Dacia hits the right note with Stepway

The Dacia Sandero Stepway is a good looking crossover

How about a cute little crossover for less than the price of a supermini?

That’s what Dacia is promising with the new Dacia Sandero Stepway, which has just arrived on our shores.

The Romanian brand landed in Ireland last year offering ‘shockingly affordable’ cars, and it now has four in the range – the hugely popular Dacia Duster SUV, the Dacia Sandero compact hatchback and the Dacia Logan MPV.

The Dacia Stepway is built on a Sandero base – meaning it has the manoeuverability of a small hatchback, with the elevated driving position of an SUV.

It’s quite a nice looking car – with Stepway embossed on the side (just in case others are curious as to what you’re driving). Our test car was a beautiful blue colour.

Inside the cabin and there’s no doubt that you’re in a budget car when you look at the fabric upholstery (again carrying with the Stepway logo) and the plastic finishings.

However, the seats are comfortable and the top of range Signature model I was driving has some high end features, such as cruise control/speed limiter, Bluetooth, electric windows and parking sensors.

Inside, the cabin is quite basic

Legroom in the front is generous and two adults would be comfortable in the back – but not particularly tall ones. I’m 5ft 5in and I had plenty of legroom sitting behind a driver of the same height but I think taller people may find it a bit cramped.

The boot is large, but there’s quite a big lip on it. Boot space can be further extended by easily lowering the rear seats.

Our route in this car kept us mainly in the city, on city and suburban streets as well as on the motorway.

Dacia is owned by Renault and the Sandero Stepway shares the French marque’s engines. The test car was fitted with a 1.5 litre 90 hp diesel engine.

Its drivability grew on me over the week that I had it.

The test car was a five-speed manual diesel and I started off with it in eco mode, which is quite tame.

However, take it out of eco and you get a far more satisfying drive, especially when you push it.

In the city, it drives well and on the motorway you can have some fun in it when you drive it hard.

However, I wouldn’t describe it as a ‘driver’s car’ and handling isn’t great during enthusiastic driving, with understeer and body roll on corners and roundabouts evident.

I found it extremely affordable to fuel, with the dial barely moving over the 400km-odd I drove over the week.

The Dacia Sandero Stepway is a budget car and to achieve an affordable price Dacia had to make some compromises.

The boot in the Dacia Sandero Stepway is a very decent size

The boot, for instance, can only be opened from the outside with the key, which can be quite annoying. There’s also no pull down handle or hand grip to help you close the tailgate, which opens quite high.

The locking mechanism in the boot is also quite odd looking – because in most cars it’s covered so you don’t see how it works.

Inside the cabin, all four window switches are in the middle of the car – the front ones in the centre console, the rear between the front seats. This placement saves on extra wiring costs.

We had some pretty wet weather during our test week and I found that this placement, and the fact that the windows aren’t automatic, made it difficulty to close the driver window quickly in a deluge.

The driver’s sun visor has a vanity mirror – but there’s no cover on it so you catch glimpses of yourself all the time. This can be quite distracting.

Overall, keeping in mind that this is a budget car, I think the Dacia Sandero Stepway is a good looking, affordable vehicle, that will take you from A to B in comfort.

The Dacia Sandero Stepway is available now, with prices starting from €12,290. The top of the range Signature diesel model I was driving starts from €15,690.

Tech Spec
Engine: 1.5 dCi 90
Acceleration: 0-100km/h in 11.8seconds
Maximum Speed: 167kph
CO2 emissions: 105g/km
Combined fuel economy: 4.0l/100km
Annual road tax: €190

Visit the Dacia Ireland website or its Facebook page for further details.

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