Dacia Sandero (2013 – 2021) Review

Yes, it’s flawed in terms of its interior quality, its refinement and its level of luxury and safety equipment, but it’s good at plenty of other stuff, and at such incredibly low prices, there can be no complaints. It’s bigger and roomier than most rival cars costing many thousands more, it’s reasonably comfortable, and it has an honest, no-nonsense charm that makes it incredibly likeable.

With the seemingly countless amount of makes and models on offer these days, there aren’t all that many cars that have a unique selling point.

And even with those that do, what that selling point is usually takes plenty of explaining, and it’s usually only a technicality that nobody really cared about in the first place. Examples? Hmm, let us see.

Well, we remember Mercedes boasting that the first A45 AMG had the most powerful four-cylinder engine of all time, and Audi boasting that the latest A8 limousine was the first car capable of Level Three autonomous driving, although currently, that level of autonomy is not actually legal to use anywhere in the world. Seriously, who cares?

The Dacia Sandero, meanwhile, has a true USP, and it’s one that even kindergarten kids will find it easy to understand. The Dacia Sandero is the cheapest new car on sale.

And again, we’re not talking fine margins. With prices starting at £6995, the Dacia Sandero supermini costs at least £2500 less than any rival, and that includes city cars from the class below that are considerably smaller. And yet, compared with other superminis, most of which cost several thousand more again, the Sandero is also bigger and roomer, with a bigger boot. The sheer value-for-money that this car represents is scarcely believable. 

But how can Dacia - owned by Renault - flog this car for so little and still turn a profit? Well, a number of reasons. The mechanics on which it’s based are the same as those from the Renault Clio of several years ago, so they’re basic, cheap and very little had to be spent on research and development. There are also some clear signs of cost-cutting all over the car.

The interior is plasticky and unappealingly finished, on-road refinement is pretty poor and the amount of luxury and safety kit you get on most models is very low: entry-level Access models don’t even have a radio for heaven’s sake.

However, you might well be surprised at the number of things that the Sandero does pretty well. Not only is it cheap and practical, but it’s also easy and reasonably comfortable to drive, it’s easy to see out of, the engines are (just about) perky enough and do a decent job on economy.

The car also looks the part (provided you avoid the entry-level version, that is). For a car this cheap, that’s not a bad list of virtues.

Perhaps even more appealingly, though, the Sandero’s unabashed no-frills approach to motoring gives the car an honest, humble, no-nonsense character that certain buyers find incredibly appealing. This is a very likeable, very charming car, and one that just about anyone will be able to afford. How’s that for a USP?

Looking for the newest model? You'll need our Dacia Sandero (2020-on) review

The nature of the surface beneath you often makes itself known. That said, because the suspension is quite soft, it actually does a half-decent job of taking the pain out of lumps and bumps. Not the most comfortable car you’ll ever drive by any means, but certainly not the worst, either, and better than you might expect.

The soft suspension does give the handling a rather roly-poly nature, with quite a lot of body lean to be felt in bends. The steering is pretty slow, too, so you have to give the wheel a good old tug to change direction. However, grip is pretty decent, and the car stays predictable and secure in corners.

Early cars came with a choice of two petrol engines and one diesel, all sourced from parent company Renault.

The entry-level petrol was a four-cylinder 1.2 with 75PS, and at town speeds, it managed to pull you around with a reasonable amount of purpose. Faster roads and motorways were a bit more of a challenge, though.

The other petrol, a turbocharged 0.9-litre three-cylinder unit with 90 PS, was much more comfortable here, and although its power advantage was only slight, it had a lot more torque, and delivered it much lower down the rev range, so acceleration came to you much more easily.

The 1.5-litre diesel felt even brawnier, with an even more generous slice of low-end grunt. What’s more, it was capable of a surprisingly strong turn of pace when the need arose.

Later on, the 1.2 was replaced by a more efficient 1.0-litre engine, again with 75PS. In truth, it was very similar in character, performing fine at town speeds and struggling more with motorways. In 2020, a 100PS bi-fuel version was introduced which ran on both petrol and LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas), but we haven’t had the opportunity to try it yet.

This is another of the areas in which you have to make sacrifices for that low pricetag, and if anything, it’s the hardest one to justify.

The level of safety equipment you get is abnormally low, with four airbags, electronic traction and stability systems, anti-lock brakes and a couple of Isofix child seat mounting points, but that’s about it. There’s certainly none of the cleverer stuff like automatic emergency braking or lane keeping assistance.

The car did manage a four-star (out of five) rating in Euro NCAP crash tests, but that was way back in 2013 when the tests were much easier than they are now, so the result would probably be lower if the car were tested today.

Indeed, the Dacia Logan, which mechanically is pretty much identical to the Sandero, was tested in 2014, and only scored three stars. Tricky one, this. Safety equipment is one of those things that you hope you’ll never need, so you might be tempted to make the sacrifice in order to get such a cheap car.

However, we can’t help thinking that when you’re hurtling towards a wall with your family in the back, you’ll probably start to wonder whether the saving was really worth it.

Whether you’re in the front or the back, you’ll enjoy interior space that’s among the best-in-class. The rear seats have stacks of headroom and legroom, and while shoulder room will still be tight when carrying three across the rear bench, that’s also the case in all the Sandero’s rivals.

