A Christmas miracle! New Dacia Sandero facelift will be cheaper than the current car
The Dacia Sandero and its Stepway offshoot get a fresh look and extra kit as part of mid-life revisions
The updated Dacia Sandero and more rugged Dacia Sandero Stepway spin-off have been revealed along with pricing that ensures the budget supermini remains one of the cheapest cars you can buy right now.
Both the Sandero and Stepway get a new exterior look, improved equipment list, more efficient engines and additional safety technology. Pricing starts at £14,795 for the Sandero, while the Stepway version starts at £16,065 – making both £950 less than the outgoing car.
The pricing announcement comes at the same time as Dacia has revealed its revised Spring EV will start at £12,240 – albeit with the Romanian brand’s own ‘Electric Car Grant’ of £3,750.
If you can’t wait for the updated Dacia Sandero, you can get your hands on the current model from just under £14,000 through our Buy a Car service.
Dacia Sandero: pricing and specifications
That headline price tag for the Sandero and Stepway comes courtesy of the returning Essential trim level. The mid-range Expression starts at £15,765 for the Sandero and £17,065 for the Stepway, while the top-spec Sandero Journey is priced at £17,065. Instead of the Journey, Sandero Stepway cars get Extreme from £18,365 – in accordance with the Stepway’s more rugged character.
While the Essential might sound like a budget-focused, stripped-back offering, it comes with cruise control, electric front windows and air-conditioning. However, as we’ve seen in other Dacia models, such as the Jogger Essential, there’s no infotainment screen – instead there’s a substitute holder for your smartphone and the ability to run Dacia’s dedicated app. As standard, there’s also a 3.5-inch driver’s instrument panel, 15-inch steel wheels and a DAB radio.
The Expression adds 16-inch steel wheels, front foglights, automatic windscreen wipers, electric rear windows, and heated, electrically adjustable door mirrors. The interior gains a 10-inch central touchscreen with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility and there are rear parking sensors and a reversing camera.
The Journey adds 16-inch alloy wheels, heated front seats, a wireless smartphone charger, tinted rear windows, an electronic handbrake and automatic air-conditioning. There’s also an exterior camera to help with parking for improved manoeuvring, while infotainment is upgraded with a seven-inch driver’s display and integrated sat-nav for the central screen.
In its exclusive Extreme guise, the Stepway receives its own 16-inch alloy wheels, Copper Brown exterior and interior detailing, upgraded MicroCloud/Copper Brown interior trim and exclusive 16-inch black alloy wheels. There’s also a heated steering wheel, keyless entry and roof bars.
Dacia Sandero: powertrains and hybrid technology
The Sandero’s base petrol engine – a 90bhp 999cc turbo – also gets a makeover, with another 10bhp squeezed out of its three cylinders for 100bhp in total. But in a cause for sibling envy, this Tce 100 is not as punchy as the 110bhp Stepway’s three-cylinder unit. Both engines are coupled to a six-speed manual transmission, an extra gear over the outgoing base Sandero.
While the Stepway is slightly more powerful, the jacked up ride and extra kerbweight (1,095kg compared to the standard car’s 1,059kg) count against it when it comes to performance. As a result, the Stepway takes ten seconds to reach 62mph while the Sandero takes 9.7 seconds. The Stepway is also thirstier, with an average economy of 50mpg compared to the Sandero’s 53mpg.
If efficiency is your concern, then the hybrid-powered Sandero might take your fancy. Dacia’s supermini is getting an electrified powertrain for the first time in late 2026, although it’s not clear which unit it’ll receive. One option is the Hybrid 155 drivetrain from the Bigster SUV which combines a 1.8-litre four-pot with an electric motor and an electric starter/generator, together kicking out 153bhp and 205Nm of torque.
Dacia Sandero: new design
For 2026, both models gain a refreshed exterior design. The headlights get what Dacia calls an “inverted T-shape” front and rear light signature, but to us looks like wobbly line graphics from a seventies arcade game. That’s mirrored by the square pixels in the thinner front grille; new bumpers also feature.
The jacked-up, roof bar-equipped Stepway also gets body protection made from a new material, the Dacia-developed ‘Starkle’, which uses 20 per cent recycled plastic and can be reformed at the end of life. There’s also a matt black strip connecting the rear lamps, to increase differentiation between the two Sandero variants.
Dacia Sandero: More safety kit and on-sale dates
Dacia has also boosted the Sandero and Stepway’s standard safety systems, to meet the European GSR2 requirement. Automatic emergency braking with the ability to see pedestrians and two-wheelers, plus driver-attention monitoring, are now fitted. These can be toggled to a driver’s preferences via a single button. Automatic high beam headlights are also added.
The revised Sandero and Stepway will arrive in UK dealers just before Christmas, with deliveries starting early in the new year.
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