We got James May back in a Dacia Sandero!

hello viewers good news it's the new dacia stroke dacha sandero like comment subscribe [Music] now as you probably know the sandero is officially the cheapest new car on sale in britain but this isn't it this is more of a mid-range model and it has extravagances such as 90 horsepower and manual air conditioning an arm rest and a digital radio it's 10 000 pounds still pretty cheap [Music] however if you are an absolute tight arse you can get a 65 horsepower sandero for under eight thousand pounds it's absolutely bog basic they can't even be asked to paint the bumpers but it is a complete car and that brings me on to my bicycle here it is an orbea orca omr with a sram group set and zip wheels if you're into all that bike porn stuff i can't tell you exactly what it cost because i bought a custom frame and then i built it up with exotic components lockdown does that i could probably work it out if i went through all my old bank statements but to be honest if you think i'm going to spend my dwindling days doing accountancy you can get on your bike i am ashamed to say though that this bicycle cost about the same as the government issue sandero so the big question is which is best let's find out back when i started out in this car lot the cheapest new car on sale in britain was always some sort of commie knockoff like a larder or a hugo they were astonishingly cheap but they were also crap they were cheap for a reason the sandero is also astonishingly cheap but it's not at all crap it's based on the latest renault clear it's not based on some ancient fiat billions that the lefties had somehow got hold on it's a modern car made out of modern car making materials it is in fact like a car just not as expensive i have to say though that it doesn't feel particularly special it's the sort of car you'd end up with if one of your mates was going to the shops and you said oh why are you there could you just pick me up some bog roll oh and the car the orbea feels exotic it's light and agile and it feels alive but it's made almost entirely of carbon fiber and weighs just seven and a half kilograms that's like a big hospital-sized box of corn flakes if this were a car it would be a razor-sharp supercar actually i had it painted in the same colors as my ferrari i sometimes park it in the bedroom [Music] not as clear-cut as you might think the bike will fit through gaps you wouldn't even consider in the sandero making it great around town if you get bored of riding your bear you can carry it you can't do that with the sandero if you get knackered peddling you can put the bike in the car if you run out of petrol in the car you can't tow it with the bike the sandero has to be parked properly and that usually costs money the bike can be put anywhere on the other hand the sandero will comfortably seat four adults and the boot will accommodate really quite large objects such as a pub manager from yorkshire find the best please chris no respect your bear is strictly a single seater and that ponzi saddle pouch will only hold a puncture repair kit and a mid-ride chalk bar rubbish [Music] the seats in here are decent the ride is quite firm in quite a sporty way but not harsh it's got a heater it's got air conditioning which does work it has a windscreen most importantly the sandero is fitted with a very relaxing engine and that really takes the hard work out of personal transport you will have to use your legs occasionally to press the brake pedal for example but most of the time you can just sit back relax and put your feet up [Music] the albert offers absolutely no weather protection and it has a seat like a colonoscopy you also have to power it yourself all that money and what you actually get is a job now something very odd is going on here because if i stand up on the pedals i calculate that i can produce over a hundred pound feet of torque and that's not very far off what the dacia stroke dasher produces which is 117 pound feet but the sandero will go like hell look at this that's 40 miles an hour squeeze the pedal 50 55 60 miles an hour apparently this will do 111 miles an hour how is that possible the answer actually is power the rate of doing work as the physicist would explain it and the little three-cylinder turbo engine in this car will spin thousands of times a minute on the bike i can manage about 80 rpm before my knees start to boil over i actually produce about one quarter of a horsepower it's pathetic by the way the sandero will do over 50 miles on one gallon of petrol and if i rode the same distance on the bike i'd probably spend the same amount of money on mars bars so bicycles are actually more expensive to run than you think [Music] no contest you get more of everything for your money with dacia stroke dacha more space more power more steel more glass more rubber over a ton of stuff for the same cost as seven and a half kilos of bike but what price community pull up at a burger van on the orbea and you will soon be involving other cyclists in fascinating conversations about for example the sram red double tap self trimming front derailleur pull up in the sandero and to be honest no one is going to want to talk to you no one it is a good buy but it isn't going to make you any new friends you may be lonely you don't have to dress up to ride the bicycle but in a way you sort of do because if you wore normal trousers they'd get all tangled up in the drivetrain and you have to wear the special shoes so that they clip into the pedals and then when you try and walk around normally you look as if you've soiled yourself you sort of have to wear a bicycle helmet as well really and the glasses because flies go in your eyeballs i mean it's not so bad when you're on the bike but once you get off it you look like a proper knobber [Music] some people have a socio-political objection to driving what is known to be britain's cheapest car they think it will mark them out as second-class citizens the untermed but that frankly is just insecurity this car really does say that you have more sense than money and if you happen to be astonishingly rich think how sensible that makes you it's anti-fashion it's anti-consumerist it's anti-obsolescence it's actually very knowing it's very on message this car for these times that we're living in i mean the bicycle is a beautiful piece of exotica if you already have a car i would suggest buying one but if you don't have a car why not buy one of these it's as much of a car as any other it just costs less well it's not really very good if you want to go off-roading you're better off with a range rover then or maybe a toyota land cruiser actually it's not particularly good if you move big pot plants around you're better off with probably a pickup truck for that let's be honest actually come to think of it if you are a surfboarder or an ironing board salesperson you're probably better off with an estate i mean let's be honest a bowl though this isn't very good for drifting or track days by the way i would actually look at something like a well used lower spec catrice or maybe one of the early mx-5s they're pretty cheap these days there's no convertible version or coupe like comment subscribe [Music] you

Channel: DRIVETRIBE

Views: 1,892,470

Keywords: jeremy clarkson, richard hammond, james may, cars, top gear, the grand tour

Id: ELX7NJxnUX0

Length: 10min 16sec (616 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 06 2021