Dacia Sandero review

Introduction

The Dacia Sandero is from a Romanian brand owned by a French car maker (Renault), but its name has its roots in Greek. It means warrior – and we have to admit it fights hard to give good value.

In fact, no other new small car undercuts the Sandero on price – even the tiny Kia Picanto is more expensive than the entry-level Sandero. Want the most basic Skoda Fabia? Expect to spend thousands more.

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RRP from: £14,765

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What Car? indicative Personal lease example (subject to status)

1.0 TCe Essential Hatchback 5dr Petrol Manual Euro 6 (s/s) (100 ps)

Expected annual mileage	5000
Term months	48
Deposit months	12
Monthly payment	£193.34
Initial payment	£2,320.08

Step-by-step

Leasing works a bit like a long-term rental. You drive it, but you don’t own it.

• Choose your car, pick your terms and apply for lease credit online
• Pay monthly rental payments for your chosen term length
• Drive it, enjoy it, then give it back at the end

What you get

When you lease with Autotrader you get all of this:

• Full manufacturer’s warranty
• Road tax and roadside assistance included
• No admin fees
• Free returns within 30 days*

In partnership with

£2,320 initial payment, 48 month contract, 5000 miles p/a. Subject to status and conditions.

• Lower total monthly cost than PCP/HP
• No balloon payments
• Road tax included

The Sandero has also recently been facelifted, which – along with redesigned front and rear bumpers, a small bump in power and upgraded safety tech – has ushered in a near-£1000 price cut.

Okay, so it’s cheap, but does that mean you’re just getting a basic box on wheels? In the past, the answer was yes. Now, though, it’s based on the same underpinnings as the latest Renault Clio and feels much more modern.

Dacia Sandero video review

How does the Sandero fare against the best small cars on sale?

What’s new?

- October 2025: Facelift brings new lights and bumpers front and rear, upgraded infotainment, extra safety kit, higher-quality interior trim
- March 2024: Trim levels revised to Essential, Expression, Journey. TCe engine is now available with an automatic gearbox
- May 2022: SCe 65 is axed
- December 2020: Sandero Mk2 on sale with three different 999cc three-cylinder petrol engines: 64bhp non-turbo SCe 65, or 89bhp (TCe 90) and 99bhp (TCe 100) turbocharged options. TCe 100 is bi-fuel (petrol/LPG) unit. Access, Essential and Comfort trims
- September 2020: Sandero Mk2 unveiled

Overview

Often the verdict for a car costing this little would be "cheap but not great". Not here, though. The Dacia Sandero is one of the great all-rounders and is particularly strong when it comes to practicality. That disappointing Euro NCAP safety score remains a concern, even though the Sandero has since had its safety tech (slightly) upgraded. We believe Expression trim offers the best blend of kit and cost.

Our pick

1.0 TCe Expression Hatchback 5dr Petrol Manual Euro 6 (s/s) (100 ps) review

RRP £15,765

Pros

• Amazingly good value
• Lots of space for passengers and luggage
• Comfortable ride

Cons

• Poor safety rating compared with rivals
• There are more entertaining small cars to drive
• Some other small cars are quieter

Our pick

1.0 TCe Expression Hatchback 5dr Petrol Manual Euro 6 (s/s) (100 ps) review

RRP £15,765

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Performance & drive

What it's like to drive, and how quiet it is

Engine, 0-60mph and gearbox

The Sandero is available with just one petrol engine, badged the TCe 100. It’s a 1.0-litre three-cylinder unit with 99bhp and the resulting 0-62mph time is 9.7sec. Every Sandero has a six-speed manual gearbox.

The Sandero TCe 100 is a fair bit quicker than the old TCe 90 (12.2sec). It’s also faster off the mark than the Renault Clio TCe 90 (11.5sec) and Skoda Fabia 1.0 TSI 95 (10.7sec), too.

Still, it’s a shame that the TCE 100 Bi-Fuel – our previous favourite engine which could run on petrol and liquified petroleum gas (LPG) – is now off sale.

Suspension and ride comfort

The Sandero has relatively soft suspension, which smooths out creases and folds in the road well. It does so while feeling more planted and settled than the Citroën C3, too.

If you want a small car with a noticeably more comfortable ride, you’ll need to spend a lot more cash on a Peugeot 208 or VW Polo. Both feel more polished on really rough roads.