What’s more, the Sandero’s relatively wide middle seat and low transmission tunnel will make life more comfortable for whoever winds up in the middle. The boot is just as impressive for size, comfortably outdoing most rivals on capacity.

There’s a bit of a lip to negotiate, and when you fold down the 60-40 split rear seats, your load area is both stepped and slightly sloped. There’s no adjustable load floor to lessen the effect, either, or anything else that’s remotely clever about the space for that matter: the jack is simply lashed to the side wall of the boot, for example. But come on, at this money, what do you expect.

This is probably the most obvious area in which a budget car will require sacrifices, and that’s certainly true of the Sandero.

You won’t find any tactile soft-touch surfaces or jazzy chrome or piano black trims, just a vast expanse of grey plastic that’s hard, scratchy, shiny, and generally not very appealing. Peer into the bottom of the cupholders and door pulls, and you’ll also find a few exposed screw heads, while if you concentrate really hard, you can make out the outline of the passenger side airbag unit through the dashboard.

The loftier trims do try and perk things up with some additional trim pieces, but it doesn’t do much to elevate the feeling of quality.

The leather steering wheel in top trim cars helps a smidge, but that’s about as snazzy as it gets. While the interior feels undeniably low-rent, though, we’d say that’s entirely forgivable given the price of the car. Moreover, it even manages to give the car a kind of honest, no-nonsense charm. Everything seems solidly put together, too.

If you go for the entry-level Access car, you don't even get a radio. Second-level cars (Ambiance or Essential, depending on their age) gain a stereo with FM/AM radio (later Essential cars also got DAB), CD player, a USB socket, aux-in socket, Bluetooth and fingertip controls on the steering column.

It’s all pretty straightforward to use, if rather basic. The Laureate trim gave your stereo the ability to play MP3 CDs, but more interestingly, it also offered you the chance to add a 7.0-inch touchscreen with sat-nav for a couple of hundred quid.

This system became standard on the top model in 2017, and during the 2019 facelift, Apple Carplay and Android Auto were added. Again, the system is easy to use, helped no end by how basic it is, and the menus are logical and the graphics are clear.

When the Sandero first went on sale, the entry-level version, the 1.2 75 Access, famously cost £5995, making it the cheapest new car in Britain. At the time of writing, the starting price had gone up to £6995 (that’s inflation for you) for the 1.0 SCe 75 Access, but that’s still hardly bank-breaking stuff.

Our recommended version, the 0.9 TCe 90 Essential, would’ve set new-car buyers back £8795, while the most expensive version weighed in at £10,295 for the TCe 100 Bi-fuel Comfort. Compare these with prices for pretty much any rival, so-called budget ones included, and they’re thousands less.

Obviously, used buyers will pay a lot less than these already incredibly low prices, and despite the fact that the Sandero actually holds onto its value really well, you’ll still pay less for a three-year-old one that you will for any rival. 

Those strong resale values also help keep monthly payments down for those who buy on finance, and they’re pretty low to start with. Settle for the entry-level car, for instance, and at the time of writing, you’d pay just £99 per month on a four-year PCP following a deposit of just £860. That represents a deposit contribution of £250 from Dacia, and every little helps.

Early Sanderos, like every other car at the time, had their fuel economy measured by the old NEDC testing standards.

Those tests indicated that the 1.2 was the thirstiest version with an average return of around 48mpg, while the 0.9 turbo did better with 54mpg and the diesel aced them both with 74mpg. Later on, a new testing procedure known as WLTP was brought in to better reflect real-world driving, and figures for all cars tumbled.

The diesel’s figure slipped to 62mpg, and the 0.9’s to 45mpg, while the figure for the new 1.0-litre engine was pretty much the same as its fellow petrol engine’s. However, while these figures should be more representative, they’re still laboratory figures, so matching them in reality will still be difficult.

Groupings range between 2 and 12, and when 1 is the cheapest group and 50 is the most expensive, it shows you just how affordable premiums are likely to be.

Mechanically, Dacia’s cars are quite simple, meaning there’s less to go wrong in theory. Indeed, the latest JD Power Vehicle Dependability Study saw the Dacia brand achieved a top-half finish among manufacturers, putting it well ahead of the industry average.

You wouldn’t expect a car this cheap to come loaded with kit, and the cheapest Access version certainly doesn’t.

As we’ve discussed, there’s no radio, and there isn’t much of anything else, either. Steel wheels, a 60-40 split-folding rear seat, daytime running lights, solid white paint (that’s the only choice) and black plastic bumpers, and that’s your lot.

On earlier cars, the other trims were known as Ambiance and Laureate. Ambiance gave you remote locking, electric front windows, wheeltrims and body-coloured bumpers, along with a CD player, a USB port and Bluetooth.

Laureate trim really pushed the boat out, with air-con, powered rear windows, cruise control, powered door mirrors, front foglamps, leather wrappings for the steering wheel and gearknob, and the chance to add a 7.0-inch touchscreen with sat-nav for a couple of hundred quid. A slight change in 2017 made this system standard on the Laureate, along with rear parking sensors, and at the same time, Ambiance cars were given air-con and adjustment for the driving position.

A facelift in 2019 changed the names of the trims to Access, Essential and Comfort. The content in each case was pretty much the same as before, although Comfort trim added Apple Carplay and Android Auto.