Dacia Sandero Review 2023

The Dacia Sandero has held the crowning glory of being Britain's cheapest new car for some time now. However - shock horror - Dacia has removed the basic models, meaning it's lost that title by a whisker to the Kia Picanto. Still, the plucky Sandero is roomier and has more equipment, so it continues to represent great value. 

Now the Sandero has increased in price as a new car its core rival is the entry-level Citroen C3, which starts at £12,995. Other small cars of this size are all considerably more. There's also the MG3, although that's getting on a bit, while similarly-priced city car rivals don't offer anything like this level of space for the cash.

It's not that hard to see where the money has been saved in the Sandero, mind you. The interior looks and feels pretty cheap in places, but the design is pleasant and everything works well. The controls are clear and easy to use and top-end models get a basic infotainment screen that adds colour and can connect to your smartphone using Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. These Comfort models also get posher seat upholstery and flashes of colour on the dashboard.

Interior space is hard to grumble about. The front and rear seats are roomy, there's space for four six-footers to get genuinely comfortable and the boot is also big for a car that costs so little. Interior storage spaces are numerous, confirming the little Dacia as a car that could slot into daily life with no difficulty at all.

If it is going to be a car you'll use every day on a variety of roads – from the town to the country and the motorway – do yourself a favour and specify the 90PS petrol engine. This 1.0-litre three-cylinder unit has a turbocharger that makes it a lot more flexible when you're accelerating up to a cruise and powering up hills, plus it comes in tandem with a six-speed manual gearbox that means it feels less frantic on the motorway.

The 65PS version of the same engine (no longer available new) does without a turbo, so it's slow, and the five-speed gearbox it comes with means you'll have to suffer from a fair amount of engine drone at 70mph. By the same token, the CVT automatic gearbox available with 90PS models saps power, while the £400 more expensive 100PS bi-fuel model – which can run on LPG – only really make sense if you do lots of miles and have access to LPG.

Whichever engine you go for you'll find the Dacia is a tidy handler that emphasises comfort rather than sporty handling, like a secondhand Ford Fiesta that you could have for the same money. Compared to the Ford, the Dacia runs out of grip in bends relatively quickly and its light steering doesn't inspire you to drive quickly.

That said, the Dacia's suspension deals with bumps and potholes well and it's perfectly comfortable on longer jaunts so long as you avoid the basic engine. Great visibility means it's the perfect car for navigating through the city – if you do this exclusively then there's a case for the CVT auto – and top-of-the-range Comfort models come with rear parking sensors and a camera that make reverse parking even easier.

These are just two of the many good reasons to choose the comfort model. It has a nicer interior than the rest of the range and keyless entry, which goes on top of the kit you get with Essential models that includes air conditioning and a stereo. Access versions are very basic – they have electric windows, central locking and that's about it, which is why very few people bought them new. 

These Access cars are the embodiment of basic motoring, but if you're looking for a cheap set of wheels that'll cost buttons to run and gets some warranty you won't get with a cheaper, older used car, the Dacia Sandero well worth a look.

Looking for a second opinion? Check out heycar's review of the Dacia Sandero. 

Looking for the old model? You'll need our review of the 2013-2020 Dacia Sandero.

Access to the Dacia Sandero's driver's seat is excellent through the wide-opening front doors, even if the doors themselves close with a hollow clang that isn't very reassuring. All models get a driver's seat that moves for height and reach and the seat is flat and comfortable, if lacking in much lateral support. The backrest moves forwards and backwards quickly and easily by yanking a lever on the side of the seat, but making incremental adjustments is a bit tricky.

Access models have a height-adjustable steering wheel, while the steering wheel in Essential models and above moves for reach as well, sliding out at an angle rather than allowing you to adjust the height and reach independently. All this being said, it is easy enough to get comfortable and Dacia's thin door pillars mean you get excellent visibility out of all four corners of the car.

