Thanks Prince for your feed back but my last car Renault megane had same engine same power and weighed 300 kg more and I still got 60 mpg on the same run as I do every day.
50 mpg for such a light car is not very good.
I spoke to my garage and they said it was the same engine as the megane just set up different but based on old tech.
Probably why they are not more efficient compared to German technology

Sent from my D6603 using DaciaForum.co.uk mobile app

 

I get 70 mpg on motorway speed with a speed of 55 mph (85 km/h) in the 5th gear and ECO on. That is the sweet spot of the fuel consumption. A higher speed means more fuel. I get to 45-50 mpg when using 75-80 mph speed. In urban mode, I only get 45 mpg but the average speed in crawl mode around the city is 10 mph (16 km/h).

My car is 40k miles old. How old is yours?

http://www.daciaforum.co.uk/forum/topic/25737-dacia-sandero-diesel-mpg-consumption/

 

Very happy. Very good value.

The complaints I have are first world problems

- no auto lights (I live in Switzerland and lots of tunnels)

- intermittent wipe interval not adjustable

9000km since August, 45-50 mpg but I'm on Winter tyres and have a lot of mountains to go up and down

 

Just some thoughts on my '17 stepway laureat dci. I bought the car about six months ago as a 2 berth caravan tug. I fell in love with caravanning about three years ago and had kitted myself out with a Santa Fe 2.2 deisel and an old avondale 4 berther, fantastic rig and not too expensive to put together. I got the four berth not out of necessity but just because of the the extra space (novice, greedy, old, fat bar steward). However, one word, thirsty. The frequent stops at the govt. rape stations soured the experience to such an extent that I ditched the rig. Back to the drawing board, lots of head scratching. I looked at tents, trailer tents, teardrops, gopods, freedoms and older, lighter vans as well as lusting after the knaus travelino. With all these options whiring away in me noggin I was about to plonk for a hyper mile golf 2 litre diesel when tragedy struck and my lovely auntie Joy passed away and kindly left me a huge chunk of change. Well you know what happened next.

Anyway onto the oh-so personal review.

Looks: I think it's a handsome beast that holds its own against the best of them.

Comfort: A real winner. The seats are not only the right height for the, shall we say larger frame, but are also extremely comfortable. The suspension verges on witchcraft in its ability to isolate you from the rumble strip that passes for roads now but also handles the corners (in this class). Truly remarkable.

Economy: The old Hyundai suggested 35mpg book, perhaps half that towing. Of course I love the economy! Keep it under sixty and level and you can get astonishing results (HonestJohn). I am as politically incorrect as it is imaginable to be but I'm now a fan of 'ECO', God help me.

Practicality: Well, .. fifth injector .. SOLD, SOLD and SOLD. And it's a hatchback. Did I mention the road tax?

Tow Car: I phoned the insurance peeps as you do and said I'm towing this baby, she said "If you fit a tow bar we'll give you a discount". I booked the bar the same day. The day after the fitting the Holy Unicorn of all vans appeared on fleabay, a mint-ish '92 Lunar meteorite 'S' plopped into the ether. It was like the scene in the conversion of St. Paul by Caravaggio (minus the horses arse, or not). Anyhoo, I have a full scale two berth @61% kerb weight with consequent control and economy.

The downsides, glove box, cup holders, cubby holes and perhaps the worst instrument binnacle visibility I have ever come across. Overall I'm like a dog with two appendages. Ahem.

Thank you auntie Joy.

 

I bought a 2016 1.5 dci manual last March for my wife and trusted the seller, unfortunately.I really like the car but the non working aircon and the unreliable clutch engagement are issues that are proving hard to address as wiring diagrams do not exist and Dacia are of no use at all. But I do like the car and will continue my search for solutions.

 

I had same problem with aircon, turns out mechanic had jammed the pollen filter on against the air system, removed pollen filter problem solved.

