We will be going into detail, however, we can say at this point, that the Dokker is an attractive offer for fans of vehicles with plenty of space. Whether this applies to the standard model or not, is open to discussion.

What we have here, is a somewhat dated engine, which in view of the car's height of over 1,8 meters, will probably give you a somewhat higher fuel consumption. Of course, for those who don't mind not having an air conditioning and are not worried about the resulting low resale value and for those who wish to use the Dokker as a second- or third car, they could take their chances with this vehicle.

Apparently, the rear seat bench is not suitable for long distance touring anyway. For those whose children are still too young for this hard bench and want to use the car as a family-van, we can only recommend any one of the other engines, particularly of course, the two Diesels.

Dacia has been placed in the cheap-car category, indeed, as it is with cheap cars, one always has the chance of laying out a few more Euros, thus saving money without having to regret the outlay. We then arrive at the sum of €13.000 for the somewhat better equipped car, which is air-conditioned and fitted with the stronger petrol engine. If the smaller Diesel engine is chosen, the price goes up to € 14.000.

An absolutely comparable Renault Kangoo with the same engine, would cost € 4.660 or € 3.860 more. The standard Kangoo doesn't have an air-con either. It is more expensive than the Dacia, because always connected in some packages. As you can see, the apparent higher price is thus somewhat brought into relation.

Now, one could ask oneself, whether the quality of the Dokker is really about €4.000 worse. As you can imagine, this is not the case because they both use pretty much the same platform. Ok, with the Kangoo one does get a bit more mass (+ 115 kg) for one's money, which indicates more insulating material. On the other hand, this extra weight also has to be accelerated.

We don't want to appear to be biased: The Kangoo does have disc-brakes at the rear instead of the Dacia's drums, which does result in a slightly shorter braking distance. The model with petrol engine also has a six-speed gearbox and somewhat wider wheels. The steering is probably also a bit more direct, indeed, is that a deciding factor when buying a small van?

By the same token, one could argue whether the Kangoo's large hatch in the rear, is more favourable than the Dokker's double swing-out-doors. Perhaps trying out the seats and feeling what the dashboard is like would help with the decision. Apart from the standard fittings, Renault also offers the aforementioned 'package-solutions', with the Dacia, the optional extras and their prices remain fairly understandable.

By the way, one can also learn something after studying the Kangoo-data: The most reasonable Dacia engine is no longer even offered by Renault. It's probably only there to coax buyers into the showrooms. As we've already seen, this shouldn't, by any means, be a reason to ignore the remaining models. 05/14