Dacia Sandero - A Supermini Car

This budget supermini has a year to prove cheap can also be cheerful

At what point does good value become cheap and nasty? There’s an unwritten law that says you can buy a respectable city car for less than $15,200, but you’ll have to settle for something decidedly inferior to get five-door supermini practicality for the same money.

Dacia Sandero

Dacia doesn’t agree with this. This Renault-owned budget brand launched in the UK earlier this year with some headline-grabbing prices, a no-haggle buying policy and bullish comparisons with mainstream rivals.

Dacia’s Qashqai-sized SUV, the Duster, starts at just $13,672, and the Ford Fiesta-rivaling Sandero costs from an incredible $9,112. It’s an impressive enough proposition for us to have overlooked a modest predicted Euro NCAP safety score of three stars and pronounced the Sandero our cheap supermini of choice in the 2013 What Car? Car of the Year Awards

Central locking: Budget buy it might be, but remote locking is still standard

Of course, the entry-level car is basic in the extreme; you don’t even get a light bulb in the boot. Still, if Dacia’s recent history is to be believed, that model isn’t the most popular choice. In fact, the firm’s dealers in continental Europe have tended to sell mid-to high-spec editions – and early orders in the UK would appear to follow that trend. The average price of a UK Duster, for example, is not $13,672 but just over $30k.

So we’ve gone for Laureate trim, with electric windows all round, electric door mirrors, Bluetooth, air-conditioning, a seven-inch touch-screen infotainment system and cruise control. It’s even got remote central locking.

Rear seats: There’s generous headroom in the rear of the cabin

‘We held fire on alloys because they’d have sent the price over $23k’

We’ve also chosen not the old-school 1.2-litre four-cylinder engine, but Renault’s latest 0.9 turbocharged three-cylinder petrol. This produces 90bhp and 99lb ft. of torque, enough for a 0-62mph time of just over 11 seconds and reasonably comfortable motorway cruising.

Economy: officially 54.3mpg, but we’ve so far managed only 39.3mpg

Early press images of the Sandero featured a natty metallic blue paint finish, so we added that at a cost of $714. We also elected to upgrade the stereo to include rear speakers ($380) – this also ‘activates’ the satellite-navigation option within the infotainment system.

We held fire on the alloy wheels, though. They’d have taken the overall price over the $15,200 mark and that was a value barrier we just weren’t prepared to break.

Best described as functional, the Spartan interior reflects the budget price

The result is a fully loaded five-door supermini for $14,463. By comparison, an 80bhp five-door Fiesta with a decent slice of kit would be around $21k. However, it’s worth remembering that your Ford dealer would slash a bit off that figure, whereas the Sandero’s price is non-negotiable.

The Sandero’s cabin and fascia are comfortable enough, but while the dashboard layout is uncluttered and easy to use, you could just as easily call it bare. You’re unlikely to want to get touchy-feely with any of the interior plastics, either.

Boot is big, and is expanded by folding the split rear seatbacks

Still, we have 12 months ahead of us to find out if build quality is up to scratch, and see how the interior finish lives up to the scuffs and bumps of everyday life. Over the course of this year, we’ll aim to find out how many compromises the Sandero asks you to make in return for that astonishing price.

If it does cope with life without too many worries, then this could be one of the most revelatory stories from our fleet in 2013.

Technical specs