I try living with a brand new car I could drive away for just £166 per month

25 November 2023 , 13:27

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The Dacia Sandero first arrived in the UK in 2013 and it was good news for car buyers on a budget, because it instantly became the UK's cheapest car.

A basic version of the supermini could be bought for less than £6,000 - and at the time that was half the price of the ubiquitous Ford Fiesta.

I can remember testing one, in the full-on poverty spec, with the black plastic bumpers and the wind-up windows, and I absolutely loved it.

Here was a car that felt like it was bucking a trend. Advancing technology meant new cars were becoming more and more expensive, and Dacia popped up from nowhere with a car that they themselves referred to as "shockingly affordable".

And, my, how the world has changed since those days. The cheapest car on sale now costs over £8,000 and it's actually a quadricycle.

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The cheapest Sandero isn't really all that cheap any more, because the base model has quite a few basic "luxuries" thrown in, and the starting price is now £13,795.

But a press release from Dacia landed the other day, promising a finance deal that would enable you to have a Sandero on your driveway for £166 per month on a four-year finance deal with a £1,923 deposit. That's just over £40 a week and it's probably less than some of us are paying for our energy bills.

But is it any good? The short answer is, yes, it's still really likable.

Scratch around a bit and there are still some cheap plastics here and there, you still need to go for a white one if you want to keep it cheap, and it still has wheels of steel, rather than alloy, but there's quite a few standard goodies thrown in to justify the fact its five-figure price tag.

A Bluetooth stereo with smartphone connection is now included, as is cruise control and Autonomous Emergency Braking. You get LED headlights now, along with body-coloured bumpers and twin airbags. You even get air conditioning thrown in.

You do only get manual rear windows, and manually-adjustable mirrors, and if you want a spare wheel and tyre you've got to pay an extra £300. But the Sandero does what it always did best, it gives you the essence of a car, without any pointless additions that just pile on the price.

In its most basic form, it has a three-cylinder, 91hp engine with a six-speed gearbox - and there's also a bi-fuel version available, which has an LPG tank.

Part of me thinks it would be worth hopping up to the lavish "Expression" version, because you'll get a touch-screen infotainment system with a reversing camera, parent company Renault's excellent Keyless entry card, nice upholstery and even automatic wipers.

While this would cost an extra £1,000 to buy outright, on Dacia's finance calculator, if you don't add any extras, you could drive away with the "posh" Sandero for just £169 per month on a four-year deal.

In either version, the Sandero is surprisingly good to drive. It sits on the same platform as the current-generation Renault Clio and Nissan Juke, so it's spacious, sure-footed and easy to drive.

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It's fair to say, it feels a few worlds apart from the cattle-class Sandero I drove back in 2013. But barely anyone bought the cheapest version, and I suspect the Expression version of the latest Sandero will be the biggest seller this time round.

There's a beguiling honesty to the Sandero. I love the fact it doesn't pretend to be something it's not, and I love the fact we can still buy cheap cars with a subdued number of "frills". For people who just want a vehicle to take them from A to B, this exists to satisfy their brief.

Of course, for keen drivers, or for anyone who craves a bit of luxury, it's not going to suit. But that's fine. Let's just celebrate the fact there's still a car on the market that normal people can afford, and let's not forget these days are numbered.

There are faster cars, there are more economical cars, there are cars with better emissions figures, there's even a cheaper car if you head to a Kia dealership and talk to them about the Picanto - but if you can cope with four years of finance, the Sandero could cost you less than your council tax each month, and you'll have a safe, practical, competent and comfortable runabout.

That definitely sounds like good news to me.