Dacia Spring rambling…
Renault provided me with a Spring courtesy car yesterday while the DT was having a door hinge replaced (under warranty).
- The quality of the interior is bad (built to a price I know, but even so)
- Ultra nasty plastic trim on the laughably thin, hollow sounding, (van like) doors.
- The seats offered no support worthy of note, and it was cramped - my right shoulder was up against the B pillar.
- No reach adjustment on the steering wheel.
- Crap ergonomics for anyone over 6ft.
- The satnav, radio, touch screen thing was slow and shit. It did have carplay and A’auto however.
- You really wouldn’t want to crash it, or be crashed into.
Oh yeah, it is started with an old school key + ignition barrel on the steering column and it had a manual handbrake (I quite like the hand brake tbf).
Driving around at 30mph and it was OK, it has fantastic turning circle for a front wheel drive car, you can park it incredibly easily and it has very good visibility. I did wind it up to 70mph on a dual carriage way, it felt unstable and plain wrong at high speed, not helped by the incredibly narrow wheels and tyers.
The version I had was a higher spec model with 65hp, it was just enough to keep up, overtaking a tractor on an Oxfordshire A road would be a challenge (for context, 0-60 in approx 13.5 seconds). I dread to think what the 45hp one is like to drive, impractically slow I should imagine, for everything (expect 30mph town driving). Why you’d want a brand new car that was so limited in scope is beyond me, ymmv.
£17K is a lot of money. That same £17k buys a fantastic used EV that’ll drive around town at 30mph just fine while also feeling modern, comforable and well equipped, it will also be MUCH safer and, should the need arise, be capable of being driven on a motorway or dual carriageway for more than 10 seconds without generating an overwhelming urge to slow down and get out.