Handling

It’s fair to say that the Sandero isn’t the most exciting car to drive down a twisting B-road. If you want bigger thrills, buy a Seat Ibiza (used, if you can't stretch to a new one), which is a more fun little car to drive.

The Sandero is absolutely fit for purpose, though. Sure, there’s some body lean through tight twists and turns, but you get a decent amount of grip and the steering weights up enough through bends to give you confidence at higher speeds.

Noise and vibration

In terms of being able to drive the car smoothly, the Sandero has no real vices. The clutch has a clear biting point, the brakes are not too sharp and the engine picks up cleanly and smoothly when you squeeze the accelerator.

The Sandero isn’t as quiet as the equivalent engine in the Peugeot 208 (or those of many other rivals). You tend to hear whooshes from the turbocharger and a distinct thrum when you work it hard. That fades away as you hit a steady cruise, though.

What doesn’t fade away is the wind and road noise at motorway speeds which, while not outrageous given the price, is louder than in the 208 or Polo.

“On motorways, I'd say the Dacia Sandero rides smoothly 80% of the time, with it only upset by expansion joints, which tend to send shudders up through the steering wheel” – Will Nightingale, Reviews Editor

Interior

The interior layout, fit and finish

Driving position and dashboard

The Dacia Sandero has a height-adjustable driver’s seat and central armrest, with a steering wheel that adjusts up and down in the entry-level car and also telescopically if you go for one of the two higher trims.

You won’t have any problems seeing the instrument dials and all the dashboard controls, including those for the air conditioning, are simple and clear. In fact, the Sandero is better than some posher small cars in that respect. For example, the Peugeot 208 has fiddly touch-sensitive dashboard buttons.

Visibility, parking sensors and cameras

The windscreen pillars on the Sandero are fairly slim, so seeing out at junctions is easy. On the other hand, the rear pillars are quite chunky and the back window is a little shallow, both making it trickier to see out the back. The same is true of many rival cars, but the Skoda Fabia offers a clearer over-the-shoulder view when you’re reversing.

Luckily, rear parking sensors are standard with all trims, while our favourite Expression trim also adds a rear-view camera. Top-spec Journey makes things easier still, adding front parking sensors into the mix.

Impressively, automatic LED headlights are standard across the range to improve visibility in the dark.

Sat nav and infotainment

The Sandero in entry-level Essential trim has DAB radio with controls on the steering wheel, Bluetooth and a USB socket, so you can connect your phone to the car. There’s no touchscreen, though – you’ll have to use your phone via a phone mount.

To get an integrated infotainment system, you’ll need to go for our favoured Expression trim. That gets a 10.0in colour touchscreen system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone mirroring (so you can use apps from your phone through the screen). Journey trim adds sat-nav.

The touchscreen is helpfully high up on the dashboard and is tilted towards the driver, with some touch-sensitive buttons down the side that you can use as shortcuts between functions. We’d prefer physical shortcut buttons, but the operating system is easy to get used to, and responds to prods and swipes more quickly than the systems in the Honda Jazz and Toyota Aygo X.

Quality

If you want a plush interior, have a look at the Mini Cooper or Peugeot 208. They look and feel upmarket inside by small car standards, with much more showroom appeal than the Sandero.

They’re far more expensive than the Sandero though, which – bearing in mind its price – is well-finished inside. True, the plastics are hard, but then they are in the pricier Hyundai i20 and Skoda Fabia, too.

Besides, the plastics in the Sandero are not unappealing to look at and, if you go for Expression trim or up, there's some tasteful fabric trim on the dashboard to lift the ambience.

“It may be a small detail, but I think the funky design of the air-con vents make the Dacia Sandero feel more upmarket than its bargain pricing would suggest.” – Darren Moss, Deputy Digital Editor

Passenger & boot space

How it copes with people and clutter

Front space

The Dacia Sandero is one of the biggest small cars on sale. In the front, it almost matches the Honda Jazz for head room and beats it for leg room. You’d have to be mighty big to feel cramped (some of our testers are well over six feet tall and didn’t have any problems). The Sandero is wide enough that you won't keep bumping elbows with your passenger, either.

There’s a good amount of storage space, including a large glovebox, two cupholders, reasonable-sized door bins and various other cubbies. You get a moveable armrest from Expression trim up, but it doesn’t have storage space in it – for that you’ll need top-spec Journey trim.

Rear space

The Sandero is similarly roomy in the rear. It doesn't have quite as much leg room as the Jazz, but six-footers will still have a gap between their knees and the seat in front.