 

Car with many problems...driveshafts gone to the horison in under 100000km...clutch also...

(have trailer towing) thin paint that easy get lots of scratchs...Bought this car half a year ago.

Dacia Dealer is Volvo/Renault in sweden...they never get answer on questions about messurments

and other tecnical questions only with answer "Can not get or get you that information"....And many garages

..even the dealers is not happy to fix car problems on Dacia cars...and dealers garage take proper pay

for the work and replacementparts on Dacia cars. And if you search parts on internet several models of

the same piece is showing and how can i get the right one if I can't get the oem nr from dealer or elsware.

Not many information on internet on Dacia care even.

Red Stepway 2013 Sweden

 

Forgot to say that Dacia is a car that you should buy brandnew and not used.

Dacia is cheep at dealer as new ...but costs lots more money as used when the

age problems is coming on and it must go to a garage for replacements parts service.

 

I've a 2015 Stepway 0.9 in blue, bought new. Low mileage average 4000/year

Been to Holland and France fully loaded with bikes hung on the back and happy to cruise at 70 for miles, literally all day Scotland to Portsmouth

Good economy, cheap insurance £30 tax what's there to complain about I hear you ask.........

Well, not much really, brake discs made of cheese and dissolve in rain, and rear springs can't cope with Edinburgh cart tracks, possibly first world Rumania has better roads than St Nicola's capital But that's probably for another forum???

Give it a go you won't be disappointed and new one looks great

 

Eastern Europe cars had a different higher suspension. W Europe were 14 mm lower.

 

My new Stepway (july 2021) is brill. I'm very pleased with it. So much better than the old with good fit and finnish, deep paint, better suspension and an engine that has loads of torque whatever the revs. It's amazing what they have done with the 1 litre engine, considering it's jusy three cylinders and 90 bhp. I really can't think of anything bad to say.

 

I have a Sandero Stepway BI Fuel Comfort and only got it three weeks ago and so far I am very very pleased with everything about the car.
On Lpg which i can get locally in Liverpool for 57.7 ppl so far I have done 288.8 miles on the first tank which when filed from new was 33 litres to fill this driving was mostly around town and one 60 mile run keeping revs low.
50mph in 5 gear is around 2500 rpm pop into 6th gear and drops to 1900 rpm.
It must be about to run out I want to see if it automatically goes onto petrol and if it tells you when on petrol.
When I start the car and the LPG swich is on, the green light flashes and then it goes on to LPG instantly and green light then stays on to inform you you are on LPG.
It did inform me LPG low 30miles away it said low LPG on the info.
If you can get LPG locally then it is well worth it and the drives great on LPG.
I have just moved from a Vauxhaul Astra which i ran on LPG for 14yrs.
JUST RAN OUT OF lpg at 290 miles on Stepway thats good on 33 litres.

 

I have a Sandero Stepway BI Fuel Comfort
It did inform me LPG low 30miles away it said low LPG on the info.

JUST RAN OUT OF lpg at 290 miles on Stepway thats good on 33 litres.

When I ran mine out, it took 44 litres to refill it not 33.
When I refilled at the "LPG low" warning it took just 32 or 33.
Checked the manual, the LPG tank capacity is "approx 40 litres" useable.

 

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?

 

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?

Congrats on your new Stepway. Don't know what went wrong with the wait but I think you've found it's worth it. I've got the Comfort, had mine three months now and like you was impressed with the engine straight off.
The electronics are a bit qurky, I'll not say to much and let you make your own impression. I've had nothing to do to before with keyless entry before and because of it managed to lock myself out the house. I've since got a remote pouch with a key ring attached. You get them on Ebay for the Kadjar (same size remote), Card as they call them in the hand book. One thing more I will mention. I've had a couple of messages come on the dash which say '' place card in zone and press start''. Car won't start unless this is done. I didn't have a clue the first time, breakdown people didn't either. It tells you all about this in the handbook if you know not (in the middle). lastly no idea what the car symbil is. Come back here with any problems.

