Some months ago when I signed up to this forum I mentioned I would be upgrading to a new Stepway. Well Last Tuesday after just over 10 months of waiting, delays and frustrations I finally managed to pick it up.
What have I got, a Sandero Stepway Prestige in Desert Orange, 6 speed manual gearbox, and petrol exactly as shown on Dacia’s advert.
Do I like it, well it’s taking a bit of getting used too.
The colour is actually lighter in real life than it seems on the select your car site (subject to me being colour blind in the red/green spectrum).
The car is much quieter to drive than my old 65 Sandero and the engine seem much ‘puncher’ and quicker to respond to a touch on the loud pedal. The seats are comfortable and have a pretty good range of adjustments. Steering is very light at low speeds and gets more ‘restrained’ as you get faster (that’s how I found it your mileage may vary).
Still having ‘fun’ with the keyless entry and the start button, had to study the manual to find out how to turn on the accessories side on the car without starting it. Oh yes I must remember to actually ‘Stop’ the engine when parking up not rely on the ‘Stop/Start’.
The electronic handbrake will take some getting used too, I have driven cars with a ‘real’ handbrake since I was 17 and I’m about to turn 76 next year so stopping on a hill or at traffic lights will be ‘interesting’. Any tips?
The Nav unit seems to work as expected and connects to my mobile fine. I used Android Auto with Google maps as a test on my way home from the dealer (30 miles or so), and I was surprised by how accurate the Nav worked. The voice directions even gave the road names as well as the number and worked out any changes very fast.
The warnings from the proximity detectors took me by surprise as I pulled up facing the wall at home the screen lit up and warnings flashed as I approached (I can turn most of this stuff off in the Nav settings but I will leave as is for now).
So downsides, I miss the gas lift strut on the bonnet, back to the old ‘pull down the holding bar’ type of fitting. The gearbox is a bit stiff and somewhat woolly to use I find 5 to 6 to be the worst but most say it frees up after some 500 miles or so. The double height boot floor is OK but a bit of a fiddle to change, not that I’ll do it very often.
Otherwise I’m pleased with the car and even my friends were impressed. Would I buy a Dacia again yes but this time from a forecourt not as a pre-order (although I did get it at last year’s price before all the rises).
Finally a question, on the instrument panel (the digital one between the dials) is a small picture of a car (not the door open one) it sometimes changes from grey to white (sort of lights up) but I can’t find what it means in the manual, anyone have any idea?
