...or as I prefer, the Renault Escargot.

Well, there is was in all it's glory. A Techno Grey Metallic (larney sounding colour hey?) Renault Sandero 1.6 United to take the place of my wife's car, that I managed to successfully write off the weekend before, as our rental courtesy of our insurance company. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't write a review of a rental car. They have all been abused, crashed, smashed and generally punished by careless drivers who believe the old adage "there is no greater 4x4 than a rental car." However, due to this examples low mileage, I had faith that it would give a good show for itself.

The Sandero has made a good standing for itself in the South African market as a locally produced product. With it's 5 year 150 000 km warranty and 3 year 45 000 km service plan as standard, it has much to offer the penny-wise consumer and it's sales figures prove it. However, in it's segment there is a lot of stiff competition, competition that I am not sure the Sandero is ready to contend with.

As far as looks go, the Sandero can be at best described as functional. It's as though it's designers had a platform to work off of and built a car around it. Not to say that I would throw rocks at the car, it does have purposeful, no nonsense lines. It is fortunately a grown up car that the designers were thoughtful enough to produce, rather than bombarding their intended buyers with a cutesy, bubblesque oddity. The rear doors are a bit strange though. The rear quarter windows, instead of curving inwards with shape of the tail gate, elongate outwards along the curve of the wheel arch. For the unfamiliar, whilst loading the car it can lead to a number of bumped heads and elbows.

As far as the interior is concerned, the car is reasonably well equipped with a non-factory standard audio system and airconditioning. Coupled with central locking, the car has most of what the budget car buyer is looking for. The boot is of a more than reasonable size and should fit in the monthly shopping without any problems. With regards to safety, you have height-adjustable safety belts in the front and driver and passenger airbags. The fabrics used on the seats seem durable and hard wearing, and although well padded, when it comes to seating position a nightmare begins to emerge.

My biggest gripe about the car is the driving position. The drivers seat may be height adjustable, but without the assistance of a height adjustable steering column, I just don't see shorter drivers having a full range of view of the instrument panel. The back rest too is not without its problems. It seems as though there are too few increments of adjustment. You either feel as though you are leaning too far forward or too far back. Using the height adjustment does not seem to remedy this either. It does however have ample leg room for the driver to comfortably sit with legs extended, but if you're over 1.8 metres tall, you'd better hope your rear passengers are not fond of leg room. You can't exactly count this against the Sandero though, because in this segment, what car does have that kind of room?

Now crunch time. Performance. Personally, I would not believe Renault's figures for 0-100km/h in 11.5 seconds in my wildest dreams. Nor would I believe that the car is capable of it's claimed top speed of 175km/h on a downhill with a tailwind. The truth of the matter is that for a 1.6 litre fuel injected motor in this day and age, the Sandero is grossly underpowered with it's 64kW and 128NM. It's pushing out roughly the 2kW more than the old 1.6 carb model Golf Mk.1's did, and they went out with the Bronze Age. Brakes are adequate, but nothing to write home about and with a combined fuel consumption of 7l/100km, it's smack bang in the middle of the competition. So, no, not a great performer.

All in all the driving impression of the Sandero, is much the same as the rest of the car. It is not an exciting drive, but will get you where you are going. The feel drive is very much like that of the Mk.1 Scenics with regards to steering, pedal feedback and the gearshift. There is a fair amount of body roll, but not so much as to make the car feel unstable. There is not much point on reviewing the car with the perspective of a performance car writer, because that is not what this car is. The Sandero is a car for A to B drivers who are not looking for thrills from their car. Just something to reliably transport them back and forth in reasonable comfort and safety. From my few days experience with the car, it should do just that. But to be honest, it wouldn't be my first choice.