Sleep Pack, you can easily turn it into a camper (or try a DIY camping conversion too).
NimbleCamper rating: 2.7/5
- an overall good car for camping, losing to other MPVs only because of its lower boot height
- some users might find the build quality and safety features lacking behind other MPVs, but that is nicely balanced by its low price
- Find a suitable car tent for this car
- Browse all car camping essentials
Key information
| Make | |
|---|---|
| Body type | |
| Boot door type | |
| Boot length (cm) | 190 |
| Boot height (cm) | 69 |
| Boot width [wheel arches] (cm) | 124 |
| Consumption MPG (UK) | 44 |
| Consumption l/100km | 6.4 |
| Comfort rating | 1.5 |
| Available in | |
| Engine type | |
| Average used price, GBP (2015) | 13000 |
| NimbleCamper rating (out of max 5) |
Interesting features:
- modular roof bars/rails that convert from roof bars to luggage rack/cross bars. No need to purchase any third party ones – just unclip the existing ones, turn them around and clip them across the car. Nice!
- boot height with the seats removed is around 85-90cm
- 7 seats
- Boot length is based on user feedback, not official data
Euro NCAP rating: 1/5 – very low, mainly due to lack of most recent technologies like seat belt warning for the last row of seats or pedestrian recognition sensors + auto brake.
Users submitted boot length on camping forums is 200cm with the front seat pushed forward, so the standard boot length is around 180cm. I have used an average of those (190cm) for the NimbleCamper rating. Makes sense as the overall car length is about 30cm shorter compared to a Sharan (with a 208cm boot length). One disadvantage seems to be that the last row of seats sticks out quite high even if the seats are folded – but you can easily take them out, see here.
According to user feedback, the boot height of the Jogger is 69cm (with seats folded down) – not that tall!
Apparently, it is one of the cheapest 7-seater MPV on the market at €25,000 / £18,295 new. Not the £13,000 that have been mentioned in early articles on the web mind you, but still good. And if that’s not enough, it’s getting great reviews overall. The biggest downside seems to be the cheap plastic feel on the inside.
Although it has received a very low NCAP safety rating, most reviews rate it high – especially given the price. You will get a new car with loads of space, 7 seats as standard (or a massive boot if taken out) and a light and agile MPV, maybe the lightest in its class.
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Dacia Jogger dimensions
Compatible Jogger camping boxes:
So far, 5 camping box manufacturers have confirmed a camping box for the Dacia Jogger: Egoe Nest Camper, Campal Estate, Camperiz, Vanable (See pictures and more in this post)
PROs
- it is one of the cheapest new MPV you’ll find
- easy to maintain, no expensive or hard-to-get parts
- tailgate (why is this important)
- low consumption (1.0-litre petrol engine, 108bhp – reportedly not as weak as you’d expect)
- very good review scores overall considering the price
- boot windows open from the inside – great for letting air in when you sleep there + you can easily put a custom net in to keep mozzies out
CONs
- 1.0-litre petrol engine for a car this size might be a bit underwhelming if you are used to stronger engines. But a 138bhp 1.6-litre petrol-electric hybrid engine is in the works.
- not a 4×4 – ok for some off-road, but not too much
- middle rear seats, when folded don’t seem to create the necessary even surface you’d need for a bed – some DIY adjustments might be needed
- Users report a slight step between the last and middle row of seats that is tricky with a camping conversion – not a flat surface. You’ll likely need to take the seats out.
- very low-security EURO N-CAP rating
- No sliding middle doors (why is this important)
- Not as big as other MPVs (Sharan, Caddy, Rifter), but still good at the price
Frequently asked questions:
Average review score (car review websites): 4.2/5
Taken from these overall reviews (not focused on camping):
Whatcar.co.uk rating 4/5 • Autoexpress.co.uk rating: 5/5 • Carbuyer.co.uk rating: 4.2/5 • rac.co.uk: 65/100 (3.25/5) • topgear.co.uk: 8/10 (4/5) • carwow.co.uk: 9/10 (4.5/5) • Parkers.co.uk: 4.2/5 • meinauto.de: 4/5
Dacia Jogger DIY camping conversions by some users:
There is an official Dacia Jogger camper kit – sleep pack:
It includes a camping box (boot jump) for the trunk and a Dacia tent that fits the Jogger snuggly. I’ve summarised everything about it in this post:
single bed + some DIY Jogger camping conversion images source: dacianer.de forum
Jogger walkthrough video
Dacia Jogger camper – useful links:
- dacianer.de forum – useful threads with DIY camping conversions, tips and images, for example here and here (in German)
- Official Dacia Jogger page – models, specifications, more images and prices
1 review for Dacia Jogger camper
- Average used price, GBP (2015) – I use Carsite.co.uk‘s price aggregates from 2015 (or the nearest possible year if not available), or, if not found, from autoscout24.com. For new cars, I specify the closest possible match (i.e. if released this year, it’s the new price, if released two years ago, it’s the 2-years old price etc). It’s here to give you a benchmark comparison (- a like for like, an apple with an apple) of the value of each car and for filtering purposes. It’s not meant to be used as an accurate estimate of used car value – it is updated once a year, so make sure you know what the car should cost at the time of purchase if you decide to buy one.
- Boot dimensions – taken from various sources across the web, starting with official, supplemented with other reliable websites (like ridc.org.uk), supplemented by user-generated content – images of measurements from forums or social networks. It’s also used for filtering, comparison and to give you a good idea of the car’s suitability for camping.
- Comfort rating – a benchmark used to simplify the car’s comfort & driving score based on equipment, furnishings, handling, safety, and costs ratings from external sources like whatcar.com, carwow.co.uk, autocar.co.uk etc. It gives you an indication of whether the car will drive and feel like a van (low rating) or offer better interior & handling (higher rating). A simple van-like car, for example, a Renault Kangoo is 0.5, a well equipped and comfortable car like a Ford S-Max is a 2. No hard math behind it, just an indicator, f.e. 0.5= basic car that does the job, 1.5 = hey, that’s nice to have!, 2 = oooh, comfyyyy.
- Consumption – I take the average 2017 consumption or closest match from Fuelly.com, or if none is available, from other sources like honestjohn.co.uk. If there are not enough cars for a single year, an average for several years is calculated.
- NimbleCamper rating – a weighted score of boot length (45% weight), boot height (40%), consumption (10%) and comfort (5%). The logic of weighing length & height higher than consumption and comfort is – headroom is important when you sleep in the back of the car, so is the length. A comfy ride is a factor, but you can sleep in a big car that’s not that comfy, however, it’s much harder to camp/sleep in a comfy car that’s too small. Read more about the NimbleCamper rating and criteria here.
- a note for EVs (electric vehicles) – for consumption, I am using the Fuel Equivalent Consumption estimate by ev-database.org. It is usually much lower than combustion engines, giving EVs an advantage – which I think is fair. They do have a small disadvantage in terms of having to plan your trips around charging stations + longer waiting time, but that will get better over time. More charging stations, faster chargers and better batteries. Therefore I am not adjusting the calculation for EVs in any way.
- In short: a litre of petrol contains about 8.9 kWh of energy. If we divide the energy consumption of an EV by this (f.e. 16 kWh/100 km divided by 8.9 kWh/litre), we get equivalent fuel consumption of 1.8 l/100 km.
- EV stats – taken from ev-database.org
Lukas –
NimbleCamper rating: 2.7/5
The Jogger is a good MPV/SUV cross at a very cheap price, the boot is long enough, but it’s pretty low according to user feedback + the seats don’t fold down flat, so you need to do some DIY adjustments to have a flat sleeping area.