I have just been reading that the 1.6 litre Access is available from £99 a month

& the top spec Laureate from £139.

 

Much cheapness & reliability sounds good to me. 

Not everybody needs much more than that.

 

http://www.dacia.co.uk/vehicles/offers/index.jsp

 

george

I have heard that my local garage, which lost Mazda franchise earlier this year, is going to be taking on Renault and Dacia - will need to investigate!

Is that Brown Brothers?

When I bought my MX5 in 2009 we looked at and drove an ex demo there.

They were very good gave us the car for the afternoon but when we came to haggling a deal the salesman threw his toys out of the pram because we dared to make him an offer and did not want the Autoglym treatment(if it is so good then the demo would surely already have it?). So we drove on up to Murray Mazda then at Sighthill, Edinburgh. Did the deal there and then on a higher spec ex demo.

It was really quite a surreal car buying experience.

Yes, Brown Bros. They supplies my Mazda and have always got on well with them. Surprised at your experience, must have got the salesman on a bad day! 

I have nothing but praise for the service I have had - to the extent that it was a big factor in choosing a Honda as my next lease car (they have Honda dealership too) Brown Bros not supplying as lease co have central contract but I wanted a reliable local garage for servicing.

I'd have the Black Edition, very Jurrasic Park!

 

 

I sat in one a couple of months ago, and they do feel a bit too low rent for my liking even compared to my Fabia! I thought the seats were particularly bad/uncomfortable, although I suppose being used to an Octavia we are spoilt with particularly comfortable seats.....The vinyl wrap on the one I seen wouldn't be to everyone's taste either. 

 

A shame, as basically I think they are pretty good (Renault underpinnings)......if they just spent a few hundred pounds more on them at the factory it would make all the difference. 

I like the idea.

 

 

But then I think

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its made from bits of Renault.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Renault are French

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It'll soon be broken 

Renault underpinnings = trouble.

 

Older Renault underpinnings = BIG trouble.

 

Comments involving barge poles would be in order........

 

 

Renault underpinnings = trouble.

Older Renault underpinnings = BIG trouble.

Comments involving barge poles would be in order........

Yet both my Renault laguna's (2002 & 2008 models) were more reliable than any of my 4 Skoda's! In fact all four of my past French cars have been reliable, including two citroens with the ultra reliable hydro suspension.

I'd have a Dacia tomorrow and my wife's next car is going to be a Sandero.

Edited 30 September, 201312 yr by mdon

I'd have the Black Edition, very Jurrasic Park!

 

 

 

Almost £20k and a 107bhp diesel 1.5 ?

 

The phrase "hideous depreciation" springs to mind.

Renault underpinnings = trouble.

 

Older Renault underpinnings = BIG trouble.

 

Comments involving barge poles would be in order........

 

Not in my experience with Renault cars. I've always found them to be mechanically very good. The most troublesome Renault I owned was a 2001 Clio. In 4 years it needed new coil packs, and the seat airbag plug under the seat needed repairing. In the last year alone, my Octavia has needed a new roof aerial, new high level brake light and seat airbag plug repaired.

 

It's funny when you mention French underpinnings people get put off........you could equally say it has Nissan underpinnings (Renault and Nissan have been in partnership for 15 years) if it makes you feel any better!   

The slight difference is we are talking the tried and tested diesels that are being used for countries that are slightly more demanding than the UK roads.

Cheap, simple, easy to own, drive, wash and that are almost disposable.

But might actually last pretty well.

 

What will tell is how many 13/63 plates are still around in 10 years and still worth buying as a very cheap second hand car,

compared to those with a 100% higher purchase price now.

 

Renault electrics were often a let down,

but KISS and a diesel should reduce that possible future problems.

Basically at the price of the basic cars, not much competition out their from other manufacturers at the prices Dacia are doing for people that just want a new car with some space in it and not high servicing costs or outlay.

 

george

Saw a black edition one in Kilkenny yesterday on Italian plates, tinted windows, big wheels and black leather interior, looked very nice indeed, infact it was getting a fair bit of attention

 

K:)

I've watched my mate scrap his 56 Megane (diesel), i've seen an 04 Laguna unusable because the 'smart' card ignition reader couldn't be made to work. I've owned a 407 which was utter sh!t.. Its from experience I make the assertion that French = poop.

Shame really because I loved my 205, 306 and to an extent 406 (the beginning of the end). My mom's 16v Clio was awesome too.  In fact as a family we were once rather keen on them, sister had a 309 GTi and the old chap had a 405 and 406.

 

Renault, Citroen and Peugeot might be pulling their socks up but at these prices Dacia won't be feeding from today's parts bins. It will be interesting to see just how reliable these cars are, my money would be on not brilliant.

Its basically Nissan X Trail running gear with a renault engines so should be ok.

The oily bits in my Clio were actually ok and didn't give any bother. It was the electrical bits, motorised bits and bendy bits that broke.

 

The Dacia seems to have precious few of them.

 

Did I read somewher the interior was hose washable? That would be great.

Almost £20k and a 107bhp diesel 1.5 ?

 

The phrase "hideous depreciation" springs to mind.

 

If depreciation was my main priority I wouldn't be driving a Skoda.

