Dacia Sandero
Published · Researched 2026-09-21
Dacia Sandero — Review
The Sandero is the cheapest new car in Britain, and the honest question is whether "cheapest" secretly means "worst". It doesn't. It means "least". Least car, least money, least fuss — and that turns out to be a formula people genuinely love.
What it is: a proper supermini on the Renault Clio's platform with a 1.0-litre turbo three-cylinder (90hp, or the 100hp Bi-Fuel that runs on LPG), a manual gearbox you should absolutely choose, and a Stepway version with hiking boots on. Nothing about it is premium. Everything about it is priced like it isn't.
The praise from owners has a specific texture — it's not excitement, it's relief. Relief that a new car can cost £14,795 and still have air-con, cruise control, parking sensors and a reversing camera. Relief that insurance is cheap and servicing is £399 for three years. One owner who bought his Sandero in 2017 put it the way they all do: "Reliability has been faultless: just routine servicing and tyres. It's no-frills motoring but honest and practical. I'd happily have another." A Carwow tester who daily-drives a 340hp electric VW spent a week in the Sandero and came back raving about the "satisfying thunk" of the indicator stalk. When the indicator stalk is the highlight, you know what kind of car this is — and he meant it as a compliment.
The Bi-Fuel is the clever buy in the range. LPG costs a fraction of petrol, the car feels stronger low-down than the standard 90hp, and you give up the spare wheel for a 40-litre LPG tank that gives the thing a frankly silly cruising range. The catch is infrastructure: if you don't live near an LPG station, it's a 100hp petrol with a tank you can't fill. Check your local map before you commit.
Now the complaints, because there are real ones. First: warning lights. This is the Sandero's signature fault across two generations — engine-management lights and other dash warnings that keep coming back and need repeated dealer visits, "even when nothing is actually wrong". If a used Sandero's dashboard looks like a Christmas tree, walk away, and if the one you own keeps lighting up, budget patience rather than money. Second: the CVT automatic. It's lurchy in stop-start traffic, it blunts the already modest performance, and every reviewer and owner forum says the same thing — buy the manual. Third: dealer service is a coin flip, efficient for some and slow with poor communication for others, which is why the 7-year Dacia Zen warranty is both the best thing about owning one and a promise you may have to chase.
The 2-star Euro NCAP rating deserves a straight answer. The crash scores were fine — on pure protection it's roughly a 4-star car. It lost the stars because its emergency braking can't see pedestrians and cyclists properly and it's missing the driver-assist kit rivals fit. Dacia's position is that the stars cost money and buyers voted with their wallets: the Sandero was Europe's best-selling retail car. If your driving is mostly school runs through busy streets, buy the Clio with its 5 stars and pay the premium. The Sandero's buyers have made their peace with the tradeoff.
The social pulse is warm and unpretentious. Nobody's flexing a Sandero on Instagram; they're recommending it to friends and relatives in Facebook groups and owner forums with the zeal of people who've found a loophole. Press coverage is a permanent "cheapest car in Britain" template — real value, recycled headline.
Value call: the sweet spot is a 2023 manual — pre-facelift gen 3, fully sorted, with the LPG-tank recall already issued so you can check the VIN and buy with confidence, for roughly £10.5k–12k in the UK. Skip 2021 — launch year, three Safety Gate recalls (bonnet lock, fuel-leak fire risk, and the dawn of the warning-light era). Skip the CVT in any year. And if you're looking at pre-2021 cars for £1,000–£3,000, only touch a 0.9 TCe with proof the timing chain was done — the "death rattle" at 40,000 miles costs £1,400-plus to fix, on a car worth less than the repair. New-car buyers: the 2026 facelift is better equipped and somehow cheaper (£14,795), which makes it the rare case where buying new isn't financial self-harm.
The Sandero is the only new car that treats poverty of features as a feature. Buy the manual, check the warning lights, and enjoy the cheapest honest motoring in Europe.