Sure there’ll be more appearing, this is the first one I have seen.
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Lord, I must be old, a gear lever that is actually attached to a gear box is now worth remarking on!
A sensible review that doesn’t mark it down for not being stupidly overpowered, and gives it credit for being what it is - one of the most engaging little cars that exists.
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Yes, a generally easy going review from a quirky (in a good way) reviewer who himself enjoys driving. He often focuses on how a car drives in his reviews, as opposed to multiple minutes spent on cup holder sizes and such like.
I think we’ll have to wait until the likes of SavageGeese (US youtuber) gets hold of one to know more about the technical new stuff like the steering changes and the new LSD.
Still, what gets me is the copious aids now on the car compared to my own 2L ND1 (base). I’m wondering if its a case of ‘be careful for what you wish for’ regarding upgrading and having a whole suite of stuff like start-stop/ e-loop/beeping speed limiters etc etc. Granted some of those have been on the car a while by now though. But still, so many ‘normal’ cars have now gone to the wayside, it’s great this car is still available.
Part of the issue is that without these driver aids no matter how intrinsically safe you r car is the Euro NCAP rating will be downgraded which is then jumped on by the motoring press.
I actually admired Dacia’s attitude of shrugging this off and effectively saying ‘our customers don’t want these driver aids’ but I think even they are now starting to buckle under the pressure to include them.
As for the emissions stuff, we’re just lucky that Mazda are still pushing out good normally aspirated engines, it would have been far easier for them to drop in a little forced induction mill to get the emission figures looking good on paper.
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Yes, you’re right about NCAP ratings.
Dacia are incuding a whole suit of nannies on their cars
Forget about the non-price increase in the above link, the key word is mandatory. A whole cluster of https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/dacia-resists-price-hikes-eu-mandated-safety-kit-introduced’features’ such as beep beep speed limiters are mandatory from July on every new car sold in the UK (still adopting EU car laws) All new cars sold in Europe from July 2024 will have a black box
Good point about the n/a engine