Cheaply made, engine not powerful enough for the size of the car
Rocker box gasket failed at 3800 miles.
7 week wait for replacement gasket; had to purchase 5 litres of engine oil from the Dacia dealership in order to prevent oil starvation and failure.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 1st January, 2020
Build quality is woefull, spare parts, who knows
Bought this car 30 March 2017. Build quality is poor, shut lines on my car bonnet to wings varied from 3mm windscreen to 7 mm grill both sides. This could NOT be fixed.
Then... I noticed the air flow to the cabin wasn't working correctly. It went to the dealers on 09/06/2017 who said the fan box "the air direction flaps are not connected in the fan box, it needed a new one". A new part needs to come from Dacia Renault's supplier and would be available by 04/08/2017. This came and went; now I've been told it will not be available till DECEMBER 2017 possibly. My new car has been sat outside in a damp compound since June till who knows when getting damp, flat tyres and seizing rusty brake discs. GET ONE OFF THE ASSEMBLY LINE, the dealer and I have both told Dacia Renault. But NO, they are paying £22 a day for a hire car. GREAT management strategy. When will this ridiculous farce end?
Previous car was better, then Dacia changed production from Romania to Morocco and build quality has suffered. I do not know how my car got past quality control.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 9th September, 2017
Reliability of these cars depends where they are made. But it is still a very cheap and nasty car, there are better options for just a little more money, so I have no idea why anyone bothers with them here in the UK.
For the price it's a no brainer
Nothing to date.
This is my second Sandero; my previous one was the 1.2 Ambiance; whilst it gave no issues at all in my ownership, I found the engine to be too underpowered for my liking. The 1.2 engine is the Renault D4F unit, which is a great engine, but it's a 15 year old design and it shows; very unrefined and noisy; good round town, but not fun at 70mph on a motorway.
So I traded it in for this new one with a 0.9 turbo unit and it's a real gem of an engine. Being the 2017 model, a few things have been improved; the interior quality has been upgraded, air con comes as standard, and the headlights have been upgraded to LED ones.
So whats it like to drive? Well basically the Sandero runs on the old Clio platform, which isn't a bad thing as the Clio was a good car to drive. Dacia have jacked the suspension up, which makes the car ride very smooth over our rough UK roads. However this isn't a car that likes to be pushed round corners, with quite a bit of body roll. Normal drivers won't be put off by this, as at every day speeds the handling is adequate. The steering is nicely weighted and the brakes are sharp.
The engine is the big selling point of this car. It has been developed in conjunction with the Renault F1 team. It's a 900cc 3 cylinder turbo. It pulls very well with the turbo kicking it at around 2000 RPM; you can really hear it spooling up as well, which sounds pretty cool. Power is rated at 90bhp, which is astonishing for such a small engine. It has stop start and an eco button which cuts power to the turbo to save fuel when town driving. Reliability should be good as the cams are chain driven. Fuel economy for mine has been in the region of 40-45 MPG, which sounds bad, but my engine is still tight; I should see mid 50s once it's properly run in.
Equipment on my model as standard isn't a lot, but it's enough for most. Ambiance spec comes with electric front windows, Bluetooth DAB radio, air conditioning, remote locking, power steering, eco mode/stop start, and LED daytime running lights.
And how much does this cost? Just £7500 for a brand new car. Road tax was £30 on these, but thanks to our great government it's now £140 a year like all other cars. Dealers have been fantastic with both my purchases and I recommend anyone thinking about a Dacia to go and test drive a few; I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 6th May, 2017
26th Oct 2017, 20:06
Oh dear :( I'm so sorry to hear of this. We have 5 Dacias in our family; 1 Duster, 3 Sanderos and a Stepway.
The most recent one is my wife's, and we had a similar issue with the build quality with hers. The bonnet didn't line up, the passenger door didn't line up, and it was handed over with an obviously covered up dent on the top of the passenger door frame. I spotted the issues straight away, and in all fairness the dealer have done very well in getting it all sorted for us. Mind you, it did take 3 weeks at the body shop to get it right, so we had an awful Twingo as a courtesy car.
The other 4 Dacias, mine included, have all been faultless. The Sandero is still built in Romania, but the dealer did say that demand was so high that some were being rushed on the production line and it shows.
I really hope you get yours sorted :-)