Sorted Issue 36 Sep_Oct 13_Layout 1 05/08/2013 15:27 Page 31
LIFESTYLE
DACIA SANDERO Dacia is the Romanian brand bought up by Renault back in 1999, well before the phrase ‘doing a Skoda’ ever came into use. Actually, no one really uses it, but Volkswagen’s turnaround of what was once a complete laughing stock is still nothing short of a miracle. And yet, while VW sought to move Skoda upmarket, Renault has completely embraced Dacia’s budget heritage, sharing existing platforms with the company and producing new cars with minimal effort and at the lowest cost. You might think this would be a recipe for disaster, but as it turns out, the cheapest car on the road is also one of the most fun. It’s not because of any particular ability on the Sandero’s part, but because of the joyous freedom that comes from owning a cheap wagon with nothing special to fall off. Own a £5,995 car and it’s like having your own on-call rental number to use and abuse. There’s something rather charming about its steel wheels and black plastic bumpers, even if it has the air of a hard-living runabout that’s ten years younger than it looks. It has a beguiling lack of pretence about it; Dacia won’t even give you a radio until you start moving up the range and you can forget about air-conditioning for a little while. With its basic steering and suspension and its
skinny tyres, the Sandero has no particular sophistication about it, but it’s light enough to be thrown around and solidly engineered to take a beating. It used to be that if you went for an extreme budget car you would basically get what you paid for. I drove a Proton Satria Neo a few years back and cut my finger trying to move the seat forward. The Sandero brings a distinct air of self-respect and decent quality to the sector.
TOYOTA HILUX Perhaps a pickup truck is an odd inclusion, and especially such an expensive one (other brands of massive pickup truck are also available), but the Hilux is the daddy of everything. This is not least because, as Top Gear showed, it is virtually indestructible, but also because of the huge levels of driving fun it can induce at ridiculously low speeds. There’s definitely some science involved. In order to cope with massive amounts of weight in its load bay, the Hilux is very stiffly sprung. Obviously it shows admirable restraint when carrying half a house on its back, but drive around empty and the rear end skips around like a four-year-old girl in a field full of daisies. This stiff suspension equates to miserly amounts of rear traction (the front end is normal as there isn’t a great deal of variance in the forces going through there), especially in the wet. You could quite easily find yourself drifting across a roundabout at 15mph; it’s magic. I also love it for the thought that’s gone into a car designed for people like the UN and terrorists. It’s intended to work across a massive range of conditions. The version I drove had this nifty
button on the dashboard so you could rev the engine at a steadier lick to warm everything up quicker, as well as standard refinements such as the locking diff. This is useful if you’re a Siberian ice cube farmer but, as with a Land Rover or a Ferrari, there’s a certain amount of satisfaction to be had, not from showing what the car can do, but rather knowing what it can do. It’s an automotive version of that ‘my dad can beat up your dad’ thing. No nineyear-old ever gets to the point of arranging an all-
in wrestling competition in the school hall. OK, perhaps aside from the 3.0-litre diesel engine that gets around 30mpg and the tax disc that’ll make your eyes water, the Hilux is all the car you’ll ever need. Perhaps the greatest driver of his generation, Sam Burnett is a London‐based motoring writer, wit and conversationalist. He has previously worked in politics and the third sector, but definitely prefers flying around the world and testing cars. In his spare time he blogs, tweets and does other faddish things before losing interest.
Sorted. Sep/Oct 2013
31