Dacia Sandero - What a neat little car!

[Bailes1992]

Originally Posted by bdcardinal

Originally Posted by Vikas

I am absolutely shocked at realizing that half of the terms used by OP went over my head even though I did get the gist of it. So much difference between the English language that is spoken by British versus by American :-)

Two countries separated by a common language.

I watch a lot of American car programs and also spend a fair amount of time reading this board and have noticed that Americans don't seem to use 'common sayings' like we do in the UK. Stuff like 'doesn't cut the mustard' or 'different kettle of fish'.

Originally Posted by vavavroom

Originally Posted by Bailes1992

Our Duster had a 1.5 litre, 4 cylinder turbo diesel engine with a 6 speed manual gearbox and 4WD. We owned ours for 2 years and it was fully dependable, albeit we only did 14,000miles in that time. It was brilliant on rubbish runs to the tip, was great when we moved house, it was great in the snow, was comfortable on long journeys and did 50+ MPG.

For garbage runs to the tip, I'd rather not share the cabin with the refuse. Are pickup trucks still a rarity in the UK?

I don't know how you do refuse collections in the US, the US is a big place and I imagine it's different everywhere. Where I live in the UK we get boxes and bags for recycling. These are for plastics, aluminium, cardboard, glass, paper and food waste which get collected weekly. Then every fortnight they will pick up a maximum of two large black bags from us with non-recyclables. As we have a baby we also get purple plastic bags which they pick up with our black bags for nappies or diapers as they're called in the US. Therefore, we don't have anything smelly or dirty to go to the rubbish tip, usually large cardboard boxes or polystyrene packaging when we buy ourselves furniture or a TV or something. You can get pick-up trucks in the UK. They're smaller trucks compared to the stuff you get in the US but we get vehicles like the Ford Ranger available with a 3.2 i5 or 2.2 i4 diesel engine, or the Volkswagen Amorak available with a 3.0 V6 or 2.0 i4 diesel engine. Petrol/gas pick-ups are certainly not available. There was a period when a lot of people who could pick a company vehicle were picking pick-ups, as they're classed as commercial vehicles the company car tax was much less.

Originally Posted by hpb

I was waiting for the cries of "You can't have something that small as a family car!" from our US brethren. Perfect. It's all the vehicle you need. We had 3 young kids (all in car seats, 2 still in prams) and the family car was a 2004 Ford Focus sedan...did the job easily.

Originally Posted by fdcg27

We were getting there at one time, but something went awry and we now have mainly largish CUVs as family transport. I loved the smaller cars that we had and if you like this Dacia you would have loved one of our eighties Civic Wagons. Alas, the middle classes here have decided that more car than you need is somehow better.

My Parents only ever had a Ford Escort van and a Ford Orion Ghia Si from when I was born in 1992 till 1999 when my Father was promoted and his company van got replaced with a Ford Focus Saloon/Sedan company car. In 2002 both cars got replaced, my Father had a Ford Mondeo ST24 (or Contour SVT in the US) as a company car and my Mother got a Ford Focus LX 1.6i hatch. Even with myself and my Sister the cars were always plenty big enough and we never struggled. There's loads of people in the UK with 2 or more kids with just Ford Fiesta's or Vauxhall Corsa's. We just seem to manage and get on with it. We also have an influx of 'fake 4x4's' as I call them. Everyone seems to be driving around in Nissan Jukes, Quashqai's (Rogue Sport), Ford Kuga's, Vauxhall Mokka's, Kia Sportage's etc and 99% of them are 2WD. What's the point? Most of them are no bigger than their equivalent car, don't ride as nice because they're jacked up, don't get the same performance because they're not as aerodynamic and use a fair bit more fuel too. There's no advantage to them, without 4WD/AWD they'll be stumped by much more than wet grass. Anyway, I thought I'd add some pictures of the old Duster for those interested...

 

[javacontour]

Looks updated since Jonny did his piece on the car on Fifth Gear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1bxSUPXsQA And to carry all that stuff, parents here in North America would own a 3 ton SUV. Enjoy your car!

