• The Spring can seat four
• Rear seats are quite cramped
• Boot is big for a car this size

How much space is there?

The Spring competes in the city car class (like a Fiat 500), so puts more of a premium on being small on the outside than being spacious on the inside. As such, in spite of its chunky appearance it is rather narrow in the cabin. Put two bigger adults in the front and it feels like you’ve filled the interior, the tinny doors with their narrow armrests only adding to the impression that your elbows are almost interacting with oncoming traffic.

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Accessing the rear seats is easy, since the Spring is a five-door car. Actually sitting back there is a different matter, as legroom is compromised to the point that our six-year-old in a chunky child seat was on the cusp of complaining. So while there is plenty of headroom and the Dacia will technically carry four adults, they will all have to be disproportionately small to prevent the knees of those in rear being pressed into the backs of those in the front.

A Citroen e-C3 is a much more usable and roomier car, but it’s also bigger and more expensive. 

Boot space and storage

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

The rear seat backs also fold down, but only together rather than with any kind of central split as you may be used to. This creates 1,085 litres of relatively square space – an aspect Dacia has taken advantage of to offer the Spring Cargo van conversion. There’s an option to add further storage under the bonnet as well, useful for the charging cables at the very least.

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Another surprising – though also potentially misleading – fact about the Spring is that it has almost 33 litres of internal storage space around the cabin. This is a lot for such a small car, but it should be noted that it doesn’t have any rear door pockets of any kind. So the kids are just going to chuck stuff on the floor (ask us how we know).

Dacia also offers what it calls YouClip mounts, which allow you to attach a choice of optional accessories to the car. A storage bag, phone holders (with or without wireless charging), and a combined three-in-one affair that includes a cupholder, bag hook and portable lamp are available.

Is it easy to park?

The Dacia Spring is just 3.7m long (that’s 30cm shorter than a Dacia Sandero) and less than 1.8m wide including the door mirrors. A Hyundai i10 city car is over 17cm wider at the same point. Add standard-fit rear parking sensors (upgraded to front and rear plus a reversing camera on top-spec Extreme models) and a relatively lofty driving position, and you should be able to park it almost anywhere.

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It even has a exceptionally tight 4.8m turning circle, so should make light work of even the most ridiculous multistorey car parks. Not to mention the occasional swift u-turn to nip back for that space you just saw on the opposite side of the road.

Safety

• Rated just one star by Euro NCAP
• Safety equipment hasn’t performed well in our testing
• Dacia places its emphasis on low pricing not performance

Safety is never Dacia’s strong point – a hell of a statement to make about a car manufacturer when you think about it – and the Spring is sadly no exception to this rule. While all its cars comply with the relevant EU safety regulations, which in the Spring’s case includes having mandatory equipment such as lane keeping assist, autonomous emergency braking and speed limit recommendation, safety organisation Euro NCAP typically gives Dacia very low scores. 

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 told us it was safer than a 2012 Renault Clio, but we don’t think being safer than a car over a decade old is really something that stands comparison in 2024.

While we appreciate Dacia’s desire to keep costs as low as possible, this poor safety performance stands out as an important area of consideration for potential Spring buyers. Especially if you’re planning to use it as family transport in a world where, like it or not, many of the other vehicles on the road now are much larger SUVs approaching or exceeding two tonnes in weight. A little research will swiftly show you how badly small, lightweight vehicles fair in collisions with such machines.

Compounding our concerns, in our test driving we found that many of the safety assists, including the lane keep assist, failed to do their basic tasks, and seemed to be fitted as a box-ticking exercise more than to actually keep occupants safe. On top of which, you have to consider the low cost tyres fitted by the factory and how badly the car handles if driven even moderately vigorously – see the driving section of this review for more details (though this Dacia Spring ‘elk test’ video – admittedly of a pre-facelift model – makes some of the issues clear).