Dacia cars - any good?

Ganga

I run a 54 plate Vauxhall Astra which although in good condition is getting harder and harder to get through MOT,s and as i am retired it is getting physically harder to get underneath and repair.
So i was thinking of biting the bullet and replace it next year and as a pensioner do not want to spend a fortune on a shiny piece of metal and have priced up Dacia cars and i can purchase a new car for less than i can buy a second hand good brand one.
I normally only do about 2500 miles a year but it is handy for shopping, taking the grandkids to school etc.
I would appreciate any input on these cars from others ,i know they are cheap for a reason but at my age and mileage carried out would it not make sense.

DUTR

As the advert says, you do the maths.
You've worked hard for a long time, so you decide how much or little you wish to reward yourself.
You are getting the car for you, not anyone else, those budget brand cars are often yesterday's technology with today's registration plate, which can be a good thing or not.

Ganga

DUTR said:

As the advert says, you do the maths.
You've worked hard for a long time, so you decide how much or little you wish to reward yourself.
You are getting the car for you, not anyone else, those budget brand cars are often yesterday's technology with today's registration plate, which can be a good thing or not.

That was my thinking ,whilst not a rolls royce or bmw , the new car should run for at least 6/7/8 years trouble free and apart from servicing and consumables should cost very little and by that time might have stopped driving or ended up in the wooden overcoat 

daveyjp

On a limited budget, with a desire for reliability take a trip to your local Suzuki dealer.

facade

My advice is to go for the headline poverty spec. model- you have to wait for these though as the idea seems to be to upsell to the ones with the (very poor value for money IMHO) extras that just happen to be available for immediate delivery. ( that was my impression when I went to enquire about a Duster)

I reckon if I'm having a cheap car, I want a really cheap car, I can fit my own radio and I don't mind rubber carpet and lovely durable steel wheels- I'm going to stick rubber mats over the carpet anyway.

That is what cars were like in The Olden Days, I was perfectly happy then (even when water used to come in through the holes in the floor and where the doors never fitted properly at the top) .

I think the headline price is not the On The Road price either, delivery is extra.

facade

As DUTR says, Suzukis are excellent cars, many pensioners (including me now) drive them- make sure you check the VIN number starts JS though, I'm not a fan of the ones made in Europe.

Mickey666

Look under the bonnet of cheap Eastern European Or Korean cars and you’ll often find more ‘up-market’ branded running gear. Thus Dacia is basically Renault in disguise.  A friend bought a Daewoo Musso 4x4 about 20 years.   Tons cheaper than an equivalent Discovery or other ‘premium’ 4x4s but is still going strong - perhaps because it is build on Mercedes running gear.
Lots of snobbery in the car market  

Ectophile

facade said:

My advice is to go for the headline poverty spec. model- you have to wait for these though as the idea seems to be to upsell to the ones with the (very poor value for money IMHO) extras that just happen to be available for immediate delivery. ( that was my impression when I went to enquire about a Duster)

I reckon if I'm having a cheap car, I want a really cheap car, I can fit my own radio and I don't mind rubber carpet and lovely durable steel wheels- I'm going to stick rubber mats over the carpet anyway.

That is what cars were like in The Olden Days, I was perfectly happy then (even when water used to come in through the holes in the floor and where the doors never fitted properly at the top) .

I think the headline price is not the On The Road price either, delivery is extra.

I'm for upgrading a bit if it's good value for money.  I bought a Fiat Panda from new 11 years ago (and I've still got it).  I could have bought the entry-level one.  But an extra £500 got me a bigger engine (with the same fuel economy and tax band), aircon, electric windows, a remote keyfob, a better stereo and a better dashboard.  I really wanted the aircon.

facade

When I looked at the Duster, the next model from poverty was a lot more money, basically for alloy wheels, carpets, radio and I think a different colour.

My suzuki was the best part of £2000 more than poverty, because I wanted an auto. It came with heated seats, 2 tone paint, alloy wheels "climate" not air-con, heated seats with show-the-dog-hair trim, expensive when they fail LED headlights, sat-nav and some nonesense about showing me roadsigns on the dash, and shaking the steering wheel when I change lanes on an empty dual carriageway.

I'd have been happy with air-con, auto, heated mirrors and a temperature gauge (which it doesn't have) for hopefully a lot less money

pramsay13

We bought a Dacia Logan Estate. We went for the highest spec available without getting the really fancy sports pack or sat nav extras.
It was the first new car I have ever bought.
We had it around 3 years, and it was a perfectly good car. 
The main downside was that the interior looked and sounded cheap. 
When travelling along the motorway at 70mph (or a few mph above) the road noises were very loud. 
We've since gone for a 1 year old better car for the same price as we could have bought a Dacia outright and had a bit of change, but the driving experience is much better.

Ganga

Thanks everyone for taking the time and trouble to reply, had thought about maybe a two/three year old car to keep the budget down but then what about reliability, problems etc.as i said earlier i still have the know how to fix a car but now not the physical stamina i had when younger ( i have just fitted new front springs on the astra and it was a pig of a job to do on the drive with no access to oxy/ac heating gear ) so a cheap trouble free future seems the way forward.