Originally Posted by Bailes1992

As most of you are in the US and you have a shortage of small city cars I thought some of you would be interested in this. Dacia is a Romanian brand that are owned by Renault and generally they are what I like to refer to as 'parts bin specials'. They're built using tried and tested Renault and Nissan parts that have already had the R&D done on them. They're sold as a budget brand no-nonsense white good type of car in the UK for getting you to A-B and not a lot else. They're in quite high demand over here and as a result hold onto their value very well. They start at less than £7,000 brand new and even a 6 year old model with 70k+ will still set you back the best part of £4,000. A little bit of history, my Wife had a 3 door 2013 VW Polo back in 2017 which we had only owned for 9 months when we found out she was pregnant. Unfortunately as we bought more and more baby-stuff in readiness for his arrival we quickly realised the Polo wasn't going to cut the mustard and we started shopping for a bigger car. We came across a 2016 Dacia Duster which is a Ford Kuga sized crossover. They are heavily based on the Nissan Juke/Rogue Sport (Quashqai in the UK) platform. Our Duster had a 1.5 litre, 4 cylinder turbo diesel engine with a 6 speed manual gearbox and 4WD. We owned ours for 2 years and it was fully dependable, albeit we only did 14,000miles in that time. It was brilliant on rubbish runs to the tip, was great when we moved house, it was great in the snow, was comfortable on long journeys and did 50+ MPG. As the Duster was coming up to it's 3 year anniversary we popped it into Renault to have a few niggles looked at before the warranty run out. While we were waiting to pick up the Duster in the dealer my Wife started nosing around a Dacia Sandero and my Wife and I started having a conversation about it. We came to the conclusion that now our little dude is 10 months old and we no longer needed a carry cot, 10 changes of clothes, a pram and half the house that maybe it was time to change back to a smaller car. We started speaking to the salesman who let us try the babies pram in the boot and after we found out it fit we started discussing figures. We'd paid £10,000 for the Duster and after 2 years, 14,000miles and 3 oil changes we were offered £8,650 for it. Safe to say we bit his hand off and placed an order for a brand new Sandero. So the Sandero itself... It's a Fiesta sized car that's powered by a Nissan/Renault 900cc 3 cylinder turbo engine that makes 90bhp and 99lbft. It gets from standstill to 60mph in 10.2s and will go on to do 112mph. It has enough power to keep up with day to day traffic in the UK and it's an adequate performer on the motorway, it will sit quite happily at 85-90mph for hours on end and still return 40mpg. Admittedly, compared to a 1.4 or 1.6 N/A engine that would make similar power you do tend to drive it at slightly higher revs, but it makes a lovely 3 cylinder growl and even makes some little turbo noises. The engine is fairly simple too, it has a timing chain, it's port injected and the turbo is wastegate controlled. It has A/C, sat nav, electric windows, DAB radio and a trip computer. Oil choice is straight forward, anything that meets RN0710 or if you cannot find an oil that meets RN0710 then a 5w30 or 5w40 that meets A3/B4. I've picked to run Fuchs GT1 5w40 which is an ACEA C3 lube with LL04, 502/505/505.01, Dexos2, 229.31, 226.5 and RN0710 approval. I'll be changing out the engine and gearbox factory fill at 1000miles. See uploaded pictures!

 

[pbm]

I noticed these Dacias when I was in the UK last summer....I thought they looked pretty good and figured they'd be a bargain being from East Europe. As someone who once owned a 1980 LeCar (Renault 5) and who has witnessed how Renault 'engineering' has hurt Nissan...I'd be suspect....On the other hand the Renault Clio that I rented last summer wasn't too bad....

 

[DweezilAZ]

@Bailes1992: Funny I just watched a couple of You Tube videos on the Sandero and have heard of it previously. An honest simple car. Reminded me of the Saturn SL and SL1. I really like this.The market for cars like these, or the will to offer them evaporated at some point here in the States when every manufacturer went "premium". [As if ]. Definitely would be interested if they were available in the US, but the closest we get here is the Mirage, which is already on my short list. What is your take on the MG 3 ? BTW: I love English phrases and have noticed they stay consistent over decades rather than faddish slang used in the US which changes on a regular basis. Wanker, tosser, punter, get a leg over , so many. I've been a fan of British TV for decades. I'm also following a guy on You Tube who restores Morris Marinas. He's a total trip. Nice to see some respect for simplicity and down to earth transportation.

 

[Bailes1992]

Originally Posted by javacontour

Looks updated since Jonny did his piece on the car on Fifth Gear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1bxSUPXsQA And to carry all that stuff, parents here in North America would own a 3 ton SUV. Enjoy your car!

The Sandero has received a minor facelift, however the car Johnny drove was the budget-spec £6,500 version. Ours is a top-of-the-range 'Comfort' specification that cost £10,500. That's why it looks a bit different.

Originally Posted by pbm

I noticed these Dacias when I was in the UK last summer....I thought they looked pretty good and figured they'd be a bargain being from East Europe. As someone who once owned a 1980 LeCar (Renault 5) and who has witnessed how Renault 'engineering' has hurt Nissan...I'd be suspect....On the other hand the Renault Clio that I rented last summer wasn't too bad....

