I buy a new used car every couple of years, my last was a four year old Merc E Class estate. It ate money and produced a series of un-diagnosable faults with a camshaft position sensor. The last bill not to fix it was £1200, and at the point, I figured paying money for nothing was beyond i****ic. I p/x'd the remains for a Logan 1.5Dci Lauréate spec, with MediaNav, and parking sensors, and the Comfort pack.

The first suprise was on the test run. Once the Logan had got into turbo mode at 1750 rpm the thing took off like a rat up a drainpipe. Sold.

Now, a month later, and the Logan MCV has hit the sweet spot. It pulls like a train on the motorway, and still manages 62 mpg, with no road tax. Tank range is plus 600 miles. It will cruise easily at 80mph on French motorways. I have only filled the car up once in the month since I bought it, whereas I was filling the Merc up every week. No VED is saving me £25 a month payment to DVLA.

I can't fault the car. However, the MediaNav, while convenient, has less functions than a £125 Garmin satnav, and is distracting on the road if you want to adjust it. Map updates are excessively priced at £90 for Western Europe.

The fingertip controls on the steering column are good, as is the hands-free. The Parking sensors are almost inaudible, and so I wouldn't bother with either of those two options and go for the stock CD BlueTooth radio, and a Garmin.

The rest of the car is excellent, cruise, aircon, heated mirrors, front fog lamps, daytime lights, auto-start/stop, etc. Renault engine is very good, and runs just 2000 rpm at 70 mph, with plenty of urge for A road overtakes.

Gearing is long, so I mostly drive it by ear in the turbo torque zone of 1750-2500 rpm. Fifth gear on the motorway puts you bang in the middle of this, so the car keeps up with the Audis and BMW's in lane 3. There is no shortage of torque.

The suspension is supple, and several of my passengers remark how comfortable the car is. The driver's seat on the Lauréate is height adjustable, as is the steering wheel. Air-con is good, and the stock speakers (with a Kenwood radio) very acceptable.

I bought the OEM full size spare wheel which sleeps below the boot deck.

The boot space is good, you can get a full size bike in the rear, and the rear seat squab tilts forward for the full fridge-freezer house move experience.

The car is hard to fault, other than the quiet parking sensors and it's very enjoyable to drive. I actually prefer it over the Merc, as I know I don't have £20,000 tied up in it, and the handling is lighter. It tracks very precisely on the motorway, making long distance work fatigue-free, especially on cruise.

At the price, the Logan beats almost all other estates for value. It made Family Car ofthe Year 2016, is enjoyable to drive, and in black, looks like it cost twice the price. The nearest competitor is the Skoda Fabia estate, at almost £5000 more for the same features.

That just leaves badge-envy. The Brit reviews seem to have lost sight of anything that isn't BMW or Audi, and tend to review the Dacia's as third world cars. Nothing could be further from the truth, as demonstrated by the terrific Euro 6 compliant 1.5 Dci Renault engine in the car.

Recommended.