Utes have been getting bigger and bigger in recent years, with the likes of the Ford Ranger, GWM Cannon Alpha, Chevrolet Silverado and Ram 3500 all escalating in size.
Now, one company has flipped the script, creating what might be the smallest ute available today. The Renault (nee Dacia) Duster SUV has been turned into a tiny ute, complete with a tiny tray.
READ MORE: 2025 Renault Duster review – Why you can’t ignore this ‘baby LandCruiser’
Revealed overnight the Dacia Pickup is a collaboration between Dacia and Romanian coachbuilder, Romturingia, which does the conversion from SUV to ute. In a bid to keep the Dacia affordable, the changes are surprisingly minor, with the cabin staying intact and instead the Romturingia team simply turn the SUV’s boot into a compact loading area.
Measuring just 1050mm long and 1000mm wide, the tray is much smaller than a conventional dual-cab ute. For context, the Ford Ranger’s tray measures 1547mm long and 1584mm wide, while the Ford F-150’s bed is 1705mm long and 1656mm wide.
The Duster Pickup does undercut the likes of the Ranger and Toyota HiLux by more than €10,000 (approx. $18,000) in Romania, but obviously will only appeal to tradies with very small toolboxes.
The Pickup is not the only hard-working version of the Duster launched this week. In the UK the brand has revealed the Duster Cargo, an in-house conversion that turns the SUV into a compact van.
The conversion ditches the rear seats and replaces them with a flat floor, a mesh bulkhead, tiedown points and opaque rear windows.
Unfortunately, neither are likely to make it to Australia, with Renault preferring to stick with the conventional, but off-road-friendly, SUV version of the Duster. However, the local operation didn’t categorically rule it out, with a spokesperson telling Torquecafe: “If it became available for Australia we would certainly consider it.”
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