Overview

Should you buy a Dacia Sandero Stepway?

The Dacia Sandero Stepway certainly offers fantastic value for money. It’s very spacious and has a big boot given what else you can get at this price, and it’s pretty comfortable, too.

Its biggest problem is the virtually identical Sandero hatchback which is even cheaper and just as practical. Indeed, the only reason to buy the Stepway is that you love the slightly raised ride height.

If your main concern is the faux-SUV looks and your budget is tight, we recommend you get one. However, the less budget-orientated Renault Clio is better to drive and has a nicer interior, while the Dacia Duster is larger and offers more off-roading ability thanks to the availability of four-wheel drive.

If the Stepway does tick your boxes, we’d opt for mid-range car to get the better infotainment system and rear parking aids. Assuming there’s an LPG filling station near you, we’d opt for the Bi-fuel as you’ll soon recoup the extra cost at the pumps. If not, the TCe 90 will do the job just fine and costs less to buy.

What is it?

As Primark so ably demonstrates, going for the cheap option doesn’t mean you have to forgo fashion. It’s the same in the car world, with the Dacia Sandero Stepway offering a sprinkling of SUV-inspired styling to the regular and rather impressive Sandero hatchback.

Those tweaks include a raised ride height to give a bit more ground clearance, specific bumpers front and rear with skidplate-effect elements and tougher looking black plastic accents, extended black plastic wheelarches, larger wheels and roof bars.

To go with the (relatively) upmarket image, you can’t have the weakest of Dacia’s engines. Although that does push the price up slightly, we’d recommend one of the punchier engines anyway. Manual and automatic versions are available, but you can’t have four-wheel drive. You’ll need to jump up to the Dacia Duster or consider a Suzuki Ignis if you want that.

Like the normal Sandero, the Stepway is much larger than similarly priced rivals. Indeed, although it’s city car money it’s actually bigger than the pricier SEAT Ibiza and Renault Clio. That makes it a very practical proposition thanks to decent rear seat space and a generous boot. To understand more about how we’ve reached our conclusions, check out how we test cars here at Parkers.

The price for that space is a safety rating that is considerably behind more expensive rivals. That’s partially down to it using a simpler automatic emergency braking system (although at least all models have it fitted as standard) than pricier rivals.

It’s also worth noting that it doesn’t protect you quite as well in the event of a crash, scoring only a two-star Euro NCAP rating. Even so, it’s still a safer option than many similarly sized and priced second-hand cars and it’s even among the cheapest cars in the UK.

Click through the next few pages to find out exactly how the Dacia Sandero Stepway scores in terms of practicality, efficiency and ease of use in this review, which shares the Parkers team’s collaborative findings.