Brand New Dacia Spring

MouldyOldDough

Autotrader has them from £9500

That's for a brand new "car"….

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6659489/brand-new-dacia-spring

Great if you are a low mileage user & drive around time a lot.

Brie

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6659489/brand-new-dacia-spring

Is the "car" not a car?

MouldyOldDough

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81921513#Comment_81921513

The bare requirements of a car have been met - so yes I suppose that it is a car…

Brie

Looking at what Dacia would charge for it versus what a Dacia dealer would charge via Autotrader makes me wonder why they are willing to take such a discount. Full price seems to be around £16k (which is still pretty cheap for a new car) with Dacia offering a discount of about £3500 and a random dealership offering about £6k. So why? Are they such a rotten car? Are they about to stop producing them and just want them out of the showroom? New model about to be launched?

Serious questions here as I keep thinking about an EV but can't afford the nice ones everyone talks about so would have to go for something dirt cheap without buying something that has been on the same battery for 10 years.

edited to add - for comparison I'm currently driving a 10 year old VW up (petrol) which will need to be replaced eventually. So buying an EV will mean looking at installing charging too as there are very few available options locally.

Mildly_Miffed

The really cheap ones will be old-stock with the smaller battery that's since been discontinued.

facade

As far as I can tell, it is a cheap little car ideal for towns & country lanes. (Maximum speed is 78, and I wouldn't try driving any distance on a motorway in one as it is very light)

If you were perfectly happy to drive 70s cars it will be fine, but nowadays the punters want more than scratchy plastic, hard unsupportive seats and wind noise.

I'd seriously consider one in extreme trim (as it has a centre screen with Nav, Carplay & Android Auto, reversing camera and heated mirrors- all my boxes ticked 😉) to replace my Stellantis if they can't fix it.

The Euro Encap Safety score is very low too, partially because it doesn't have all the latest driver aids that most people disable as soon as they get in.

Most importantly, it has a Proper handbrake!

malcolmK

“The Euro Encap Safety score is very low too, partially because it doesn't have all the latest driver aids that most people disable as soon as they get in.”

But mainly because it has a poor rating when it hits or is hit by something.

https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/dacia/spring/44197

mark_cycling00

A demo car with a few miles on the clock is excluded from the cheap finance deals which adds 2 to 3k to the total cost for buyers who need finance. Auto trader might describe it as new.

Yeah they are horrid, unsafe cars.

Charging to 100% adds wear to the battery and reduces range quickly so most people avoid doing this. You don't want to get below 20% often either. So realistically your range is more like 100 or so miles. After an overnight frost you might only get 60 miles of range due to the cold battery.

Motorway driving is random too, you might lose another 25% range too.

So city driving without children (that you love) in the back seats could work....

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6659489/brand-new-dacia-spring

Why do you have "car" in quotation marks?

AIUI, the Dacia Spring is registered as a car, unlike the Citroen Ami which is registered as a Quadricycle.

Did you actually have a question?

Bigwheels1111

I love how people think Ncap 5 stars is the be all and end all.

I’m old, had cars held together with string, glue and a prayer.

The spring is safe as houses compared to the old days.

My 2016 5008 would score 1 star if tested today if I was lucky.

So the ratings are misleading.