The engine in this I believe was designed by Nissan so I'm expecting it to be a tough little lump. I've been making sure to take it out and give it lots of load to bed the rings in. I took it up a steep incline for 4 miles on the weekend, managing to get it from standstill to 90mph over the 4 miles. I must admit, I have a real soft spot for the engine, not a huge amount of low down torque but it really picks it's socks up come 4,000rpm and makes a nice noise right up to the 6,750rpm redline. The simplicity of port injection and a timing chain really appeals to me too, and as a 'thickie', I like that it specifies a high HTHS oil. The only things that I think will let it down are rust and the electrics. If I'm honest, my Wife's ability to keep a car for more than 2 or 3 years is non-existent so I don't think we will ever have a problem with it. I'd love to keep it for 17 years and give it to my little dude as his first car but can't see it happening.

Originally Posted by DweezilAZ

@Bailes1992: Funny I just watched a couple of You Tube videos on the Sandero and have heard of it previously. An honest simple car. Reminded me of the Saturn SL and SL1. I really like this.The market for cars like these, or the will to offer them evaporated at some point here in the States when every manufacturer went "premium". [As if ]. Definitely would be interested if they were available in the US, but the closest we get here is the Mirage, which is already on my short list. What is your take on the MG 3 ? BTW: I love English phrases and have noticed they stay consistent over decades rather than faddish slang used in the US which changes on a regular basis. Wanker, tosser, punter, get a leg over , so many. I've been a fan of British TV for decades. I'm also following a guy on You Tube who restores Morris Marinas. He's a total trip. Nice to see some respect for simplicity and down to earth transportation.

I test drove an MG 3 when we were buying my Wife's Polo, it was an unoffensive car to drive. You could also spec them up far better than you can the Sandero with climate control and leather etc. Nothing to write home about, just another car that will reliably get you from A to B and if maintained correctly will cost you very little for 10 years or 100k. I liked it.

 

[DweezilAZ]

Thanks for the thumbnail review of the MG3, Bailes 1992. And of course your Sandero profile.

 

[gofast182]

Originally Posted by Lolvoguy

Originally Posted by FordBroncoVWJeta

Exactly what I thought of when I read the thread title!

Me, too!

 

[Bailes1992]

Just thought I would update this. We had the car for 5 months and put 3,500miles on it. Unforunatley, it wasn't meant to be. Since we had the car it had a serious issue with pre-ignition when swapping between super unleaded and standard. It would also jerk and shudder when the engine was cold and the throttle was vague and almost unpredictable at times. A change of spark plugs at 1800miles cured all the issues, but then I changed between fuels and it all came back again. I suspect a faulty knock sensor or programming was damaging the spark plugs and causing our issues. Unfortunately my thoughts fell on deaf ears and Renault were just replacing random parts and hoping it would fix the issue. I took it in for the 4th time a few weeks ago and they wanted me to book it in for a 5th time to replace the lambda sensor. At this point I asked they took the car off of our hands as I'd simply had enough, last week they agreed to buy the car off us for what we purchased it for. It's a shame, when it worked it was a simple, fun to drive little hatch. It seems it is the dealer that has let us down in this case.

 

[Fifth87]

Originally Posted by gofast182

Originally Posted by Lolvoguy

Originally Posted by FordBroncoVWJeta

Exactly what I thought of when I read the thread title!

Me, too!

Great News!

 

[miden851]

Sandero, a stripped Clio in EU or Versa Note in US And yes I'm missing Skoda…

 

[Smokescreen]

Originally Posted by Fifth87

Originally Posted by gofast182

Originally Posted by Lolvoguy

Originally Posted by FordBroncoVWJeta

Exactly what I thought of when I read the thread title!

Me, too!

Great News!

One of Captain Slow's faves

 

[supton]

Originally Posted by Bailes1992

Just thought I would update this. We had the car for 5 months and put 3,500miles on it. Unforunatley, it wasn't meant to be. Since we had the car it had a serious issue with pre-ignition when swapping between super unleaded and standard. It would also jerk and shudder when the engine was cold and the throttle was vague and almost unpredictable at times. A change of spark plugs at 1800miles cured all the issues, but then I changed between fuels and it all came back again. I suspect a faulty knock sensor or programming was damaging the spark plugs and causing our issues. Unfortunately my thoughts fell on deaf ears and Renault were just replacing random parts and hoping it would fix the issue. I took it in for the 4th time a few weeks ago and they wanted me to book it in for a 5th time to replace the lambda sensor. At this point I asked they took the car off of our hands as I'd simply had enough, last week they agreed to buy the car off us for what we purchased it for. It's a shame, when it worked it was a simple, fun to drive little hatch. It seems it is the dealer that has let us down in this case.

That's a bummer, sorry to hear that. What are you replacing it with? Not that I know anything about cars on that side of the pond.

 

[Bailes1992]

Originally Posted by supton

That's a bummer, sorry to hear that. What are you replacing it with? Not that I know anything about cars on that side of the pond.

