Vocal Voices

One of the cars I'm considering is the Dacia Stepway - but, and I'm not sure how big a but, it should be so I'd appreciate input from anyone that has any knowledge re car engines.... the petrol engine of that car is a 898CC turbocharged (as a comparative, the diesel engine for that car is a 1.4cc turbocharged)

I'm taking it for a test drive tomorrow so I'll see for myself just how much va va voom it does have (or in this case may not have ) but does anyone else have such a small engine in their car (bearing in mind that the Stepway is a small SUV) and any good / bad comments to make. I spoke to a mechanic there and he said it wasn't any more expensive to service that type of engine vs a normal one which was another concern

So anyone got any ideas / opinions - would love to hear them

There was a time when a 1.6 was the engine to have, then a 1.4, then a 1.2.....We also had the turbo era, then back to normal, now back to turbo and TBH I do not think it matters much if most of a person's driving is local stuff. Let's face it 1.5 turbo F1 cars rev ar 15,000 rpm and can pull 300+km/h on the straight without too many problems.

With new metals and lubricants new engines do not need a full recondition at 65,000 miles, as used to be the case. They tend to go on and on nowadays.

My concern would be how the car drives and how it suits my driving style. On thing I would pay a lot of attention to is how the car parks, what the steering is like when doing so, and my all-round visibility.

Have a fun test drive and try to cover as many types of driving conditions you would normally come across.

I can remember when you had to change the oil every three thousand miles as well as the spark plugs.
As WM has said, new technology means that m9dern engines which may be smaller are better than older and bigger engines.
If you like driving and parking it and there is enough boot space for shopping, go for it.
Suggest you have a test drive in another make so you can compare.

Workingman wrote:My concern would be how the car drives and how it suits my driving style. On thing I would pay a lot of attention to is how the car parks, what the steering is like when doing so, and my all-round visibility.

Same here! I think my i10 is a 958cc or something like that and it's a great little drive! Admittedly it's mostly town traffic as opposed to motorway driving (although it steps up to the challenge there pretty well, if a little louder than it could be) I love the fact that it's not low down - in fact I can spot my car's roof in a busy car park as it's higher than most

Mine is 1400cc turbo diesel and I know it will do 112 mph as I did that once thinking the speedo was in km.

pederito1 wrote:Mine is 1400cc turbo diesel and I know it will do 112 mph as I did that once thinking the speedo was in km.

oops

Easily done. Ped, remember the US Mars rocket smashing into the planet because of the mix up between Imperial and Metric measures?

Ria, how did the test drive go? Was it as expected?

The Dacia turned out to be a huge disappointment.... I didn't even bother with test driving it because the inside looks really cheap and basic and nowhere near as spacious as I thought it would be. Given the relatively high spec of the car I was expecting a bit more finesse. It's hard to explain but it's almost as though they've taken the original unbreakable no spills and frills Dacia that was first created back in Romania where it originates from, tidied up the exterior design to bring it more up to date and then added the Renault engine to increase the price... but that's about it.

Karl (my brother) met me there and he totally agrees; and my friend Anne that was staying with me and came along also said the same - just a cheap feel to it It just didn't feel right

As said, disappointing really because I had very high hopes for it

That is a shame. The Sandero I had a look round when my car was being serviced seemed OK. It was nothing to write home about, but looked as though it could do the job. Perhaps it was top of the range and as a showroom display was kept top notch.