Dacia Sandero Stepway review

The quality of the interior may not be up to much, but where the Sandero Stepway leaves most small cars trailing is in interior space. The driver and front passenger have a huge amount of leg and head room, as well as enough shoulder room so that it never feels claustrophobic.

There’s a useful cubby between in front of the gearlever that is big enough to take a wallet or a set of house keys, but is slightly too small for larger modern smartphones to fit securely. Each front door has a storage pocket, but not a particularly big one, so only smaller water bottles will fit. The glovebox is also a decent size, allowing you to store more than just the car’s manual.

Very few other small cars provide as much space for passengers in the back. Head room is extremely generous, while leg room is very good by small car standards.

There’s no option to fold the front passenger seat flat to allow for longer items to fit and that seat doesn’t get height adjustment – even if you go for range-topping Techroad trim.

The boot itself is mightily impressive regardless. It’s actually one of the largest in the small car class, being quite a bit bigger than those of the Suzuki Swift and Ford Fiesta, and only slightly smaller than the Skoda Fabia’s – the car that leads the class on luggage space. And if you go for the ‘Bi-Fuel’ version, the LPG tank is under the boot floor where the spare wheel would otherwise be, so there is no reduction in boot capacity to accommodate it.

Although there aren’t any especially clever touches in the boot, such as a variable-height floor, there's a couple of bag hooks and easily enough room for the weekly groceries. There is a boot lip to negotiate, but the boot opening is wide so it’s fairly easy to load bulky items.