Ah, Dacia. The name alone conjures up images of no-nonsense motoring. Sturdy little cars built to a budget that cost less than a family holiday to Skegness and run forever on three drops of diesel and a prayer. It’s the brand that proudly says, “You don’t need Bluetooth if you’ve got a good imagination.”
But now, in a shocking twist that absolutely nobody saw coming (and possibly nobody wanted), Dacia has decided to reinvent itself for the cool crowd. Enter the DACIA HIPSTER — a concept car that’s less about getting from A to B and more about how many oat-milk lattes you can balance in the cup holders while telling everyone you’re “off-grid but still connected.”
This is not your grandad’s Sandero. Oh no. This is Dacia trying to gatecrash the Shoreditch pop-up coffee bar scene with something so ironically uncool that it might just become too cool. And in typical Dacia fashion, they’re doing it for the price of a second-hand e-scooter and a sourdough starter kit.
So buckle up, throw on your ethically sourced flannel shirt, and let’s dive into the glorious madness that is the DACIA HIPSTER.
A Car That Screams “I Was Into Dacia Before It Was Mainstream”
First things first: the DACIA HIPSTER is all about vibes. And by vibes, we mean that it looks like someone took a regular Duster and asked a 27-year-old graphic designer from Bristol to “make it more artisanal.”
The result? A bizarrely beautiful mashup of Romanian practicality and East London pretentiousness. The boxy shape remains — because boxy is the new sexy — but now it’s wrapped in sustainably sourced hemp paint (yes, really), with accents of recycled skateboard decks for that extra “I care about the planet, but I still like to shred” aesthetic.
It comes in three shades, all of which sound like they were named by a vegan candle brand:
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Avocado Mist – a soft green hue that says “I have opinions on composting.”
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Oat Flat White – beige, but ironically.
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Charcoal Beard Wax – a deep matte grey inspired by artisan barbers and existential dread.
And let’s not forget the badge. Gone is the shiny chrome Dacia logo. Instead, it’s now hand-stamped using a vintage letterpress machine from 1897 because, of course it is.
Interiors That Feel Like a £1,200-a-Month Studio Flat
Step inside the DACIA HIPSTER, and you’re immediately transported into a space that’s part car, part Instagrammable coffee shop. Forget leather or Alcantara — those are far too mainstream. The seats are upholstered in reclaimed festival tent fabric, giving each model a unique aroma of patchouli oil and damp optimism.
The dashboard? Crafted entirely from upcycled pallet wood sourced from a disused craft beer brewery in Hackney. It creaks, it splinters, and it’s definitely not safe in a crash, but hey — it tells a story.
In the centre console, you won’t find a touchscreen (because screens are so last decade). Instead, there’s a hand-cranked rotary infotainment dial connected to a community-built open-source operating system that only works if you know how to code in BASIC.
Dacia claims this “forces drivers to slow down and reconnect with the analog world.” In reality, it means you’ll be spending 45 minutes trying to tune into Radio 6 while your passenger asks if the aux cable is “vintage on purpose.”
Even the air freshener is different — a subtle hint of “artisan sourdough starter” that grows stronger the longer the car sits idle. It’s not mould, it’s fermentation culture.
Performance? Don’t Be Silly.
Now, before you get too excited thinking this is some kind of performance SUV, let’s remember who we’re dealing with here. This is Dacia. The DACIA HIPSTER doesn’t do 0–60 times — it does “0–30 if the wind is behind you.”
Powering this slow-moving ode to irony is a 1.0-litre three-cylinder mild hybrid engine, producing a staggering 74 horsepower. That’s roughly the same output as a ride-on lawnmower, but significantly more sustainable.
Dacia calls it “deliberately underpowered” because fast acceleration is “toxic masculinity on wheels.” Instead, the HIPSTER encourages you to savour every moment of your journey — which is handy, because your 10-minute commute is now a 27-minute existential road trip.
There’s also an optional “pedal assist” mode, where you can plug your smartphone into the car’s kinetic charging port and power the radio by cycling a set of pedals under the passenger seat. It’s not efficient, but it is great content for your eco-lifestyle vlog.
Tech Features Nobody Needs But Everyone Pretends To Love
The DACIA HIPSTER is absolutely loaded with “features” — though whether any of them are actually useful is up for debate.