There's even better news in the back where you get a surprising amount of room. You'll have space to stretch out even if the person sitting in front of you is tall and the Sandero has big windows that open properly – they're not the half-hearted clip-out efforts you get in a Volkswagen Up, for example. This sense of roominess extends to the middle seat which won't leave you feeling as hemmed in as the centre seat in city cars, although three burly adults will feel restricted and a Citroen C3 is a bit more comfortable.

In a familiar theme, the boot is another place where you get more space than you would expect for your money thanks to its 328-litre capacity – about 50% more than similarly priced smaller cars like the Up and also more than the C3. What it has in capacity, though, it loses in features so there's no adjustable boot floor or 12V power socket and the exposed metal and thin boot floor hint at the Dacia's low asking price. A spare wheel is an option.

Dacia also gives you plenty of smaller storage spaces so the glovebox is deep, there are pockets on all four doors, two cupholders between the front seats and you get a tray in front of the gearstick that has room for a large smartphone and a USB plug to charge it.

In terms of exterior dimensions the Dacia Sandero is 4088mm long, 1848mm wide and 1499mm tall. That's actually around 50mm more in each dimension than the platform-sharing Renault Clio, showing you the sheer amount of car you get for the money.

You couldn't argue that the Dacia Sandero feels like a posh, high-quality product but neither does it feel like a car that costs (or at least used to cost) less than £8000 brand new. Or about 50% less than its next-closest rival. Although that basic trim and engine is now gone, the jump in power and equipment means it's still impressive. 

The design is smart and modern with clear controls and large knobs for the ventilation controls. Comfort models have fabric trim pieces on the dashboard and the doors, a soft-touch steering wheel and coloured plastics in the air vents that make them posher inside than the rudimentary Access models.

Even these top-of-the-range models use hard plastics throughout however, there's no damping on the glovebox and some parts – like the centre console between the front seats – look and feel low-rent.

Now that the spartan Access model has gone, all Sanderos come with DAB radio, Bluetooth and a smartphone app that lets you use the phone as a screen. 

Stepping up to Comfort trim gets you an eight-inch screen that's a usable size and has clear menus that make it simple to navigate. You also get wireless phone mirroring – a rare addition in a cheap car – so you can mirror the display of your phone without trailing wires everywhere. Sure you can't swipe through menus or pinch in and out of maps, but all the basics are here and work well and you get an uprated stereo with four speakers.

If that doesn't sound like an upgrade, spare a thought for owners of the older Access cars, which have no stereo at all, while Essential models make do with a basic two-speaker setup.

Access versions of the Dacia Sandero – with a price of £7995 – earned the Sandero its title of 'cheapest car in Britain'. We say earned, because while they gave the car a unique selling point, nobody bought them, so they've gone. 

The same applies to the entry-level 65PS model, which clearly didn't gel with buyers. That does mean that the base price, as of 2022, has jumped up substantially to £12,295. Other cars have got more expensive in recent years, though, so the Sandero is still extremely affordable. 

Comfort models get the 90PS engine as standard (or the 100PS bi-fuel engine for the same money) and have equipment including keyless entry, reversing sensors and a camera, climate control and a proper infotainment system. It's a shame that the automatic version pushes the price over £15,000, however. 

All Sanderos come with a 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine either with or without a turbocharger. The former produces either 90PS or 100PS as a bi-fuel model, while the latter produces just 65PS. 

The 65PS model feels very lethargicm but it is cheaper to run on paper with year-one road tax of £175 and fuel economy of 53.3mpg. Although we suspect that the latter figure will be hard to achieve as you wring the engine's neck simply matching the flow of traffic.

The 90PS model has plenty of power for the daily grind, although you do pay for it ever so slightly thanks to its year-one road of £215. Dacia quotes identical fuel economy to the 65PS model, but we reckon the 90PS car's more relaxed nature will make it easier to achieve.

An oddity of the range is the Bi-Fuel petrol/LPG model which costs £205 to tax in the first year. It burns fuel at the same rate as the 90PS model, but its £400 premium could make sense if you do lots of driving because LPG costs roughly half as much as petrol. Having two fuel sources to call means it has a range of up to 620 miles, which is very impressive in a car this size.

