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Dacia Sandero variants
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Finance representative example (PCP)

Total cash price £12,399. Borrowing £12,150 with a £249 deposit at a representative APR of 11.9%.

48 monthly payments
£243.15
Fixed interest rate
11.9%
Total amount payable
£16,343.12
Cost of credit
£3,944.12
Optional final payment
£4,423.00
Purchase fee
£10.00
Annual mileage limit
6000 miles

Dacia Sandero buying guide

There are a selection of different Dacia Sandero engines and trims available. We'll look at them in more detail here so you can choose the best version for you.

What Dacia Sandero trim levels are there?

Access was previously the entry-level trim for the Sandero but this was dropped around 2022. We'd avoid this version anyway because its stripped-back equipment list is a little too light for our tastes. You get 15-inch steel wheels with hubcaps, unpainted bumpers, a stop-start system and a smartphone holder.

Essential is better equipped with body-coloured bumpers, a 60/40-folding rear bench seat, cruise control, a height-adjustable driver's seat, air conditioning and a DAB radio.

Comfort trim is the range-topping option. This gets more body-coloured parts on the door handles and mirror caps, 15-inch alloy wheels, keyless entry, satin chrome interior details, rear parking sensors and a reversing camera, automatic wipers and heated door mirrors. You also get a touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. This trim was renamed to Expression in 2022.

What's the Dacia Sandero's interior and technology like?

The Sandero is an affordable car – one of the most affordable cars you can buy – so you can't expect it to come draped in the finest materials. That said, Dacia has judiciously deployed some cloth trim on the top of the dashboard that helps soften the appearance somewhat. What it lacks in style, however, it makes up for with ease of use because all the controls are easy to reach, clearly labelled and intuitive to adjust. The Sandero picks up a few more points for keeping physical controls for the heater and A/C, which are easier to use than the touchscreen-based setups in some rivals.

Only the top-spec Sandero Comfort or Expression gets a touchscreen infotainment system. It's a fairly simple unit with an eight-inch screen that benefits from Dacia's stripped-back user interface, making it easier to read at a glance. The responsiveness of the screen and sharpness of the graphics are far from the class best but, with standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, you'll be able to use all the functions you care about on the move. Basic models include a smartphone cradle in place of an infotainment system – a fair substitute at this price point.

The Sandero is nearly 4.1 metres long. That makes it comfortably larger than lots of its key rivals at this price point including the Fiat Panda, Citroen C3 and Suzuki Swift. The extra space translates to one of the largest interiors at this price point, with the Sandero easily able to seat two adults in the back with few complaints. In fact, the Sandero's main competitor in this space is the Dacia Duster SUV, which uses many of the same parts and engines.

Dacia Sandero engine range explained

Engine choices for the Sandero are nice and straightforward. All models use the same 1.0-litre three cylinder engine, with higher-end variants gaining the option of a turbocharger, an automatic gearbox and even an LPG bi-fuel system.

Dacia Sandero 1.0 SCe 65

This is the basic engine choice for the Sandero. It's a simple 1.0-litre, three-cylinder petrol engine with no turbos or hybrid gear to push the price up. The 0-62mph run takes a sluggish 17 seconds but you should average around 53mpg if you drive gently.

Dacia Sandero 1.0 TCe 90

If your budget can accommodate it, the TCe engine is a better all-round choice for the Sandero. It adds a turbo to the 1.0-litre engine bringing power up to 90hp. This drops the 0-62mph run to less than 12 seconds – still not very quick, but it'll feel noticeably more relaxed at higher speeds. Average economy remains around 53mpg if you drive efficiently, or 49mpg if you select the optional automatic gearbox.

Dacia Sandero 1.0 TCe 100 Bi-Fuel

The range-topping engine for the Sandero isn't exactly a performance option but could save you some money in the long run. The TCe 100 Bi-Fuel has tanks for regular unleaded fuel and LPG fuel – which costs around half what unleaded costs per litre – and will automatically swap between the two. You get a total of 100hp for acceptable performance and an average of 52mpg when running on petrol and around 40mpg when running on LPG.

Dacia Sandero FAQs

There's one version of the Sandero – a five-door, five-seat hatchback. You can get the similar-looking Dacia Sandero Stepway, which includes SUV-inspired styling and a slightly raised ride height. For even more space, look to the Dacia Duster SUV.

The Sandero measures in at just less than 4.1 metres long. That places it comfortably in the supermini class opposite cars like the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Polo. Unlike those cars, however, the Sandero is priced as though it comes from the class below, so represents fantastic value for money considering the space it offers.

If you're a young or first-time buyer, you should hunt out the non-turbo 1.0-litre SCe engine. This has just 65hp so isn't going to feel fast – at all – but will return more than 50mpg and has a nice, low insurance group rating.

For everyone else, the TCe 90 is a better all-round choice. It's more affordable than the bi-fuel TCe 100 model, without the added complication of filling with both petrol and LPG, and has just enough performance that it feels nearly as relaxed on the motorway as it does around town.

At this price point, the Sandero could be a very mediocre car and it'd still represent good value for money considering how affordable it is.

It's a good thing then, that the Sandero has plenty of redeeming qualities beyond just its low price. The ride quality is fairly good, for example, and the on-board controls are super-simple to use.

Dacia tends to perform fairly well in reliability surveys mainly thanks to the fact its cars are generally quite stripped back. This means they typically have fewer features that can go wrong compared to more expensive cars from more premium manufacturers.

You can specify an optional extended warranty when you buy your Sandero. This will cover you in the event of an unexpected mechanical or electrical failure.

The Dacia Sandero is a compact, lightweight car with small, efficient engines. As a result, it's probably not the best choice for towing a caravan, unless your tourer is a particularly light model.

Sanderos with the non-turbo 1.0-litre SCe engine are rated to pull a braked trailer weighing up to 980kg. All other Sandero models with turbocharged engines are rated to pull 1,100kg.

As standard, all Sanderos include a tyre re-inflation kit allowing you to patch and refill a flat tyre at the side of the road. An emergency spare tyre is available as an optional extra on all trims, however, so buyers looking at nearly new Sanderos may want to hunt around for a model that has this option selected.

Yes. There is an optional automatic gearbox available for the Sandero. It's a CVT-type automatic and is only available on the TCe 90 mid-range petrol engine. It trades away a little performance and efficiency compared to the standard-fit manual gearbox, but means you don't need to fuss around with a clutch pedal.

Insurance groups vary depending on the model year, engine and trim choices you make when buying your car. Broadly speaking, most non-turbo Sanderos sit in group 8 (of 50) making them fairly affordable to cover. The rest of the range sits around group 15 – still generally affordable but not quite as cheap to cover as the entry-level SCe model.

The full answer here would be a several-hour-long lecture covering international financial relations and the macroeconomics of large multi-national organisations. Obviously, that's all crushingly boring, so let's keep it simple.

The Sandero is very cheap for a number of reasons. For one, it uses a platform along with parts and engines that have already been developed for Renault cars, saving R&D costs.

Then, Dacia is very careful about the range of options it offers. More trims and options means more complexity on the production line and, thus, higher production costs.

Finally, the company is tactically chooses what countries to build its cars in – taking care to select locations that have affordable labour costs. Building a car in France, for instance, generally costs a lot more than building it in Romania or Morocco.