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Manual Wi-Fi Hotspot: Instead of built-in connectivity, the car comes with a ceramic bowl in the glovebox. Place your phone in it, and it “amplifies” the signal using ancient Romanian pottery resonance techniques.
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Detox Mode: A button that turns off all electrical systems for 48 hours to “reconnect you with the road.” It’s basically just a massive off switch.
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Sourdough Starter Compartment: A temperature-controlled cubby in the boot to nurture your starter during long drives. Because you never know when you’ll need to bake.
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Vegan SatNav: It doesn’t actually tell you where to go — it just offers ethical dilemmas at every junction. (“Do you really need to drive to Waitrose? Have you considered walking with a tote bag instead?”)
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Crank Window Nostalgia Pack: Power windows are replaced with hand-crank mechanisms. It’s not about saving money; it’s about “reconnecting with forgotten rituals.”
Perhaps the most ridiculous feature of all is the “Influencer Mode.” Press this button, and the car automatically slows to 5 mph, activates all its mood lighting, and lowers the suspension — perfect for slow-roll Instagram Reels outside vintage markets.
Sustainability, But Make It Smug
Dacia knows that if you want to capture the hipster market, you have to lean hard into sustainability. So the DACIA HIPSTER is about as eco-friendly as a car can be without actually being a bicycle.
The tyres are made from reclaimed flip-flops fished out of the Danube. The floor mats are woven from discarded hemp tote bags. Even the owner’s manual is printed on seed paper — bury it in your garden and watch wildflowers grow (probably around the same time you give up trying to get the infotainment system to work).
There’s even a built-in solar panel on the roof. Not to charge the battery — no, that would be too logical. Instead, it powers a tiny hydroponic herb garden on the dashboard, perfect for growing basil for your next wood-fired pizza night.
And of course, for every DACIA HIPSTER sold, Dacia pledges to plant a single tree in a Romanian forest. They’ll even email you a picture of it with a handwritten note that says, “Namaste.”
Marketing That Hurts Your Brain
Dacia’s marketing team has clearly gone feral with this one. The tagline for the DACIA HIPSTER is:
“Not just a car. A conversation about mobility and meaning.”
The launch campaign features a man with a handlebar moustache playing a lute in a wheat field while the HIPSTER silently rolls past in the background. Another advert simply shows the word “Why?” written in cursive on a blank page for 30 seconds before fading to black.
Even the brochure is a 14-page zine printed on recycled coffee cup sleeves. It doesn’t contain any actual technical specifications, but it does have a haiku about responsible car ownership.
Who Is the DACIA HIPSTER For?
The DACIA HIPSTER isn’t for people who need a car. It’s for people who think driving a car is a political statement. It’s for the urban beekeeper who brews kombucha in the boot and only listens to vinyl via a hand-cranked gramophone plugged into the 12V socket.
It’s for the couple who spend weekends in a converted horsebox Airbnb and refuse to buy anything that isn’t “locally sourced.” It’s for the bloke in a roll-neck jumper who insists on telling you that capitalism is evil while financing his new car on a 0% APR deal.
And yet… there’s something charming about it. Because beneath the quinoa-fuelled marketing and the nonsense features, the DACIA HIPSTER is still a Dacia — cheap, cheerful, and built like a brick shed. It may wear a flannel shirt now, but it’s still got that Eastern European work ethic deep down.
Final Thoughts: Is the DACIA HIPSTER a Joke? Yes. Do We Want One? Also Yes.
Let’s be honest: the DACIA HIPSTER is ridiculous. It’s a rolling satire of everything we mock about modern “authentic living.” It’s slow, impractical, pretentious, and about as necessary as a beard oil subscription.
But that’s exactly why it works. Dacia knows exactly what it’s doing here — poking fun at the over-engineered, over-priced lifestyle vehicles clogging up our roads. The HIPSTER takes that concept and pushes it so far into absurdity that it loops back around to being brilliant.
It’s proof that Dacia can laugh at itself and at the rest of the car industry while still delivering something oddly desirable. Because admit it — you’re already picturing yourself rolling up to a farmer’s market in one, aren’t you?
The DACIA HIPSTER may never make it to production (and frankly, the world might not be ready for it), but as a concept, it’s perfect. It’s the anti-SUV, the ironic hatchback, the beard-and-braces of the automotive world.
And if nothing else, it’s given us one undeniable truth: only Dacia could build a car so gloriously ridiculous that even the most cynical petrolhead secretly wants to own it.