I'm unsure at the moment. I have my Mondeo ST220 which my Wife is driving at the moment. My Volvo is on a PCP finance deal with a balloon payment which is about £5,500 when the car is around 5 years old. Because I opt-out of having a company car and take an allowance my company is quite strict on what car you can own and the car has to go once it hits 5 years old. My Wife is planning on keeping the ST220 on the road for another 3-4 years and purchasing the Volvo at the end of my finance deal for herself. My biggest worry is reliability. The car is 16 years old and has 140k on the clock, will it be reliable for another 3-4 years? Only time will tell.

 

[Bailes1992]

I know it's been a few years, but I thought this thread was worth updating.

So my last post I said my Wife was going to drive our Mondeo ST220 for the forseable. Unfortunatley, the car just cost too much to run day to day doing sub 20mpg (thats our MPG, not US MPG). But I did manage to tidy the car up no end and sell it on for a small profit. I wrote about the car and posted some pictures in the link below...

HERE

In March 2021 we purchased a 2017 Dacia Logan MCV Laureate 1.5DCi. This is essentially an estate or wagon version of the Dacia Sandero.

We purchased this car from a bus company who had used it to get drivers from A to B from new. They replace their pool cars when they get to around 100k. I have no doubt it probably didn't have the easiest life. However, it should have done most of it's mileage on the motorway.

We took delivery of it with 98288miles on the clock and paid just £3,000 for it. The car has an almost identical specification to the Sandero I posted at the start of this thread, the only addition is it has optional rear electric windows and the Nissan/Renault/Mercedes 1.5DCi engine instead of the 0.9TCe.

I have had to do some work to it. Some due to breakages/breakdowns and others as preventitive maintenance. So in the 9 months and 7,000miles since we purchased it I have done the folllowing...

-2x Oil Changes
-1x Full Filter Replacement
-Glowplugs Changed
-Radiator, Condensor & Intercooler Replacement
-Rear Brakes Replaced In Their Entirety
-Installed A Towbar
-Replaced Gearbox Oil
-Timing & AUX Belt Replacement
-Wiper Motor & Linkage Replacement

The car is due it's yearly inspection next month and I'm planning on changing the engine oil and filter again before then, replacing the brake fluid and the power steering fluid.

Anyway, have some pictures. I'm sure it'll be interesting to you lot over the water who don't get these cars.

 

[Falcon_LS]

I thought I was looking at a Renault Clio at first, then did some research on it to find out it shares the same platform.

 

[javacontour]

Double post - disregard please.

 

[2EHA]

I thought I was looking at a Renault Clio at first, then did some research on it to find out it shares the same platform.

dacia’s entire purpose in life is to sell poverty pack renaults

they are sold as renault in parts of the world where that badge commends respect

 

[miden851]

Now take that steering wheel and put on Kia Telluride, it is exactly the same just a different badge

European manufactures, majority of course, do the same steering wheel design for about 10 years by now

 

[IndyIan]

I know it's been a few years, but I thought this thread was worth updating.

So my last post I said my Wife was going to drive our Mondeo ST220 for the forseable. Unfortunatley, the car just cost too much to run day to day doing sub 20mpg (thats our MPG, not US MPG). But I did manage to tidy the car up no end and sell it on for a small profit. I wrote about the car and posted some pictures in the link below...

HERE

In March 2021 we purchased a 2017 Dacia Logan MCV Laureate 1.5DCi. This is essentially an estate or wagon version of the Dacia Sandero.

We purchased this car from a bus company who had used it to get drivers from A to B from new. They replace their pool cars when they get to around 100k. I have no doubt it probably didn't have the easiest life. However, it should have done most of it's mileage on the motorway.

We took delivery of it with 98288miles on the clock and paid just £3,000 for it. The car has an almost identical specification to the Sandero I posted at the start of this thread, the only addition is it has optional rear electric windows and the Nissan/Renault/Mercedes 1.5DCi engine instead of the 0.9TCe.

I have had to do some work to it. Some due to breakages/breakdowns and others as preventitive maintenance. So in the 9 months and 7,000miles since we purchased it I have done the folllowing...

-2x Oil Changes
-1x Full Filter Replacement
-Glowplugs Changed
-Radiator, Condensor & Intercooler Replacement
-Rear Brakes Replaced In Their Entirety
-Installed A Towbar
-Replaced Gearbox Oil
-Timing & AUX Belt Replacement
-Wiper Motor & Linkage Replacement

The car is due it's yearly inspection next month and I'm planning on changing the engine oil and filter again before then, replacing the brake fluid and the power steering fluid.

Anyway, have some pictures. I'm sure it'll be interesting to you lot over the water who don't get these cars.

These are the type of cars I wish we could get here, but I guess no one buys them new, so I can't buy them used! The Focus has a couple more years left and then I may have to settle for a sedan... Or try my luck with a Volkswagen wagon.