There's loads of head room, and because the Sandero is broader than many rivals, it's one of the best small cars for carrying three in the back. The rear door bins are quite small though.

Seat folding and flexibility

There's not much to get excited about here, to be honest. All Sanderos come with 60/40 split folding rear seats – which is par for the course among small cars – but there's no ski hatch or any other handy features.

The Jazz, by contrast, does all sorts of clever tricks, including allowing you to flip up the rear seat bases. Again, though, you pay for that versatility – almost twice as much as for a Sandero, in fact.

Boot space

While the design of the Sandero's boot could be improved by reducing the size of the lip at the entrance, you can’t argue with its size. Officially, you get 328 litres of boot space below the parcel shelf, and we managed to fit six carry-on suitcases inside. That's more than most cars in the class (including the Jazz) and a match for the Skoda Fabia.

There's some exposed bodywork around the boot entrance that's easy to scuff and scratch when lifting heavy items in and out. We'd recommend investing in protective film to prevent that.

“Even though they have three rear seatbelts, a lot of small cars feel horribly cramped if you try to fit more than two people in the back. However, I'd happily spend time in the Dacia Sandero's centre seat.” – Doug Revolta, Head of Video

Buying & owning

Everyday costs, plus how reliable and safe it is

Equipment, options and extras

Even with entry-level Essential trim, you get a respectable amount of standard kit on the Sandero. That includes body-coloured bumpers, 15in steel wheels with wheel trims, cruise control, front electric windows, rear parking sensors and air conditioning.

We’d recommend going for mid-range Expression trim if you can. It’s still astonishing value but comes with lots of extra toys, including 16in alloy wheels, a rear-view camera and windscreen wipers, keyless entry and touchscreen infotainment.

Top-spec Journey trim adds 16in alloy wheels, automatic air conditioning, sat-nav and a few other niceties for another small step-up in price. It’s tempting, but we’d still stick with Expression trim because it saves you money and gets everything you need.

Costs, insurance groups, MPG and CO2

If you go for entry-level Essential trim, the Dacia Sandero has the lowest list price of any new car sold in the UK. We'd recommend stepping up to Expression trim though, which is still very good value compared with equivalent versions of the Skoda Fabia and all of its other rivals.

Is the Sandero expensive to run? Not at all. On our real-world test route, the previous TCe 90 petrol returned an impressive 47.1mpg, and we’d expect the new TCe 100 to return similar fuel economy. The Toyota Yaris will do better than that but you’ll need to do a silly number of miles to get a return on the extra investment.

The Sandero is predicted to lose its value at about the same rate as most rivals, including the Fabia, but faster than the Honda Jazz and Toyota Aygo X. Because of its much lower sticker price, monthly payments if you buy on PCP finance will still be much cheaper than for those rivals.

Reliability

Dacia placed 11th out of 30 car brands in our 2025 What Car? Reliability Survey, putting it above Skoda (16th), Renault (20th) and Fiat (28th).

The Sandero itself received a 93.1% reliability rating, which is respectable and slots it in between the Renault Clio and Toyota Yaris within the small car class.

Every new Sandero comes with a seven-year/75,000-mile warranty, providing you regularly service it with Dacia. That’s an impressive warranty that beats all of Dacia’s rivals with the exception of Toyota, which offers a 10-year/100,000-mile warranty, with the same servicing commitment.

Safety and security

The Sandero received a disappointing two out of five stars for safety after being tested by Euro NCAP in 2021. Its rivals were tested in 2020, so it’s hard to directly compare scores, but the Honda Jazz and Toyota Yaris were both awarded five stars so they’ll potentially keep you safer in an accident. They also have far more sophisticated active safety systems.

The Sandero gets automatic emergency braking (AEB) – that, as part of the recent update, can now recognise pedestrians and cyclists – tyre-pressure monitoring, six airbags, hill-start assist, Isofix child-seat mounts and e-Call emergency assistance.

“On a recent road trip, I averaged almost 50mpg in a Dacia Sandero with the 1.0 TCe 90 engine.” – Dan Jones, Reviewer

Buy it if…

- Low costs are very important to you

- You prefer comfort over sportiness

- You need a spacious small car

Don’t buy it if…

- You want a car with a good Euro NCAP safety rating

- You’d like an automatic gearbox (it’s manual only)

- You want a small car with a plush interior

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