Comments on: Dacia: Romania’s good news story

By: Parmalat

Parmalat — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:38:50 +0000

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…

By: Geronimo

Geronimo — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:11:29 +0000

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

By: Craig Turp

Craig Turp — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:38:46 +0000

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.

By: Davin Ellicson

Davin Ellicson — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:02:45 +0000

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.

By: Ovidiu

Ovidiu — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:26:18 +0000

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.