Romanian history – Dacia: From the Carpathian Renault to the cool price hit

Today, Dacia is a profitable subsidiary of the Renault group, which rushes from success to success around the world with inexpensive compact cars. It is hardly known that the roots of these world cars lie in an 80-year-old aircraft factory on the edge of the Carpathians. From there, Dacia has been successful in Romania since 1968, but also in Austria – but not as long in this country as in our neighbors.

It is an emigrant career that is still paying off for the Renault Group today. 55 years ago, the French exported family cars and production facilities for the first time to Romania, which was then far away because it was behind the “Iron Curtain” of the Eastern bloc. Under the Dacia brand, a historic name for today’s Romania, a double of the brand new Renault 12 was to transform the agricultural land between the Black Sea coast and the Carpathians into a modern industrial location and be the first locally built people’s car to sell millions. especially since the Dacia plant in the industrial town of Pitesti emerged from a factory for aircraft engines founded in 1943. Even before the debut of the French gene donor Renault 12, the first Dacia 1300 rolled off the assembly line on August 23, 1969 – to coincide with the Romanian national holiday. In fact, the Romanians set such a rapid pace in factory construction that they started car production as early as 1968 with the rear-engined Dacia 1100 aka Renault 8 Major was sold, as an alternative to Lada & Co, by the way, also in Germany, which was divided until 1989. There was still nothing to be seen of Dacia in Austria. When the political “wind of change” also changed Romania at the time, Dacia dared to relaunch. Since 1999 as part of the Renault group, and the French managed where others failed: The Dacia Logan/MCV amazed as the world’s cheapest five to seven seater. From a cheap home to a cool brand for affordable mobility, Dacia then made this leap with SUVs like the Duster. In Austria for 17 years At the beginning of the 21st century, many manufacturers wanted to stir up the car market with a low-budget brand. There were Kei Car copies from China and India tried in vain to convince the masses of the benefits of the Tata Nano. Great utility value at a low price – that was also the promise with which the Dacia Logan entered Germany in 2004 and two years later in Austria. The Logan in Germany, with prices starting at 7200 euros, missed the 5000 euro target initially announced by Renault clearly, but he scored as a spacious price breaker in VW Golf format with acceptable safety equipment. Sensation: for the price of a Golf there were two well-equipped Logans. In 2008 the Dacia Sandero followed with a chic hatchback, which was in the showroom of 77 dealers (today there are exactly 100). In the first year, 1,154 units were sold in Austria alone, by 2022 there were a total of 37,733 in this country. This makes the Sandero the best-selling model in the product range in Austria to this day.Then the Duster caused a stirWhen the Duster caused a stir in the SUV segment two years later, it was down to football star Mehmet Scholl, the Romanian “status symbol for everyone who doesn’t need a status symbol”. to make it even more desirable as a brand ambassador. In fact, Dacia now seemed to succeed in almost everything, especially since the inexpensive Duster was the brand’s first model to win a real fan community. Finally, the Duster also gained respect in rallies and in use by emergency and rescue services. Why expensive Asian or German all-wheel drive technology when a Duster for just over 10,000 euros will do the trick? Dacia is now finally a brand that customers in around 45 countries have on their wish lists, although the cars are sold in some places with the Renault logo. Dacia is still serving outdoor trends today, as the off-road concept car manifesto and the future Bigster SUV show . In addition, since 2021 there has been the Stromer Dacia Spring, a five-door city car that has become the benchmark for cheap Chinese newcomers. Inexpensive products that primarily reach private customers are Dacia continuing the people’s car course that led to the founding of the brand in 1966. At that time, socialist Romania was pushing for modernity with all its might, citizens should be able to fulfill their dream of owning their own car. The authorities and the party apparatus of head of state Nicolae Ceaușescu also needed stylish cars in Western European design. Finally, the Soviet Union should be shown that in Pitesti, this industrial city on the edge of the Carpathians, forward-looking front-wheel drive mid-range vehicles were built, which took it up with conservative Moskvich and the Lada models announced for 1970 from Fiat 124 license. Desired Renault Romania was deniedIn fact, that’s why Ceaușescu didn’t choose Fiat from among the license candidates; but also Alfa, Austin, Peugeot and DKW were eliminated. Renault models promised the greatest progress – but the French did not deliver the R16 actually desired by Romania. In return, they offered a chic car without frills, which was also to cause a sensation in the sales statistics in Western Europe: the Renault 12 (as a four-door sedan and later also as a station wagon) was one of the most attractive special offers around 1970. Only the parallel offer Dacia 1300 was even cheaper. Dacia and the Germans, this story began in the early 1970s in what was then the GDR, but German citizens could also buy “The alternative in terms of price and performance: Dacia”. In fact, the Dacia in Germany cost a good 40 percent less than an R12, but the buyers of the Carpathian Renault had to accept compromises in terms of production quality. In the GDR, on the other hand, the Romanian in the neat Renault design was sold at ambitious prices. Not a few customers switched to a Lada when word got around about the initial quality deficits of the Dacia. However, Dacia learned quickly and so the Renault clone developed into an export hit, which from 1975 under the slogan “Dacia Mamamia!” or China.Meanwhile, the designers in Pitesti unfolded unimagined creativity: the Dacia 1300 mutated into the 1310 to 1410 type family, including sports coupés, pick-ups, fastbacks and commercial vehicle variants. Added to this was the Dacia 2000, which showed the political nomenklatura. Dacia 2000? Behind it was a Renault 20 TL with a Romanian label. The Renault Estafette, which Dacia supplied to the authorities, also received badge engineering. Inventiveness has been a tradition in Pitesti since the beginning of aeronautics and so Dacia designed the 500 Lastun microcar in 1986, which, however, failed on the market due to a lack of fine-tuning. Unlike the compact Nova, a Dacia homegrown product that prepared the alliance with Renault in the 1990s. In 1999 the time had come: Dacia became a brand within the Renault group. A lot has changed since then, as shown by the series of successful models Logan, Sandero, Duster, Spring and Jogger. Above all, however, it is the brand that has gained in fascination. Similar to the discounters Aldi and Lidl, Dacia shows that cheap can also be good.
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