 

Interesting that the new model has an electronic handbrake. Scrapping my wife’s ancient Laguna meant she had to drive our Passat. That had an electronic handbrake, which she hated - it was either on or off, and the button was on the dashboard - so as it was 12 years old we decided to switch to a smaller car, the Stepway II with a normal handbrake. No more juggling at hill starts.
I’d be interested to read what owners of the new model think, and how it works in practice.

 

This car has hill hold on the foot brake.
You can do hill starts without the handbrake.

 

Yes, our Stepway II has that two-second hold feature, I was more interested in the usefulness or otherwise of the new electronic handbrake, and if it was similar to that on the Passat.
When we bought the Passat years ago, I thought at the time it was another one of those unnecessary gimmicks you can't manage without.

 

I had a Passat SW company car. I found it no problem it auto applied and released when you moved off. Much the same as HSA. You just ignored the On/Off button on the dash.

HSA is an upto 2 second hold and releases as soon as you move off, just like electronic handbrakes but uses the ABS.

 

I really disliked the electric handbrake on a recent Qashqai rental car. Definitely another nanny state item I'm happy to do without, along with lane keeping and active cruise control.

 

@Daedalus: The handbrake on our Passat (2007) was governed solely by the button - it didn't work until you pressed it, and would not release until you pressed it again, so it was either on or off.

I remember the ads for an Audi, I think it was, where the car was parked on a slope, and the car stayed where it was but the driver's case rolled down the hill, which leaves me wondering why, if yours worked as you described, there was any need for a button?

We had our Passat until we bought the Dacia in 2020, and it definitely had no form of hill-hold.

Sorry, getting a bit off-topic.

 

It was back ~2010. I can't remember all the ins and outs but it definitely auto released when you moved off. Maybe yours was faulty!

Does this mean the new cars have rear discs as I always though electronic handbrakes clamped the pads to the disc?

 

@Daedalus: You are correct, and although I didn't expressly disagree with you, I nevertheless owe you an apology.

Having sold the car a couple of years ago, and having a clear out, I was in the process of throwing my English driver's manual away (the original was in French, of course, which went with the car, and I got an English one from ebay). Re-reading it, it definitely states, as you say, that it is auto release. It can't have been a fault because the car was regularly serviced by VW and I'm sure they would have noticed it.

I don't ever recall it auto releasing, whether by accident or design, but if it did we sold the car unnecessarily! The only upside to this is that we've now got a Stepway, and we're both happy with it. Shan't say anything to my wife though. . . .

 

@Daedalus: just to draw a line under this, and to make my excuses!
In January 2020, a couple of weeks after we swapped the Passat for the Sandero, I underwent a scheduled major operation (not life-theatening), which put me out of things and meant my wife running-in the Dacia. Shortly after that it was Covid (France shut down about a week before the UK), so for me the Passat became a distant memory - until now. Last night it suddenly dawned on me that, of course, it was auto-release. The problem was having to put the clutch right to the floor, as opposed to just putting it down far enough to comfortably engage first, as on the Laguna. I recall saying to my wife to treat it like a foot-operated switch and imagine it clicking off, something she was never really happy wiith (she used to drive 20k miles a year when we lived in the UK, so is competent at the wheel). I have to say it caught me out occasionally after driving the Laguna. I wonder now whether I could have got VW to adjust the point of contact with the clutch pedal, but it's a bit late now.
Best wishes.

 

Here I am again, one month on and a bit more used to the 21 Stepway Prestige. Sorry it’s a bit long but you don’t have to read it all.

Things I don’t like;
The damn armrest between the driver and passenger seats, it seems the most useless bit of ‘fluff’ they could have added. It gets in the way every time I want to attach or detach my seatbelt. It is also so small inside as yet I have found no use for it as storage.

