I recently took our long-term Renault Sandero Stepway on a road trip up the coast to Mossel Bay. It’s “only” 389 km, but it was the furthest that I have taken the Stepway and the longest amount of time that I have spent in it, thus far.
We were only three occupants, but nevertheless made full use of the Stepway’s spacious cabin and comparatively big boot. We were able to fit our bags and some bedding in the boot. Everything else went on the unused half of the back seat. The Sandero’s spaciousness remains one of its big pluspoints, especially in the segment it competes in.
Sandy – as I now call her – showed that she could hold her own on the road. The only time that I needed to encourage the Stepway by stirring the gearbox was on steep hills. And between Cape Town and Mossel Bay there are many of those… But some planning ahead and gearing down to gain momentum saw us up and down the hills with relative ease.
After we had had our bums in the seats for an extended period of time, we all started to note that the seats were no longer all that comfortable. To be honest, they’re not the greatest seats for long-distance travelling. We had to stop quite a few times to get blood back into our bottoms. Other small criticisms are relatively high levels of wind and road noise.
During our week out on the Garden Route, we headed up to the Knysna Elephant Park, Knysna Heads, the Cango Caves in Oudsthoorn, and, on the way home, to Struisbaai in Cape Agulhas to see the southern most tip of Africa. So, when we finally arrived back in Cape Town, Sandy had covered close to 2 000 km and was now due for a 15 000 km service.
We promptly booked the Sandero in at the Renault Service Centre in Stikland. Finding the service centre was a bit of a mission. The website listed the old address, so we drove around for a long time before we found out that they had moved. Luckily, it was only a few roads away.
When we finally arrived, we were helped immediately. The service assistant took us around the car, asked us if there was anything in particular that we would like them to look at and noted down all our details. We pointed out that the windscreen had been chipped early on in our “ownership” of the vehicle. This particular Renault service centre can conveniently fix chipped screens on-site, so we took them up on the offer to have it repaired.
The assistant regularly phoned during the course of the day and kept us up-to-date on the progress of our vehicle. We also received update messages. At about 15h30 that day, we received a call to say that our car was ready for collection. Due to the fact that the service centre was quite busy, we had to wait a while before we could make our payment for the windscreen and optional wheel alignment and balancing. Everything else – fluid levels topped up, check on all lights and brakes, adjusting the throttle (which have been sticky), general check and service – was covered by the 5-year/60 000 km maintenance plan.
A day after getting the car back, we noticed that the chip in the windscreen had been filled, but the cracks on either side of it were longer than before. We phoned Renault, and were told to bring the vehicle in. When we got there, the company that fixed it, StarBreak Windscreen Repair, said that it could either stop the cracks from spreading by drilling a hole at each end and then filling, or could give us the money back for the initial job, and then we could fit a new windscreen if we wished to do so. We opted for the former, and so far, it seems to be working out.
Though the general perception is that Renault after-sales service is woeful, our experience has been the opposite. Renault Stikland’s staff was nothing but efficient and friendly.
Mileage now: 16 575 km
Fuel consumption: 7,8 litres/100 km
We like: spacious boot and cabin, standard features
We don’t like: uncomfortable seats (on long runs), road noise