This Pickup Truck Has an Insanely Short Bed, Is Somehow Still Rad
Dacia has released a version of the Duster that packs a pickup truck bed, but it’s a size you need to see to believe.
Justin BannerWriterManufacturerPhotographerSep 18, 2025
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The United States is absolutely a pickup truck market, with trucks offered in basically every size, shape, and form at one time or another. Today, we’re only missing truly mini and car-based models like the Chevy El Camino. One thing they all have in common, though, is a useful cargo area. Small models or pickups based on SUVs may not be able to hold as much as a true truck, but all can still get piles of whatever from point A to point B. So imagine our surprise when we came across this pickup truck version of the Duster, a small SUV from the Renault-owned Romanian automaker Dacia. It has the tiniest, most potentially useless pickup bed we’ve ever seen. And we’ve driven the Hummer H2 SUT.
The bed measures a mere 41.3 inches long and 39.4 inches wide and is added during a conversion by Romanian coachbuilder Romturingia. It’s not that outfit’s first rodeo, either, having offered a conversion for the 2017–2023 Duster generation. The major difference—besides official manufacturer involvement—between the old and new versions (the latter of which shares a platform with the 2024 and earlier Nissan Kicks) is that the previous one had a much longer bed. This was done by welding the rear doors to the body and installing a new rear bulkhead and cargo box. It’s not unlike the aftermarket conversions you may have seen in the U.S. for vehicle such as the Jeep WJ Grand Cherokee, Dodge Charger, Subaru WRX, and many others.
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The newest Dacia Duster pickup keeps its rear doors, however, creating a double-cab configuration, much like the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz. But instead of adding length to the rear body while forming the cargo box, Romturingia simply removed the roof and converted the lower portion of the hatch to a tailgate. Despite its, er, shortcomings, the bed can accommodate up to 948 pounds of (presumably tall and skinny) cargo.
Being a Duster at heart, the pickup can be had with the same hybrid engine options. First is the Hybrid 140, which teams a 94-hp 1.6-liter I-4 with two electric motors, one serving as a starter-generator unit and the other attached to the gearbox and making 49 hp. Max combined output is approximately 140 hp. The other engine option is the Mild-Hybrid 130. That one combines a 130-hp 1.2-liter turbocharged I-3 with a small helper motor for starting and energy recovery during braking. Both engines send power to an AWD drivetrain, and the Duster has 8.8 inches of ground clearance.
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Unfortunately, no matter how funky-cool the Dacia Duster pickup is, it’s only available in Romania. But with a starting price of around $31,000 at current exchange rates, we’re wondering if there’s a way to convince Nissan to create a Kicks version for the U.S.
Justin Banner
Having experience in many forms of the automotive industry, Justin Banner has done more than just write about cars. For more than 15 years, he’s had experience working as an automotive service technician—including a stint as a Virginia State Inspector—service advisor, parts sales, and aftermarket parts technical advisor (a fancy way of saying he helped you on the phone when you had trouble fitting your brakes over your aftermarket wheels and the like). Prior to his tenure as a full-time editor, Justin worked as a freelance writer and photographer for various publications and as an automotive content creator on YouTube. He’s also covered multiple forms of motorsports ranging from Formula Drift, drag racing, and time attack, to NASCAR, short course off-roading, and open desert racing. He’s best known for breaking down complex technical concepts so a layperson can more easily understand why technologies, repairs, and parts should matter to them. At MotorTrend, Justin is part of the news team covering breaking news and topics while also working as a judge for MotorTrend Of the Year events and other major comparison tests.