Erin Baker: How much car can you get for £7,000?

Or, it turns out, you could buy a new family car. One with air-con, hill-start assist, electronic stability control, emergency brake assist, Isofix, LED daytime running lights, front fog lights, tinted windows, electric front windows, DAB radio, USB slot and Bluetooth. It has five seats, and a decent boot that would fit a couple of small suitcases or 10 bags of supermarket shopping. It’s called the Dacia Sandero; it’s been around since 2013 but it’s been refreshed. Air-con now appears as standard a trim level lower, Ambience; there’s a new grill, new lights, changes to the dashboard and steering wheel, and a 1.0-litre three-pot petrol engine replaces the entry-level 1.2-litre engine in the summer.

The Dacia Sandero is not a great-looking car. It’s pretty boring; tail-lights a bit like a Polo’s, a ubiquitous Euro-car, made in Romania, designed by people who long ago gave up on aspiration.

And yes, the doors close with a cheap ping, the interior plastics are very plasticky, the wind and road noise mean you have to really raise your voice on motorways, the rear windows have manual handles, and the change from fourth to fifth gear is a bit sticky.

But, need I remind you again, this is a car which costs half the price of the ceramic brakes on a Bentley. It costs less than half the fencing my colleague who drove it with me needs to put round his garden. It costs a few thousand pounds less than other superminis, with posher badges, which carry less shopping.

And we haven’t even got to the good bit yet: how it drives. The Ambiance TCe 90, with 90bhp and a turbocharger for its 898cc petrol engine, belies its price. The engine is eager and on song at 4,000rpm, all the way through to 7,000rpm. There’s oomph, with just driver on board, to overtake most stuff, and it’ll sit perfectly happy at 75mph in the motorway. The steering is surprisingly nicely weighted, and the suspension really does feel like it belongs to a car £10,000 more expensive. The seats are supportive, and there are no shoddy ergonomics.

I really, really liked this car. Then there’s the best part: the price for the Sandero in 2013 started at £5,995. Today, the revised range starts at £5,995. No change; it’s still a very, very cheap car, but not in a nasty way; in a plain, honest way. When I think back to the equivalent offering when I was looking for my first car, it was the 1.0-litre Austin Metro, which felt bad, drove badly and rusted before my eyes. Kids these days don’t know how lucky they are.