FAMILY FRIENDLY WITH PRIMARK PRICING (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

This enhanced version of the third generation Dacia Sandero could very well completely change the way you think about budgeting for a new compact family car. Jonathan Crouch reports.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 91

Wouldn't it be good if the Dacia Sandero could feel properly modern as well as being properly cheap. Well, we're promised that this improved version of the MK3 design is exactly that. Really modern that is. It still pretty cheap too - still the cheapest family car you could choose - but at the same time as being a far better quality hatch in this rejuvenated form. If you're just about to buy a mainstream brand city car, supermini or family hatch, you need to stop right here and read on....

Backgroundword count: 196

From Renault's point of view, it was a great concept. Buy a struggling Romanian car brand (in 2004) using factories with cheap labour. Then take a last-generation Renault hatch design, freshen it up with modern styling and a different badge and sell it at the kind of super-cheap prices that all of these short-cuts could facilitate. So was born the Dacia Sandero in 2013, which was then - and still is now - by some margin Britain's most affordable compact family hatch. With the original version (actually a second generation design that was lightly freshened in 2017), you very much got what you didn't pay for, but loyal owners didn't care. Some of us though, wondered whether this car's sales prospects wouldn't be considerably improved if just a fraction of that affordability could be sacrificed in favour of creating more modern, efficient engineering. In a cabin that didn't feel quite so much like a Bulgarian thrift store. A step towards that goal was made with the third generation model launched in 2020. And continued progress has been made by that MK3 model in the updated form launched in 2025. That's the car we look at here.

Driving Experienceword count: 249

Sandero owners will continue to primarily choose this car with a 1.0-litre three cylinder petrol TCe engine, but now it produces 100hp (up from 90hp before). This core powerplant has that slightly off-beat feel that's unique to three-cylinder engines. And remains paired to the same 6-speed manual gearbox. This has a supremely light shift action, though can feel slightly rubbery and imprecise when you click the gears into each ratio. You can have a CVT auto as an option. The Stepway version can still be had with a 110hp version of this same TCe unit - and can also be ordered with the brand's hybrid 155 electrified powertrain. The hybrid 155 combines a 109hp 1.8-litre four cylinder petrol engine, two electric motors (a 50hp motor and a high-voltage starter/generator), a 1.4kWh battery (230V) and an automatic electric gearbox with four gears for the ICE engine and two others for the electric motor. Otherwise, all is as before, so the Sandero continues to ride on the same Renault Clio-derived CMF-B platform. The electric steering remains light and still doesn't offer any meaningful feedback, but it's precise and predictable enough for everyday driving, and the turning circle is usefully tight at 10.5 metres. You'll get a bit of extra wheel travel if you opt for the crossover-style Sandero Stepway model, but nothing else in terms of off road SUV engineering. So it'll be fine for school run kerbs but of course no use at all for any real off road shenanigans.

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