Reaching down to pull up the handbrake then having to double check I’ve got the little leaver for the electronic handbrake. Then having to count 1, 2, 3, for the brake to come on. Try that at a set of traffic lights on a slope with some nice driver 6“ from your rear bumper.

Not having an actual OFF position for the lights only AUTO, Side and Headlights. The driver coming towards me the other day must have wondered what the heck I was up to as I drove under some dark trees and the headlights flashed on and off all on their own.

The spring loaded doors. The number of times I’ve smacked my knuckles when opening the driver’s door in a tight space and had it smack back because of the spring.

The gearbox, I’m having trouble when reversing and changing from reverse to 1st, It seems the detent doesn’t always drop down so I push forwards into 1st and find I’m still in reverse. I now have the habit of selecting 2nd then 1st to make sure I’m in the right gear. Just a minor niggle but it should get better as it wears in.

And things I like;
The engine, in Eco mode it has the same pulling power as my old Sandero. Take the Eco off and you get a noticeable punch in the acceleration.

Fuel economy. I live in laid back, we don’t have motorways (we really don’t) slightly rural Dorset. So most of my journeys are on A, B, C or unclassified roads. So far according to the digital display I’m getting 50 MPG, 11 more than my old car.

The display; this took me by surprise the whole display is backlit at all times, even when the lights are off. That was my biggest bugbear with the old car, in gloomy conditions or under bright sun I could not see the speedo. I also love the digital display of the speed in MPH and things like water temp, trip distance etc.

Android Auto, it works fine with my mobile phone. Google maps mean I don’t have to spend a fortune keeping the maps up to date. Voice commands so far work fine, even when I really put it to the test and issued a long command. I’ve not tried the hands free phone yet, still taking small steps at my age

The rear door having an electronic lock, so much easier when you arrive with a load of shopping and just open it with a press of the button.

The reversing camera, lets me see if some little person is hiding behind the car when pulling out in the supermarket car park. Also all the warning alarms, I did think about turning them off but now I’ve toned them down a bit (volume and tone) I decided to leave them on.

Lastly I like the way Dacia has integrated the Nav system with the car so I can adjust a lot of the cars settings with just a few taps of the screen. Well done for that Dacia.

 

I have a prestige like yours, and agree with almost everything you say - but I think you may have something wrong with your gear selector, as I have no problems with reverse selection. it feels much more positive than my old Duster.

 

Good review. I have a Comfort which only lacks the Prestige armrest(the regular armrest does what it should without blocking belts, gearshift or parking brake)the robot handbrake and blindspot warning. The techy features I've already tried in a leased Nissan, and disliked them, along with lane assist and adaptive cruise, I switched them all off if I could.

I really like the reversing camera and sensors though. The visibility out of the rear window is very poor and our car lives in a cramped underground carpark.
Finally MPG. We're getting just 30/31 on LPG, mostly due to the 1500 foot climb each way every time we go out. Tried ECO mode and got it up to 32 but at the cost of a near undriveable car, so ECO stays off.

I like it. It's a roomy, well equipped car with little or no competition on price. We bought it outright from stock with no delivery delay at all, and plan on keeping it many years.

 

Not thinking of buying a new car, but how do Dacia's cars (and prices) compare with the small Chinese MG in the UK? Did anyone consider buying one?

 

Viewed the MG3 a few times ( pre ugly facelift ) on display in our local shopping centre and I was always struck by the rough and ready finish, and a design that looked like it was from the 1980s. The old tech 1.5 petrol seemed less than competitive too. It's only virtues seemed to be cheapness, and it's zombie branding.
Dacia match the cheapness with Sandero, but it's a best selling modern product based on latest Renault platforms that sells on its own merits. In comparison SIAC wouldn't sell a single car to British consumers without that nostalgic MG badge.

 

Sorry - meant to add; Sally has covered 2130 miles in five weeks, and according to the onboard computer she averages 51.3 mpg.