That being said, this is no Ford Fiesta. The body rolls significantly in bends, but the economy-focused tyres mean the car will plough through corners before the lean gets too excessive. The slick gear shift is far from sloppy, mind, and the brakes have a reassuring weight that makes it easy to slow the car smoothly.

Relatively small 15-inch wheels with a decent sidewall mean bumpy country roads aren't an issue and potholes that'll cause a flat on cars with lower-riding rubber are not an issue in the Sandero.

The rubbery smoothness is evident in town, too, where you will find the Dacia is an easy car to manoeuvre even if you don't go for a comfort model with the rear sensors and parking camera.

There are no self-park options available but you can have a CVT automatic gearbox. Okay, it gives your left foot rest bite from pumping the clutch, but it also dulls performance significantly. It's a £1200 option that is very hard to recommend.

Your money is better spent upgrading from to Essential trim (the base version from new as of 2022). It adds cruise control that takes the strain out of holding a set speed on faster roads. The Sandero isn't a natural motorway cruiser – the lack of sound deadening means there's plenty of noise from other traffic – but the 90PS model doesn't sound strained at the national limit.

Looking for a second opinion? Why not read heycar's Dacia Sandero review

The Dacia Sandero's engine range consists of two basic units – a three-cylinder 1.0-litre petrol with 65 or 90PS. The latter is also available in 100PS Bi-Fuel form with an LPG tank.

The 65PS engine makes the Dacia feel like a car from 20 years ago. It's fine in town but slow to build speed when joining a motorway, and you'll need to change down a gear or two on hills. It also comes with a five-speed gearbox that makes it noisy on the motorway.

For just £1000 more than an Essential model with the 65PS engine, you'd be mad to overlook the 90PS version. Its turbocharged engine instantly makes the Sandero feel like a modern car that can keep pace with traffic and has a sixth gear that makes it a more relaxed cruiser. It gets from 0-62mph in 11.7 seconds, a full five seconds quicker than the basic car.

The 100PS Bi-Fuel model drives almost identically, whether running on petrol or LPG, you'll struggle to notice a difference between it and the 90PS version. The extra power only accounts for the added weight of the LPG tank.

Safety is an area where the Dacia Sandero's penny-pinching ethos is hard to hide, not least because the mechanically identical Stepway model scored just two stars when it was crash tested by NCAP in 2021. Something worth considering when secondhand alternatives like the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Polo got awarded full marks.

The Dacia has automatic emergency brakes, but they only sense other vehicles – pedestrians and cyclists beware! You also get an SOS system that can call the emergency services if you have an accident, but the other features are rudimentary like airbags and ISOFIX mounting points. 

Given that the 65PS Dacia Sandero was slow with only you aboard, lord knows what it is like four up with a trailer hitched to the back, but we would imagine it's pedestrian at best. If you're unperturbed, it'll tow up to 980kgs on a braked trailer or caravan.

The rest of the range – with 90 or 100PS and with either a manual or CVT automatic gearbox – can pull up to 1100kgs and, while that doesn't sound like much, we reckon the real-life difference would be marked.

The Dacia Sandero Access you can buy, but it's now gone. If you're buying one used you can forget about kit you'd expect any modern car to have, like a radio, although it is prewired for an aftermarket system. Equipment you do get includes electric front windows, manually adjustable wing mirrors, steel wheels, a height-adjustable steering wheel and a single USB port.

The Dacia Sandero Essential (now the base model new) adds useful toys like air-conditioning, remote central locking, cruise control, a steering wheel that moves reach as well as height and stereo. Essential models also look slightly better than Access cars because they swap plastic bumpers for swankier body-coloured numbers.

The Dacia Sandero Comfort is actually pretty well equipped and look nicer than the rest of the range thanks to their plastic wheel trims that look like alloy wheels. Inside, they get fabric trims along with an eight-inch infotainment screen that adds a welcome flavour of modernity. Kit includes keyless entry, climate control, rear electric windows, rear parking sensors and a camera.