Brand New Dacia Spring

born_again

End of the day, taxing on 1 March, means that you are paying last years VED rate, rather than 1 April where you would be paying new rate.

So this year, that means you would save £10 between £185 & the new £195 rate. So dealer has done you a favour, as that £16 you are down, will be reclaimed a few times over in the life of the car with you 👍

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Update after a few weeks driving the Spring.

it drives fine, more road noise than the eC4 at 60, but certainly no where near as noisy as an ICE car.

I can easily get high 5 miles per kWh staying below 60 and using B mode (I can't see why you wouldn't tbh)

The bells and whistles are as temperamental as the eC4, I can't trust the parking sensors to work, but that is what the camera is for, the radio sound went off for one day, but it mended itself next day. The speed limit display went off yesterday, I suspect the GPS signal was bad as it was a bit "weathery" yesterday, but I can't find a way to view satellite status. (Same thing happened in the eC4 on the same journey on a bright day like yesterday)

The main annoyance is that there are no controls for the rear windows in the front, so you can't crack them open to cool the cabin down when going along and have to work the air con a bit harder.

The only feature I miss from the eC4 is the adaptive cruise, once I got used to it it was really useful to just have it follow the car in front at a safe distance and let them do all the driving.

Arunmor

Not sure you are painting a very rosy picture there. Dodgy parking sensors, dodgy radio, dodgy speedometer, sounds glitchy.

Herzlos

It is currently the cheapest real car in the UK by quite a big margin (I'm not counting the Ami because it's speed resticted to 28mph), so I think the expectaction is that it's going to be a bit crap.

Though I'd rather it didn't have features than the features being a bit flaky. What he's describing all sounds pretty annoying but not really significant. My more expensive cars speed reading (using signs) fails about half of the time, to the point where I don't actually use it for anything.

5 miles/kwh sounds pretty good though.

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I don't know what happened with the radio sound. I might have done something, but as I didn't do anything to fix it I doubt it! It could have been updating itself and sorted itself out overnight, you never know with modern cars.

The parking sensors duplicate the camera, I guess whether they go off depends on what I'm trying to reverse into, they don't detect posts which are hard to see, but do detect houses that I can easily see in the mirrors/camera. So I don't trust them to detect an oddly shaped car if I want to go closer than the red line on the camera screen.

Speed recognition I think must be GPS based, and the in car GPS has been flaky in every car I have had, they often lose the signal for days when it is a bit "weathery".

Normally I can call up the status and see how poorly the receiver is performing though.

Mildly disappointing as I hoped Dongfeng would be better at software than Stellantis, seems they aren't!

Not major problems though, just something to note if those sort of things would be a dealbreaker.

Obviously it is unfair to compare the cheapest brand new EV on sale with an equivalently priced second hand one that was £30-40K a few years ago, but it does the job- it goes, keeps the rain off, does well to the kWh and is much more practical than a hugely bloated car that I can't use because it doesn't fit anywhere.

It will do for a couple of years until I can get a long range EV2 or Inster with 4 to 5 years warranty left on it for sensible money.

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Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81962276#Comment_81962276

The OP did not say "dodgy speedometer", they said "dodgy speed-limit display". Speedometer shows your current speed. Speed-limit display shows the speed limit where you are.

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https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81962457#Comment_81962457

Yes, I meant the limit display on the dash, which controls the chime if I go over it. (If I'd written the software the car would speak rather than chime, but hey ho……)

It also allows me to instant set the cruise control to the current limit with one button, rather than have to drive to the limit and set it manually. Not massively useful tbh, as it isn't active cruise and it isn't much trouble to hold the pedal down until it gets to the required speed in the first place.

MouldyOldDough

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81963191#Comment_81963191

How "well built" is it ?

Is it weighty - door wise etc - or is it super flimsy ?

I imagine that it is the modern equivalent to a 2CV build-wise ?

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https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81963613#Comment_81963613

It is well built in the sense of there is paint in the right places, the panels fit properly, wiring looks neat, seams are sealed, no rattles & squeaks. (Upto now, early days for bits to fall off I suppose) There is a paint guarantee so there is some confidence that Dongfeng can get it to stick on, even if the colour choices are a bit Korean/Chinese rather than a European colour palette. Indeed, I can't fault the paint finish.

Compared to the eC4 everything is lightweight- the doors & boot are thin and need a slam to latch fully. Operating the central locking is more of a CLONK! than the quieter bzzt-clunk I'm used to. Unlatching the door from outside the handle feels notchy rather than smooth- everything works but exudes cheapness

It reminds me very much of the new Vauhall Chevette that my Uncle bought back in 1975. Compared to the Rover P5 we had at the time it seemed very lightweight, tinny & plasticy, I remember him slamming the door and saying "listen to that- quality!" Wheras in the P5 once you got the door moving it would shut itself (and smash your fingers if they were in the gap) due to its own inertia.

I'm sure he paid a lot more for the Chevette than my father did for the P5, and again an unfair comparison as brand new the rover was probably 3 or more times the price of the Chevette.

finbaar

I've got a Dacia - not a Spring, a Sandero that's 3.5 years old - and while it's not my dream car it does the job I want it to do, very cheaply. It was £12.5k new and I paid cash. If a Spring will do the job you need it to then why spend more? Of course if it doesn't fir the bill for your use then it would be a bad buy. The Dacia's I have driven are all fairly well screwed together, comfortable and easy to drive. The equivalent "mainstream" brand car would have been at least £6k more, or likely £10k with the same equipment spec.