Sandero leads the way in affordable motoring

Dacia makes great steps in making no-frills motoring appealing, writes Julie Marshall

I’ve just spent a week with the Dacia Sandero Stepway, the UK’s best value new car which comes in at an incredibly low price. The model on test has a £16,295 recommended price and the entry level model is even cheaper at £15,295.

If you like your motoring no-frills then this is the car for you.

Based on the Sandero hatchback it looks very much like a small SUV with styling cues such as chunky bumpers and skidplates. The ride height is slightly elevated and it has 201mm of ground clearance.

There’s not a lot of choice. Three trim levels and a tiny option list – just colour, fuel and transmission. A six-speed manual comes as standard with the option of an automatic.

There’s just the one engine, a three-cylinder one-litre petrol which can also be specified to run on petrol and LPG.

We drove the petrol-engined version, and though not the quickest off the mark, taking 12 seconds to get to 62mph, once up to speed it is capable enough.

The manual transmission in our car proved precise and easy to use with tight ratios between gears.

The suspension is comfortable and coped with our regular potholed test track without undue complaints from passengers. The payback is handling that is a little woolly with some body lean on corners.

I’ve often complained about the lack of physical buttons and knobs on 21st century cars but that’s not the case with the Sandero Stepway which lends itself to a reassuring familiar easy way of motoring.

Everything does as expected with very few surprises to catch you out.

The Sandero Stepway has far more kit than you’d expect for a car in this price bracket.

Entry level Essential has electric windows, cruise control and speed limiter, air conditioning, a basic entertainment system and range of passive and active safety aids.

Move up to Expression – as tested – and you get parking sensors and a reversing camera,keylessentry(moreonthat later), electric rear windows and an infotainment system with eight-inch screen and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capabilities.

Top of the range Extreme adds front parking sensors, electronic parking brake and a more sophisticated satnav system with smartphone mirroring.

There’s plenty of room on board for five and head and legroom is plentiful. It has loads of storage and a 328-litre boot with a further 21 litres of storage space dotted throughout the cabin. The seats can be dropped 60/40 to yield 1,108 litres of carry room.

We enjoyed our time with the Stepway apart from one tiny niggle – the plastic card which operates the keyless entry.

Every time anyone wanted to go out in it there were cries of ‘have you seen the Dacia key?’ andhandbags,bowlsandpockets would need to be searched until it turned up.

I keep all my keys on a big bunch so they are easy to locate but the Stepway keycard doesn’t even have a hole you can slot a keyring through. One time it fell out of my pocket under the seat and I had to enlist the help of a man with a golf umbrella to fish it out!