Maximum Car For Your Cash - Dacia Logan 0.9 TCe MCV Review

I've always had a fondness for estate cars. The inherent functionality that comes with all that extra space, to me, embodies a huge bonus of car ownership - I can transport not only myself, but also others with me, and, if we feel like it, some things. For several years I ran my own bargain load-lugger - a Ford Focus estate - which I inherited from my parents following the disintegration of my first car, a teeny, first-gen Vauxhall Corsa. 

The 'big car', now on to pastures new

Not the most fashionable motor for a 20-year-old lad with less street cred than a botched pothole repair by the council? Perhaps. Yet I loved my big bus. Throughout my formative years it ferried me, my friends and an enormous amount of stuff to camping trips and music festivals; with the seats folded down, it became a discreet camper van, a secure place to sleep if I was feeling insociable or simply forgot to bring a tent. It travelled the length and breadth of the country, most of the time simply for the sake of driving. The 1.6 petrol Zetec motor may have seen far better times before it fell into my possession, but the chassis retained the fully independent control blade rear suspension setup, and with it the handling prowess that thrust the original Focus to the top of it's class, become the darling front-drive car of motoring journos the world over.

Being a Scot, I follow the stereotype that I'm an absolute sucker for a bargain. Consider all of this and it was only a matter of time before I was drawn to a Dacia Logan MCV. With prices starting from £6,995, it's the cheapest estate car that can be bought new in Britain, and at first glance it represents terrific value. 

The Logan, badged 'Maximum Capacity Vehicle', as if you couldn't tell

The base 'Access' model comes with a 1.2 petrol motor putting out around 75bhp, steel wheels, fabric interior and black plastic body mouldings, and not a lot else. As a box for moving things and people -the essence of an estate car - it ticks the, ahem, boxes. As a long term family car, not so much.

Fear not, as not much further up the range, Logans come with toys like cruise control, Bluetooth and USB connectivity and a multi-function trip computer. It wasn’t so long ago that speccing a B-cum -C-segment estate car with gadgets like these even at the lower end of the range would see the price creep ever-closer to the £20k mark. Dacia are now doing all this for pretty much half that – a diesel, top-spec ‘Laureate’ with all of the above plus sat-nav and rear parking sensors still comes in at just £11,345. Lets not forget, this is a brand new car with a three year/60,000 mile warranty to boot - an equivalent spec in a Volkswagen Polo would be almost £17,000 – and that’s before you buy a roof rack to make up all that extra load space that comes for free with the Logan.

Equipment levels are excellent for
the price; buttons basic yet functional

Admittedly the interior isn’t quite up to the German car’s standard, but it’s not as bad as you might think. Yes, there are hard plastics here and there – those savings to come from somewhere – but the interior of car I drove had been dressed fairly well, with chrome surrounds on the stereo and air-vents and smooth plastic door handle inserts. Since these are the bits that will actually be touched and fiddled with day-to-day (I am making the assumption here that most people don’t spend their time stroking and fondling every inch of their cars dash) the addition of these little details manages to keep the experience from feeling cheap.

The seats, at first glance, appear incredibly skinny, as if they’ve got about as much support to offer as the foundations of the Lamington viaduct. Once seated, they're pleasantly - not to mention surprisingly - comfortable. They're no feather mattress, but long journeys wouldn't be too much of a chore for the buttocks.

I suspect the reasoning behind Dacia’s decision to pare down the car's posterior plinths is as much for cost saving as it is for fitting people in the back. Lo and behold, even with my relatively laid back driving position (car writer trope alert) I managed to fit in behind myself. Now, I’m hardly the lankiest of gents, but in the Dacia there were a good few inches between my knees and the driver’s seat in front – and a good bit more than in my old Focus. This bodes well, as many Logans are likely destined to become minicabs for their first 6 figures of mileage.

Little details help the Laureate spec cars cabin feel un-cheap

Don’t expect any miracles in the driving department. It’s not bad, but Dacia know their target market for this car. People buying this care aren't going to be taking to YouTube to check up its Nürburgring lap GoPro footage. The Clio underpinnings that this car is based on don’t do too bad considering the extra bulk (it’s worth remembering that that car was also offered as a B-segment estate). It’s relatively unflappable in the sort of situ where 99% of this cars journeys will be made – around town with a bit of motorway and A road work thrown in to the mix. There was a bit of body roll on roundabouts – it’s not a Clio Cup chassis. 

Partly, this is down to the slightly raised ride height, which should more than earn it’s keep over slightly tricky terrain like rutted farm tracks. Dacia have designed tand built this car to tackle a variety of terrain, in both developed and developing markets. As such, you can expect the suspension and the chassis to take a bit of a beating before it starts to feel worn and tired, which bodes well, considering the state of many of Scotland's A and B roads, not to mention some absolute craters popping up here and there on the motorway network.

The 0.9 litre petrol engine in the car I drove took a bit of getting used to, this being my first experience of a block of this size backed up by turbo-charging. It’s worth noting at this point that this car can be pretty unforgiving of laziness with the gear lever. At junctions and low speeds, unless you're in exactly the right gear and on revs, the car tends to stutter before doing its very best to stall itself. 
 

It's not sleek, but it does the job.
Fog lights add to the mildly premium feel

The payoff for this extra gear change concentration? Economy, and bundles of it. Be careful with the throttle and pay the gearstick a bit of extra attention and Dacia say you should see economy approaching 56 mpg.  

That's not to say the 0.9 is entirely gutless. Work with the car and you'll find it really quite spritely in traffic, and the 88bhp and 100lb/ft is perfectly ample for town driving and batting along the motorway. Overtaking on country roads will require conscious effort from the driver to lean on that engine but, hey, isn't that kind of why the car has a driver in the first place?

In the Logan though I’d be inclined to opt for the 1.5 litre 90hp diesel. It’s a much torqueier motor than the miniscule petrol, handy if you’ll be carrying large loads on a regular basis. It should also be easier with the diesel to get close to its quoted mpg figure – a far from unimpressive 74mpg. The initial outlay is a little higher outlay for the diesel, but combine that economy with the fact that you’re paying no road tax at all on it and the savings soon mount up. I'd probably avoid the 1.2 petrol unless on a very strict budget - it lags behind the other two units on power and doesn't get near their economy figures.

Just think of how big a dog or sofa you take everywhere with you

The engines themselves are products of the Renault / Nissan alliance, and so should prove reliable and efficient. Plus, if anything does go pop, availability of parts shouldn’t be an issue since these motors have been used across both brands ranges for years.

All in all, if you’re considering something that can take 5-people-plus-dog, the Logan is definitely worth a look. For the price, the only alternatives are in the second hand market – Qashqais, Golfs, that sort of thing – but they don’t come with the peace of mind of the Dacia’s 3 year/60,000 miles warranty, which can be easily extended. There are some quirks - I smiled when I discovered the boot is opened by a small lever in the drivers-side carpet, akin to bonnet catch releases of old, and the headlight switch knob is hidden away far below the dash. These are small details, and it won't take owners long to commit them to muscle memory. The Logan, in Laureate spec, does everything many other new cars offer for a huge discount.