As kids we never told Dacia jokes. Dacias simply weren’t available in the United Kingdom. We have heard (or did we read, once?) that there was an aborted attempt to market Dacias in the UK in the 1970s, but it never got off the ground.
Instead, the Eastern European car of choice in Britain was of course the Skoda. And so we used to tell Skoda jokes.
You know the kind of thing:
What do you call a Skoda with a sun roof?
A skip
How do you double the value of a Skoda?
Fill the petrol tank
What do you call a Skoda driver who says he’s been caught speeding?
A liar
And so on… Boom-boom.
The fact is though, had we had Dacias instead of Skodas, we would have told jokes about them. And, much as we did with Skodas, we would have done so partly with affection.
For all the jokes, it was always difficult to find a Skoda owner who wasn’t entirely satisfied with his car. Skoda owners knew that they did not own the greatest or most attractive cars in the world. But they also knew that they had cost very little, and that they were wholly reliable.
Most Dacia owners (and almost all Romanian males have owned one at some stage, even though a few do not readily admit it) also swore by the reliability of their cars. Most still do, though some Romanians have what could be called a love/hate relationship with the Dacia.
Their were a million myths about Dacias, just as many as their were jokes about Skodas.
Our favourite was the idea that the older the Dacia the better, as it was far closer to the original Renault it was based on.
Yet just as nobody tells Skoda jokes anymore, so few people claim that the older your Dacia is, the better it is. For over the past few years Dacia has become one of Romania’s truly great success stories.
Yesterday, the carmaker announced that it had seen a global increase in sales of more than 20 per cent. No other Romanian-made product – not even wine – comes close to those kind of sales figures. Though sales in Romania were actually down (because we all know how snobbish Romanian drivers now are), Dacia now has an incredible 2.13 per cent market share in Germany of all places. In France, market share is over 2.5 per cent.
The carmaker also announced yesterday that is was planning further expansion, planning two new models and – finally – an official entrance onto the UK market this year.
You can even now buy a wide range of Dacia merchandise.
Dacia watches. Who ever would have believed it?
Too many people in Romania are too quick to condemn the country (and everything in it) as a basket case. We are more guilty of that than most.
So credit where it is due. Dacia might be owned by the French but the car and the brand is Romanian, and as a country brand it is currently doing far more to boost Romania’s image than any ill-conceived marketing campaigning ever could.
Oh, and Dacia’s ads are good too…
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Is Renault really a car? I haven’t heard of a 5-6 litres Renault yet…
I’m anxiously waiting for the times when a Romanian car manufacturer will be called Dacia – Mercedes.
Or other company names that end in “Deutsche Bank”, “AEG”, “Blaupunkt”, “Siemens” etc…
Similarly renault would have struggled to make that gain in germany (or france for that matter) without dacia which is down to romania and romanians . I think it’s fair to share the praise between the frogs and the scus
Correct me if I am wrong, but aren’t the new Dacias from the Logan onward all designed and developed by Renault in France and not here in Romania? I mean isn’t Dacia’s recent success due to Renault taking over the company? It is not as if Dacia would be having global success if it had continued to be Romanian and Dacia 1310s continued to be made.
Dacia’s majority owner is Renault, yes. But the car is made here and still branded (in most markets) as Dacia.
You are right in that Dacia would probably not be as successful without Renault (the Dacia Nova Ovidiu refers to below was Dacia’s own attempt at modernisation), but then that can apply to any number of companies. Dacia remains a Romanian car: Renault’s main input is in marketing and distribution. Dacia on its own would have found it impossible to break into the German market in quite such a big way.
Well, not all Dacias were born equal. Some versions were good, some were crap. The originals 1300 were very good (for their time), and then the early 1310 and 1410 were also ok. Later editions of 1310 and 1410 (including the pick-ups, diesel and injection models) were really bad, I am amazed a lot of them are still around.
Then came Dacia Nova, the worst Dacia ever. You won’t see them around, because they self-destructed (and we thank them for that).
Dacia SuperNova were ok-ish. Fixed most of the problems from Nova, but were not magic. Definitely worse than the good 1310 and 1410, but driveable. Bad (as in non-existant) safety features.
Dacia Solenza was actually a really good car, a lot of them are still around and a lot (most?) of their owners will swear they are better than the Dacia Logan.
Then came the Logan with all variations – and it is by far the most “fair” car for its price. I owned a Dacia 1210 (yes, 1200 cmc!, they existed), a VW Golf 2, a Seat Ibiza, a Dacia 1410 “Iliescu smile”, two Dacia Logan (sedan) and now also a Mazda 6. I drove all the other Dacia models and other cars too.
Even if we can’t compare a Mazda 6 2009 with a Dacia Logan 2005 in terms of class, quality, performance, etc, the Logan has definitely the better value = quality/price ratio and I still preffer to use the Logan in Bucharest if I don’t need to pick up a partner or show up somewhere where appearances matter.
As for France and Germany, I guess they are not as “cocky” about their cars and appreciate Dacia for what it is – cheap, simple, decent quality and performance. I was actually amazed to read a post by some german dude who owned a 40k+ Audi (A8 I think) who used a Logan for day-to-day stuff and the Audi only on longer trips and vacation. It was just better for the job.
The photo is a Dacia with a Hungarian registration plate
I did not own a Dacia, especially because of the fact that everyone had owned a Dacia at some point in time so I had to do the other way around. However, I learned how to drive on such a Dacia 1300.
We had Dacias in the UK, but that was a version of ARO, the communist Romanian made 4×4, called then “Dacia Duster” in the late ’80s and early 90s, exactly as the forthcoming and much publicised new 4×4 made under Renault’s umbrella. The old Duster was considered a farm workhorse and developed quite a following among some British farmers. I had the opportunity to drive a battered one in the early 90s at a farm near Andover. It got even an entry for residual values in the auto magazine Parkers’ for a while. I have quite found memories of the vehicle…
Here is a link expounding facts about old Dacia Duster in the UK: http://www.motorbase.com/vehicle/by-id/658340912/
Top photo is the shiniest car I have ever seen. talk about wax job