The engines are my biggest gripe.  We had a diesel Scenic on which just about everything electric failed at one time or another, we could never get the thing to run properly and the final straw was that, due to a design defect the auxiliary drive belt used to shred.  Not a huge problem in itself but there was no guard cover on the fan belt so when the auxiliary belt shredded for the third time it took out the cam belt as well.  Even at mates rates that was an £800 rebuild.  It was only at that point that we were told about the modification to the auxiliary belt pullies which cured the basic problem.

 

My other gripe is that Renault design to ensure that routine jobs are as difficult (and therefore expensive) as possible.  I do not accept that the first step in replacing a headlamp bulb is to jack the car up and remove the front wheel (Megane).  VAG products tend to have less of these nonsenses built into them, I've had Fabia / Polo / Roomster and there has never been a bulb I couldn't replace in under 10 minutes, the offside headlight bulb on the Polo was the worst as it required moving the fuel filter (3 bolts).

 

Any European built Nissan is just a Renault in disguise, so I would steer well clear of them as well (although I appreciate that they screw them together better in Sunderland than they do in France).  Japanese built Nissans still seem to have some design autonomy which has to be a good thing.  It's interesting how many people have really big problems with Renault.  They aren't always rock bottom of customer satisfaction surveys for no reason.

 

You get good and bad examples of all makes, in part it comes down to how good the dealers are at dealing with problems. and my experience of Renault dealers has not been good.  You may say that Renault are better than they used to be, that would not be difficult.  Despite that, it is a road I have absolutely no intention of going down again and if I can provide a public service by helping others to experience the same grief I will do so.

Neither Morocco or India are in Europe.  So cars might get better screwed together there.

 

Renault own Dacia in the same way as VW own their down market brands like Audi, Skoda, Seat

& then there are some of their upmarket brands.

(Thats my wee joke, we know Seats are not down market or bottom of VW's pile.)

george

You can get a 7yr warranty on the Dacia's but you'd need to check the small print.

 

I didn't like my Renault but the dealer was actually very good (Mackie Motors Brechin).

 

If the Dacia tickles your fancy just go in with your eyes open. Depreciation on a 4x4 diesel isn't likely to be too bad relatively.

If you buy a car cash for £13,000 & run it for 7 years and its still worth £2,000 then, its almost nothing motoring.

About £1,500 a year.

(VED and Fuel is not the cheapest tho, not important if you are not doing high miles, & passing MOT's should be a doddle

so little expense there.)

 

Buy a lovely and super driving and economic VW or Skoda with a £28,000 List for £24,000 (or even lease)

and its only getting you an offer of £12,500 in 3 years, then that is paying to drive a nice car. 48% type depreciation.

So maybe costing you over £3,500 a year. (£3800)

Or £24,000 new and still worth £4,000 in 7 years, so £2,800 a year was not quite so bad. & you drove a desirable car.

 

george

The oily bits in my Clio were actually ok and didn't give any bother. It was the electrical bits, motorised bits and bendy bits that broke.

The Dacia seems to have precious few of them.

Did I read somewher the interior was hose washable? That would be great.

my clio was the same. 70000 miles and it got to the pivot point of costing more than it was worth to keep it going. It was built down to a price which showed, though if you want a cheap car thats fine as long as you accept it may not last as long as you hoped before the mechanics get to know it on personal terms and depreciation is likely to be worse thsn other cars costing more. Its the usual thing that you get what you pay for and is down to personal choice.

The insides being able to be hosed down? Sounds like a prospect for a city taxi then if they are reliable!

I have always liked the Duster, it has been out here for a lot longer than the UK and as cars here are twice the price of UK (Stock CR TDI Octy VRS €46000) they are fairly popular and a more and more common site on the roads. I am looking at one right now beyond my screen out the window. Black with brushed alloy roof bars and chrome sill guard bar things, the nicer alloys option. It parks there every day and has done for over a year now. I really like them and it is in my mental list of 'what next'. I am hoping that a 12-18 month old nice speced diesel one in UK with low miles will depreciate enough to make it worth my while trying for one.

 

As for the French side of things people seem to be concerned about, I can only go off my own personal experience. I have owned 9 French cars 2 Clios, 2 Xantia's, 1 ZX, 1 Xsara, 1 C5 and 2 406's. Overall I have had diesels bar the first Clio and only real faults I had out of the lot was a waterpump failure in a 1.9D NA Clio (£500 run around) and a DPF style fault just before trading C5 in for a Mondeo. I used to like the Xantia's as they had electrical gremlins I knew how to sort for free and got them cheap as traders had panicked. I don't think French cars in general will give the driving pleasure or take as much abuse as say VAG cars but...... 1.5DCI in the Duster with fairly basic rest of it being used for country roads I would like to think should fair pretty well. £105 for 2WD tax and £125 for the 4X4 is still cheap for what it is. 2WD claimed 57mpg and 53mpg on 4x4 I am keeping my eye out on fuelly etc for confirmation of anything around 50 I would be a happy camper.  

 

Skoda is becoming too accepted as a brand now, I need my next underdog make

Skoda is becoming too accepted as a brand now, I need my next underdog make

 

I was just thinking the same myself the other day!

I was working over in Romania a couple of months ago...

 

All that donned the streets there were Dacias and speaking to the guys I was working with they very rarely go wrong and are cheap to fix if they do. Maybe they got shot of the crap Renault electronics as the 1.5 DCi engine is a pretty decent block....