In partnership with Autotrader
New Dacia Sandero vs used Ford Fiesta costs
The price of a new Dacia Sandero is one of its most compelling strengths, so what happens in a fight against a used Ford Fiesta that undercuts it?...
Buying and owning
Costs, equipment, reliability, safety and security
Factoring in our Target Price discount, you can pick up a new Dacia Sandero for £14,586 – in the specification of our test car. A used Ford Fiesta (again, in the spec of our test car) from 2020 will set you back around £13,000. Expect an example in respectable condition and one with less than 30,000 miles on its clock.
Alternatively, if you'd rather buy on PCP finance, the Sandero will set you back £195 per month as part of a 48-month contract that also involves a £2219 deposit and an 8000-mile annual limit. If you'd like to keep the car at the end of the contract, that'll be an extra £6330.
As for the Fiesta, we were quoted £192 per month as part of a 48-month contract. The deposit was also £2219 and the mileage was the same, too. At £5333, the optional final payment was less.
According to our data, the Sandero is predicted to depreciate more than the Fiesta over the next three years, with £7011 of the Sandero's value lost, against £5875 for the Fiesta.
The Sandero sits in insurance group 14, meaning it'll set you back around £479 to insure. The Fiesta will be more expensive to insure – after all, it's a fair bit quicker – but not by much. Its insurance group of 15 puts costs at around £501.
As for servicing, you can buy a single Ford Essential Service for £209. You can have your Sandero covered for three years or 30,000 miles (whichever comes first) for £576, meaning the Sandero comes out cheaper after you add up three services of the Fiesta.
It's worth bearing in mind that every new Dacia comes with a three-year/30,000-mile warranty from new. The used Fiesta we have here will be just exiting its three-year/60,000-mile warranty it had from new. You can extend it, though, and we were quoted £271 to do so (for a year) through Ford.
In our 2023 What Car? Reliability Survey, the Sandero placed ninth out of 19 cars in the small car class, while the Fiesta wasn't far behind in 12th. As brands, Dacia ranked 11th out of 32 manufacturers. Ford came 17th.
During our testing, the Sandero averaged 47.1mpg. The Fiesta, despite its extra performance, proved even more efficient – it averaged 47.9mpg.
During safety testing conducted by the independent experts at Euro NCAP, the Fiesta received the maximum five-star rating. The Sandero only received two stars, but remember that the standards are a lot stricter now – more so than when the Fiesta was tested back in 2017. In fact, the Sandero gets automatic emergency braking (AEB) – an important piece of safety kit – as standard, while the Fiesta relegated it to an optional extra when the model was new.
Alternatives
New rivals, used rivals
If you'd like a similarly priced new car rival to the Sandero and can manage dropping down a car size to a city car, then consider the Kia Picanto. Our Target Price puts it at £13,410 (for the cheapest version). It'll be even cheaper to run than the Sandero, plus it's good to drive.
Few come close to matching the Fiesta for driving fun, but the 2017-present Seat Ibiza is one of them. Especially in FR trim, it can tackle a country road very well, not to mention you can get a 1.5-litre petrol in it that offers similar, punchy performance to the Fiesta's 1.0-litre unit. Used prices for such an Ibiza waver around £14,000, although you can't get one as recent as 2020, because the engine was discontinued soon after its 2017 release.
Best small cars 2024 plus the ones to avoid – tried & tested
More people buy small hatchbacks than any other type of car. However, there are an awful lot to choose from, so here we count down the top 10 – and reveal the models to avoid
