Been to look at a Dacia Sandero today. Looks wonderful, interior impressed me bearing in mind is a budget car. I feel in the hands of someone who takes care of their cars (like me) the cheaper interior would last.

I asked them to confirm

The engine is same as Renault Cleo and it's chain driven.

After today it's now worth me moving to stage 2 of my research...the test drive.

 

2 minutes ago, SteveStrat said:

Been to look at a Dacia Sandero today. 

I’ll quickly give you my opinion of my Sandero Stepway Extreme.

It’s feels similar to the Fiesta, maybe not as refined as the Fiesta, it’s a little more crashy over bumps but that seems to be the harder plastics inside creaking. 

The steering is lighter, the brakes are as sharp and feel better actually although no MHEV assistance. The sound system isn’t as basey, the built in NAV is definitely better laid out. Apple CarPlay is wireless which is great. Seats in the Extreme are nicer than the STLineX half fake leather, and are heated. Fittings and fixtures are definitely cheaper in areas like the boot area, but the again you get bonuses like front sensors, rear camera, blind spot monitoring, electric hand brake etc.

Engine is very eager like the Ecoboost but mine is the auto CVT so direct power/economy comparison is difficult with the manual Ecoboost. Economy seems comparable as I get around 28 purely local trips and around 50 mpg mixed mainly motorway driving, down slightly from early 50s from the ecoboost, but definitely similar.

So really main difference is the price.

List price for top spec Extreme is £18k with metallic and is equivalent to a Puma St-line x at around £28k, mid-spec Sandero is likely to be around £16K I guess and is still immense value for money and should be cheaper to insure and maintain during ownership.

Enjoy the test drive!

1 hour ago, Smartd00d said:

I’ll quickly give you my opinion of my Sandero Stepway Extreme.

It’s feels similar to the Fiesta, maybe not as refined as the Fiesta, it’s a little more crashy over bumps but that seems to be the harder plastics inside creaking.

Thanks very much for taking the time to post this, a great help.

I think the extreme is going to be the one I will now concentrate on, purely for the fantastic blind spot sensors which I found so helpful on previous company cars I had before retiring.

The interior fabrics are superior IMO on extreme.

If I had one wish it would be chrome alloys rather than black, but I can live with that 😉

You also get heated seats with the extreme, which I used to laugh at when I was 17, but not now I'm 64 🙂

Thanks again mate, I just need to wait now until end of June to buy, a pitfall of investing chunks of money in high interest fixed savings accounts, which mature later.

At least plenty of time to research.

8 minutes ago, SteveStrat said:

Thanks very much for taking the time to post this, a great help.

No problem at all, it all helps.

One thing I forgot to mention is the keyless entry (properly unlocks when in range, no silly touching front door handles), is also keyless exit, I.e, it locks as you walk away from the car! It’s really useful!

32 minutes ago, Smartd00d said:

No problem at all, it all helps.

One thing I forgot to mention is the keyless entry (properly unlocks when in range, no silly touching front door handles), is also keyless exit, I.e, it locks as you walk away from the car! It’s really useful!

Hey now that's a great idea. Never thought about that before. But more I think about it more I like the idea.

Has your Sandero worked without any hiccups so far?

1 hour ago, SteveStrat said:

Has your Sandero worked without any hiccups so far?

Faultless, very pleased so far.

I can see a lot of people migrating to the Dacia forum at this rate!😀