Getting behind the wheel of the Dacia Duster in the Moroccan desert

The chaotic drive out of Marrakech gave little hint of what lay ahead. Just an hour later, the traffic thins and the road dissolves into the Agafay Desert. Pale, rocky and otherworldly, with the snow-capped Atlas Mountains fixed on the horizon some 20 miles to the south, it feels like another planet entirely. This was the setting for a 24-hour off-road adventure and a real-world test of the newly launched Dacia Duster Hybrid-G 150 4x4.

On paper the challenge was simple: leave the city, navigate...