The Romanian company renowned for its budget motoring ethos has struck gold once again with its Dacia Logan model which is the cheapest estate car in UK showrooms.

The good

Incredible value

The bad

Very basic

Tech Specs

Price from

£6,995

Combined Fuel up to

80.7mpg

0-62 from

11.1 seconds

max speed up to

109mph

co2 from

90g/km

Test Drive

Dacia Logan MCV 1.2 Access

Billed as the most affordable estate car in the UK, the latest model from budget brand Dacia is the Logan MCV.

The MCV stands for Maximum Capacity Vehicle and it certainly lives up to the description because the Logan is simply massive with vast amounts of space for its occupants and a load capacity that cannot fail to impress.

In fact, the new five-seat model from Renault’s Romanian offshoot company offers supreme load-lugging capacity in a vehicle with a price-tag that befits a budget city car.

Admittedly there’s not an abundance of luxurious features especially in the entry-level Access trim that I tested. But factor in the price-tag of £7,340 and the vehicle’s outstanding value is plain for all to see.

The Logan MCV is simplistic yet effective in design with 15-inch steel wheels, body-coloured bumpers, black door handles, black door mirrors, tinted windows and daytime running lights.

The interior is basic, but okay with pretty good comfort levels. Most features that we generally take for granted in electric form are manual on the Logan, such as the car’s locking system via a ‘real’ key, window winders, plus manual adjustments for the mirrors.

The test car featured a CD radio which again was quite satisfactory. However that’s just about all the luxury you will find on the vehicle.

But that is the idea. If you want more spec – pay for it. That seems to be Dacia’s way of thinking and it does work as proven by some of the budget airline companies.

The Logan I tested was powered by a 1.2 75PS petrol engine with five-speed manual transmission.

It may not be the quickest out of the blocks taking 14.5 seconds to reach 62mph from a standing start, but the vehicle is reasonably economical to run with official figures claiming it can achieve 48.7mpg on a combined run with carbon emissions of 135g/km.

Acceleration is good and the road-holding is also pretty impressive when faced with tight bends.

There is quite a lot of noise from the engine and tyres but that’s where the Kenwood sound system becomes a plus factor. You simply crank up the volume and laugh all the way to the bank!

With all the seats up, the Logan can cater for 573 litres of luggage, but with the 60:40 split-folding rear seats both flat its capacity is increased to 1,518 litres.

There are plenty of safety specifications too, such as anti-lock brakes with emergency brake assist, electronic stability control, traction control, numerous airbags and lots more.

All in all, the Dacia Logan MCV is incredible value.

It may not have all the bells and whistles we have come to expect in our cars these days, but sometimes going back to basics can be quite refreshing.

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