I'm spending most of my time in Portugal these days and finally broke down and decided I needed wheels. We have rented a bunch of cars including a Sandero which was more tolerable than I figured, and since it's the cheapest (and most popular) car in Europe, it wins. Supposed to be reliable too since it's based on a tried-and-true basic Renault drivetrain. Visited the local (Faro) Dacia dealer and met with a nice young dude who was a total car geek and had time to talk about Miatas and anything else car related. That was a refreshing change from US dealers, which I really hate.
There doesn't seem to be any negotiating here, the price is the price, and they draw up a proposal and you can sign. Or not. Cars in Portugal are stupidly expensive. The car I bought - a base gray 65HP manual Sandero with A/C, a screen, and a spare tire which was about 16K euros. Supposedly the same car in Germany is about 13K. Anyway, the whole experience was no pressure, good car geek conversation, and we should get the car when we get back from the states in early Sept. I'm pumped to have wheels. Might try a drive to Sweden next spring...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC66AIPJ0kk
That recurring Top Gear gag was so good that I knew this was going to be about the Sandero just from the thread title.
Tom1200
PowerDork
7/6/24 12:21 a.m.
In reply to jwagner (Forum Supporter) :
Yeah because we all know that the software will work perfectly everytime............not.
jwagner (Forum Supporter) said:
Dammit, I should have bought it a month ago. It's scheduled for delivery in late August.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/content/news/mandatory-speed-limiters-on-eu-cars-from-2024?refresh=true
Looks like it can be switched off, or you can press the accelerator harder to turn it off.
I drove a Citroen with this "feature". It's nagware. I understand you can turn it off - but you need to do that on every start. There was no hard speed limiter in the sense of a rev limiter, but it was still damned aggravating. The car did a good job of displaying the speed limit on the dash which was pretty cool. But it also beeped at you every time you exceeded it, like when you're slowing down for an intersection or coming out of a roundabout, or the speed limit drops or ...
mtn
MegaDork
7/6/24 11:15 a.m.
I was so excited every time I saw one in Italy a couple weeks ago.
This one was just outside The Vatican. I wonder if the Pope drives one?
Great news! The Sandero has arrived!
I'm seriously impressed with the quality and features of my base level car with just a couple of options. The only thing that sucks is the power - it won't make it up a hill on the highway at 120km/h with the A/C on. The gas mileage is impressive - rated at 53mpg and although I haven't tested it I believe it. Gas is near 8 bucks/gallon so that's nice. 3 cylinders, 1L, 64HP IIRC.
The car was 16.4K euros which I hear is about 3K more than it would cost in Germany. Portuguese car taxes are high. Here's a couple of glamour shots:
warms my heart to see a dacia
In reply to jwagner (Forum Supporter) :
It's like a Kia Rio and a Chevy Spark had a baby. And I love the color!! I hear with some tuning you may be able to get it up to...around...66hp!
Cool little car and with that fuel economy it's probably perfect for the task at hand.
In reply to Loweguy5 :
I'm not real fond of Primer Gray, but it was that or black for the delivery date I wanted. It looks to me like it needs a coat of color - I've seen too many cars that never made it past primer. At least it's shiny. The worst part of it is that the gray cost 400 euros - any color other than white is add'l cost. I would have been fine with white.
It does make road trips in Europe a reality. We're heading to Seville tomorrow.
Figured I'd check in now that we have 2600km on it and have some driving time in it. I'm impressed. The car has all the stuff I really need - air, cruise, Android auto & CarPlay, rear sensors, etc. The interior materials are better than I expected - it doesn't feel cheap. It all fits together and works pretty well and is reasonably comfortable. The handling is decidedly meh, but the ride isn't at all bad for an economy car. And it is an economy car. First tank was 44mpg around town and highway. Second was 46mpg. Last tank was all 75mph hilly highway and about 40mpg.
The only thing really badly missing from this car is power. It's slow. As in it won't get up the bigger hills on the highway at 120kmh. The 3 cyl 64 hp motor feels sluggish and takes a lot of patience. Passing on a two lane needs a long runway.
America needs these things, but the one with the turbo. It's not gonna happen since Renault doesn't have a presence and all the manufacturers seem focused on EVs but I bet a "real car" for under $20k would be a huge hit.
You can actually get a Nissan Versa for under $17k in the US. It's got twice the power of the Sandero!
I was surprised by that. The price :)
Sounds like it needs a nitrous system. You know, as a safety feature so it can get out of its own way.
A friend of mine was just in Italy and was commenting about seeing these Dacia cars everywhere. Enjoy the new ride.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I've driven a couple of Versas and was really unimpressed. There's something to be said for cheap though, and they have a manual trans available so you can avoid the awful Nissan CVT.
I'd rock a Sandero, but I might have held out for a used Cactus.
jwagner (Forum Supporter) said:
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I've driven a couple of Versas and was really unimpressed. There's something to be said for cheap though, and they have a manual trans available so you can avoid the awful Nissan CVT.
The cheapest car on the market and the best car on the market are rarely the same thing :)
Fun fact. The Nissan kicks in the USA is related to the sandero more related to a Dacia duster. But share a lot of commmon parts. So you can drive a nearly similar car in the us.
The local Kia dealer has a 2025 Kia Soul listed for just under $20K and it'll have a better power to weight ratio than the Dacia.
Fun fact - the Dacia auto trans is the dreaded CVT that Nissan uses. We might be looking for the cheapest reliable car available for my daughter to replace the old Saturn, so all this is pretty relevant right now.
