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Dacia Sandero RS Wearing Renault Badges Rendered

If you are not familiar with the Dacia Sandero, this is basically the cheapest supermini hatch you can buy these days. With prices starting at €7,190 in Romania and at £5,995 in the UK, this is as low as you can go if you want a new car that will get you from A to B.
Dacia Sandero RS 7 photos
Photo: Virtuel-car.fr
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Let me explain why so - the entry-level variant of the Sandero is… back-to-basics if we're to be light on the lack of power, equipment and such. Only if you step to the range-topping Stepway trim with the added crossover looks, only then the Sandero makes sense as a car that can do more than just offering a personal means of transport from point A to point B.

Even in top-of-the-range Stepway spec, the quirky five-door hatchback from Renault-owned Dacia is pretty cheap - 11,200 euros for the 0.9 three-pot turbocharged engine with 90 HP or 12,600 euros for the 1.5-liter dCi turbo diesel with the same HP.

Optional equipment is a must if you don't want the most spartan interior imaginable

The only option worth ticking from the list if you go for a Stepway is an add-on for the MediaNav sat nav system that adds every map available for the EU for a mere €100. Still, there's one vital model missing from the Sandero lineup - a pocket rocket like the fun to drive Renault Clio RS hot hatchback.

Spy photographers recently spotted test mules of souped up Logan and Sandero vehicles, with big brakes, Clio RS alloy wheels and different exhaust tips. That made fans of the Romanian B-segment supermini start talking about the possibility Dacia will sell a hot Sandero in the future. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but that won't happen too soon, at least not in the European Union.

Dacia is a low-cost, high-volume manufacturer that specialized in making cars on the cheap. To add a hot engine under the bonnet and a lot of other go-faster bits equals a price so high the Romanian brand would slip out of its target group of potential buyers. Still, this hasn't stopped VirtuelCar from digitally imagining a Renault-branded Sandero RS. Check it out in the photo gallery below.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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