Dacia Logan MCV Stepway

This is where you can really feel the Logan has been built down to a price. All the materials you see, touch or interact with are pretty drab and unappealing, and that’s because they’re chosen for their affordability and functionality, rather than their tactility. Poke and prod around lower down in the cabin, near the footwells and door pockets, and you find plastics so hard and flimsy, you’d swear they belonged in a 15 year-old car. However, it’d be churlish to be too hard on the Logan for the standard of its interior trim, given how affordable it is.

The basic nature of the cabin does pay some dividends in the area of ergonomics, though. The big buttons and dials are simple to use: they’re clearly marked and logically and conventionally placed. The touch-screen infotainment system is pretty basic and self-explanatory, too, so finding your way around it shouldn’t pose too many problems. There are still a couple of ergonomic quirks, however. The switches for the electric front windows are in a completely different location to those for the rear windows, and the same goes for the switches that activate the cruise control, and those that operate it.

The big windows all around the car mean you get a good view out in every direction, but it’s not such great news with your driving position. There’s no reach adjustment for the steering and the seat is rather short of support.