What are Dacias like to drive?

[EatSleepRantRepeat]

I need a much larger car for regular long distance motorway driving (300 miles each way), and looking at monthly PCP costs at the moment, the most sensible financial choice would be a small petrol Dacia SUV until electrics become more capable for that kind of distance.

(I hate Elon Musk with a passion, so there is no way I'd consider a Tesla).

Does anyone have experience with running a Dacia and any plus/minuses for having one? Or other similar brands I may not have tried? The only thing that puts me off so far is I've heard Dacia is owned by Renault, which seem to have a lot of things go wrong with them - my friends' Renaults run like a bag of spanners. I can afford an upmarket brand if I have to, but I don't see the point if petrol will be phased out shortly after paying it off.

Any advice from Dacia car owners (or similar) welcome!

I will agree with what other people are saying about noise. It can make it difficult to hear the kids waffling on in the back. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing though!

There a couple in my family and having driven them on a dual carriageway way I'd say I'd hate to take one on a busy motorway. Feels like being in a tin can like an old low spec car from times gone by. My uncle has just got a Kia and it's fantastic in comparison

The new 2021 face-lift versions are a MILLION miles away from the older ones in terms of build quality, sounds, engine etc

Go test drive one. I really enjoyed it and ordered the Sandero - however I've just cancelled it at its been 4mths waiting for it t to arrive with no due date and they've just told me it's another 2.5mths now. So I'm off to buy a car on the credit card instead.

So if you want one, ask about the delivery times.

I loved my dacia, cheap to run and very reliable. They are very basic cars though, you don't really get any modern bits in them. I had to trade mine in as I wanted air con for the summer, almost got another dacia with air con but chose a peugeot, and I don't think I'd go back to a dacia now.

Awful with crap safety ratings. For the price they're okay, but it depends if that's a huge factor for you, I'd personally rather have less nice to haves and have a reliable car that drives well and is safe.

I test drove a few at the end of last year. All within 4 years old. All low mileage. All bloody awful. They rattled, squeaked, cornered badly on roundabouts, felt cheap and tin-can like. No way would I have one. The salesman seemed to think that was acceptable for the price (which was the only good thing) but my 10 year old car felt tighter and safer than even the 2 year old Dacia.

I’m happy with my Sanderro Stepway. It doesn’t feel fancy but it feels reassuringly solid. It’s a 0.9 engine with turbo so it’s pretty fuel efficient. Much more so than DH’s Corsa. The SatNav isn’t as good as GoogleMaps so I just use that on my phone. The microphone quality for phone calls isn’t great, especially at speed but the audio is ok. It’s slightly annoying that you need the key to open the boot. But it’s reliable, manoeuvrable, like the parking sensors and reversing camera. I think it’s a solid choice and I really like it overall. Prefer it to the Corsa. Not a car person.

Thanks very much for everyone's feedback, I have been here and reading all of it! I think I just need to decide if I want a more high-end car and tolerate paying a huge wedge on petrol when they start to phase it out, or a "for now" car to have until electrics get a better range.

I hate buying cars so much! Overall they're a shit way to invest money because the value only ever goes down, yet they're also really expensive so you want to feel excited about the one you have The main plus point is getting to avoid the shoddy, expensive train service that doesn't think people travel at weekends or might want to sit down for their 4 hour journey!