Can understand Dacia temptation....and worthy of consideration particularly if you are going to be keeping it for a while.?

As has been said...the price level is there for a reason and yes, you'll buy "cheap"...but you will also sell cheap when the time comes.

The only thing, which actually matters, to make one car 'better' than another, is safety. And the Euro ncap website is easy enough to find. If the safety of the logan is on a par with previous generation astra/focus/whatever, then what you are really buying is a badge. There is the problem as British buyers are incredibly vain when it comes to cars. So while they may look at, and think about a Dacia, actually putting on each on your driveway and potentially having to endure the mirth and jibes of friends /family /work colleagues in their German SUV's is a different proposition!.

If you are looking at a small estate car, that means you need a small car with a big boot, and for that purpose, the logan is the best car, period. It's boot is as big, if not bigger than astra/focus estates, but it is a physically smaller car and much narrower. The interior plastics may be hard and shiny compared to a golf, but that shouldn't really matter. That it is going to last, and that the car itself will be reliable does matter.

As you do 15,000 miles a year, a big advantage of the Dacia option is that you get more time under manufacturer's warranty. If Dacia have cut corners to sell at low prices, they are likely to be in the ares of trim and equipment, not the oily bits that actually matter.

And an indirect advantage is that Johnnyrev saved enough money by choosing a Dacia to buy and maintain a secondhand MX-5 as a fun car.

That Astra estate have the dubious benefit of an electric parking brake?

As above, i'd be quite happy in the Logan, doubly so if it caused some anguish with fiends colleagues etc, happy to talk cost comparison with their PCP'd SUV clone, and resume the costs chat in three years time when they get the next one and still shelling out £300+ a month.

Thanks, i thought the shape involved did have an EPB, much obliged for putting that right.

I think they are currently offering a 5 year warranty on new dacias

"OK the guy who emailed me is a director and comany secretary and founded the garage in 1977.

Heres what they wrote

Sorry to hear your warranty is not valid at your local dealer. We have clarified with our dealers, Fish Bros in Swindon, that as the vehicle has 4 documented services, it has a Toyota 5 year/100,000 miles warranty, valid nationally.

Perhaps after you have had it serviced with your local dealer, they may be more helpful, but if you have any issues, we will arrange to have it dealt with at our local dealer."

Further thoughts on this:

Your local main dealer is saying that (presumably based on Toyota main computer records) the warranty is invalid. Presumably any other main Toyots dealer will consult the same records and come to the same conclusion. (Worth checking?)

If that is the case, the national Toyota warranty is invalid and no matter what sort of relationship the seller has with Fish Bros the sale was misrepresented. Up to you what you do next - but I know what I'd do.

(I note that your seller is not disputing that the warranty is not valid at a main dealer - and what do they mean by 'our dealers'? . Perhaps I'm just being cynical.)