The £8995 Dacia Duster will be joined in UK showrooms at its January unveiling by the all-new Sandero supermini, spied here testing for the first time ahead of its Paris show launch in September.
Like the Duster, the Sandero will be priced aggressively. Officially, Dacia parent firm Renault is targeting a sub-£7000 price for the Ford Fiesta rival. But given Dacia’s recent form, it could end up being considerably cheaper. The initial target price for the Duster was £10,000 but it eventually came in more than £1000 cheaper than that.
As these spy pictures hint, the new Sandero will have a more recognisable design than the current car, with chunky, characterful and robust looks to reflect its value-for-money positioning. The grille, front bumper and headlight design will mimic those of the larger Duster SUV.
Renault officials are remaining tight-lipped on the potential engine line-up, claiming only that the new Sandero will feature “great technology and engines”. Because of the increased costs, it’s unlikely that the Sandero will get the new petrol turbo engines from the latest Renault Clio. So expect normally aspirated 1.2 and 1.6 petrol engines to feature alongside the familiar 1.5 dCi diesel.
The new model will be slightly larger than today’s Sandero thanks to a reworking of the existing Renault-Nissan B0 platform that underpins all Dacia models. By keeping the same platform and using it across so many different models Renault has achieved the economies of scale that allow such low list prices.
With a price substantially below £7000, the Sandero will fulfil Dacia’s mission statement of offering a car priced alongside rivals from the segment below.
Dacia is also planning to launch a more rugged Stepway ‘soft-road’ version of the Sandero about six months after launching the standard five-door car. This model, which has also been spied testing, will get a raised ride height, body cladding and roof rails.
