Two significantly similar cars, no doubt about that. Still, each one has something different to offer. Having both cars powered by petrol engines and utilizing the 5-door suv body style within the same 'SUV' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (4 x 4 for the Dacia and front in the case of the Hyundai). The first one has a Renault-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 107hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 136hp engine designed by Hyundai.

Both vehicles got tested by European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), with the Hyundai displaying significantly better structural stability. That aside, let's consider some other aspects which affect safety. Both vehicles belong to the suv segment, which is generally a very good thing safety-wise, but it doesn't do much to help us decide between the two. Furthermore, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, the Romanian car offers a marginal difference of 1% more metal.

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Hyundai does have a slight advantage, when all the models are taken into account. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of Dacia with an average rating of 4.1, and models under the Hyundai badge with 4.5 out of 5. Some independent research have also placed Duster as average reliability-wise, and ix35 is more or less at the same level.We should definitely mention that owners of cars with the same powertrain as the Romanian car rank it on average as 3.7, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.6 out of 5.

Hyundai is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 2.4 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 178 kilometers per hour, 18km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be the Korean car, averaging around 6.4 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (44 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 25% difference compared to the Romanian car.

Hyundai appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, the Korean car offers much better overall protection, which launches it ahead of the other contender. It all continues in the same direction, with Hyundai outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. To make things even better, it consumps less fuel! All together, there's not much more to say, in this case I wouldn't even consider anything but Hyundai. In any case that's my personal view, built upon all the data available to me. What should decide here though is the way you feel about the two vehicles, and I hope you'll find my guidelines useful in the process. In case you have two minutes to spare I invite you to define your needs, desires and budget and see which car would be chosen by the virtual adviser™, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.