• The Spring can seat four
• Rear seats are quite cramped
• But the boot is an excellent size

How much space is there?

The Spring is by far Dacia’s smallest car, as at 3.7m in length. That makes it around 30cm shorter than a Sandero, itself a typical supermini-size car. Not surprisingly, the Spring isn’t the roomiest of cars, though offers more space than a Fiat 500e.

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The Spring is a narrow car so two bigger adults in the front can fill the interior, but this is a four-seater that adults can squeeze into the rear better than they could in a Fiat 500. The five-door layout is useful in this respect, though the front seats will need to be slid quite far forwards if adults are to be able to get into the rear. Headroom is fine owing to the boxy shape but your knees will be pressed into the back of the front seats. A Citroen e-C3 is a much more usable and roomier car, but is bigger and therefore more expensive. 

Boot space and storage

One thing that is much more surprising for a car of this size is the boot space, which is easily comparable with various superminis from the class above. The bootlid itself feels very flimsy to open owing to its sheer lightness, but it opens up 308 litres of space. To give some context, the last Ford Fiesta only offered 292 litres. 

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The rear seats fold to increase the space available to 1,004 litres, though the rear seats don’t fold separately, but only as a bench, which isn’t the most useful. But there’s plenty of storage around the interior, with big cupholders and a huge gearbox in our left-hand-drive test car, though the latter might not make it over to UK cars.

Dacia will also offer YouClip mounts, which allows you to connect five different accessories into certain slots around the car, including phones, lamps and additional cupholders. 

Is it easy to park?

The Spring is a car designed for the city and it’s here with it excels. With its narrow width and small length, it’s a doddle to place down narrow streets without worrying about clipping mirrors. The tight turning circle makes for easy three-point turns, though it’s not quite as impressive as a Smart Fortwo’s, but still excellent for the city. 

All models also come with rear parking sensors as standard, with the top-spec Extreme versions adding front parking sensors and a reversing camera. With the Spring sitting a bit higher than a conventional city car, you also get a slightly better view out as well. 

Safety

• Poor safety performance
• Rated just one star by Euro NCAP in 2021
• Feels built to its price

Safety is never Dacia’s strong point and the Spring isn’t an exception. While all its cars comply with strict safety regulations, including having mandatory equipment such as lane keep assist, autonomous emergency braking and speed limit recommendation, safety organisation Euro NCAP frequently gives its cars poor ratings. 

The Spring was awarded just one star (out of five) by NCAP back in 2021 and Dacia has said it won’t retest the Spring to get a new rating until 2027. Representatives said it was safer than a 2012 Renault Clio, which is something that we don’t think is worth bragging about – being safer than a 12-year-old car.

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While we at Parkers appreciate savings have to be made, we think the Spring’s poor safety performance is a real weakness, and one that could be worth considering especially if you’re using a Spring to transport your family. On our test drive many of the safety assists, such as lane keep assist, failed to do their basic task, and seem to be fitted as a box-ticking exercise more than to actually keep occupants safe.