The cut-price specialist that has just put Renault in the budget zone has just announced another baby.

The Sandero is a smaller sister ship to the Duster that has just introduced here as a Renault. What chance of also seeing it here?

MIGHT another model just announced by Renault’s budget brand could conceivably be in line for New Zealand introduction, also with a change of identity?

If chosen for adoption in our market, the new Dacia Sandero would – like a larger sister ship just trying out our terrain now – surely come here with French identification.

This potential arises with today’s announcement in Europe of the new generation Sandero, similarly styled but based on a smaller underpinning than the Duster that has just gone on sale here and historically an even cheaper car.

The Duster and Sandero are the biggest volume models built by Dacia, which began life as a Romania’s sole car brand and still makes all its cars in that country, though it has long been subsumed into the Renault empire, in the same manner that Skoda was pulled into Volkswagen.

Since essentially taking French citizenship, Dacia has specialised as a make that pitches Renault design and engineering to a more budget-minded audience than the owner can easily aim itself at.

That advantage has been used to unique degree by Renault New Zealand, which is among a handful of distributors allowed to do something that cannot happen in Europe – namely, to sell the Dacia cars as Renaults.

Dacia also provisions the logan, a compact sedan (the silver car here). It’d likely be a hard sell in our crossover-fixated market.

Might that risk ruffling feathers with purists – or Dacia fans (assuming these existed in NZ, as the make has never been seen here under its own identity)? It doesn’t seem so.

A special launch price announced two weeks ago of $27,990 has immediately sparked interest in the 1.6-litre front-drive car, Renault New Zealand general manager Sam Waller says.

The launch strategy puts the model directly in competition with another like-sized and similarly-configured Korean model that also immediately found favour from releasing here under the same kind of special price launch strategy: Kia’s Seltos.

Duster compares well with the Kia, which still has a waiting list. The four-cylinder petrol engine makes 84kW of power and 156Nm of torque, delivers economy of 6.6 litres per 100km. The car has a modest towing capacity, just 1400kg, but loads up on good spec, with features including a 360-degree camera, blind-spot monitoring, and a 7-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Duster’s availability and positioning in the sub-$30k zone has emboldened the distributor to appoint six additional dealers and push to raise the profile of a brand that, for years, has been barely noticed here and has survived mainly through support for its specialist RS performance products, plus a small fanbase for the Koleos sports utllity.

The Duster seems destined to establish a good following in the sub-$30k sector.

Conceivably, the Sandero would also strike a sweet spot. Dacia has so far only released images of the new-all model, these arriving overnight. It has said the car will go on sale early next year, starting in Europe, and promises to announced technical details in the immediate future.

Dacia says it will promising improved levels of equipment, while retaining trademark standards of simplicity and reliability.

This is the third generation of Sandero and the styling represents as an evolution of the outgoing model’s, with the same simple lines and high roofline. Roof rails, black plastic body cladding and a slightly raised ride-height are part of the persona, but restricted to a particular variant, the Stepway.

Observers say the proportions appear more stretched, with raises conjecture that it has gone onto the CMF-B underpinnings as the latest Clio and Nissan Juke.

Engines are likely to be a bunch of entry units design for Clio; petrol options could well include a 53kW naturally aspirated 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol up to a 95kW turbocharged 1.3-litre four-cylinder petrol unit.

International speculation is that an upgraded platform would also mean the model is in line for a decent technology boost, though Clio's infotainment system and digital instrument cluster might be too expensive for the Sandero's notoriously low price-point.

Dacia has also started to dish out information about a compact sedan, the Logan. The silver car seen in one of today’s images. That car seems unlikely to find a home in NZ, as it would enter a sector that is fast eroding to negligible status.