They certainly are, but i just always assumed it was a continuation of the old French thing of buying French. In the old days absolutely everyone had a Renault, Peugeot or Citroen, Dacias are budget Renaults, in a few years time they’ll have been French longer than Romanian, so it’s really just the 21st century version of everyone and their dog having Renaults. They’ll get people from A to B, hopefully without exploding or killing anyone, which is their purpose. As I said, I’d walk into the sea before I owned one, but I don’t have a couple of whiny kids who need to be shuffled to school or ballet class or whatever.
As @KarenLot said, they’re the French car that people can afford at a time when cars are becoming ridiculously expensive, and I don’t begrudge people that, it’s just a shame they’re hideously ugly and more ubiquitous than dog crap on the streets of Paris. It’s not something most would choose to buy, @geoffrey_Croshaw aside of course, it’s something you need to buy as its at the right price point. They played a blinder in snatching a massively uncatered to market, it’s so impressive.
All cars are these days. The accountants decide on the pricing in each segment and the engineers have to work to that.
For example, prior to the mid nineties Mercedes engineers built a car to their standards and the accountants then priced it. They were reassuringly expensive. Then the marketeers and accountants got control, segmented the market and set price targets. The result was mediocre cars and Merc lost the cachet it had built up oover decades. Today it is just another German car manufacturer like VW or BMW. Nothing special.
Be aware though that Dacia is being allowed to move upmarket within Renault. Lada looked like it was gojng to replace it - apparently thrre’s a great new rugged solid simple Lada vehicle in the East - but as Lada is Russian….
Dacia’s cheap pricing isn’t what it was. The really astounding bargain was the Jogger, launched at 15,000 euros not much more than a year ago. Now you won’t get it out of the showroom for much less than about 22,000 euros. Unfortunately that’s still cracking value compared to other starter pricing. It’s not a poncy SUV like the Duster, just an estate, but it can fit 7.
With 2 serious recalls on their hands : one for the Japanese airbags where the regulator has finally got tired of Renault dragging its feet, and their duff engine they’re going to have to compensate for after consumers have fought for at least 3 years, I’m taking a bet Dacia will be the pillar supporting Renault.
So like Skoda did with VW if you’re thinking of a Dacia, do it soon or prices will move out of reach. Unfortunately poor quality cars are so overpriced at least in Western Europe Dacia’s got the headroom to still shift prices up more markedly than the leaps they already did in the past year.
When I moved here , I bought a Peugeot only because I wanted to at least appear to assimilate. I knew they were crap cars and my head said ‘‘buy an Asian car, you fool’’. But so far, it has been fine. I would not buy a new Stellantis car.
I am amazed by the anti Dacia feeling shown here. I have always split the car buying public into two types; those who buy a car that meets their needs and those who take more interest and buy a particular car because what it offers them. I have seen the rise of Dacia and presumed that they ticked the boxes that the people in my first group wanted. I think I’ve only been in one, a Duster, and it seemed to be perfectly OK. It was comfortable, well equipped and seemed to drive well. I might not have one high on the list of cars I would buy but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad car. Its owner loved it. I would have thought that the fact that you see so many on the roads everywhere is a sign of their success. They seem to be hitting their target spot on.
I had a Duster for about six years. A friend of ours said I must have been in love with the local Renault dealer but it was reliable compared with the cars after that. It might be basic (although I haven’t seen more recent models) and the price was reasonable.
I can feel no more engagement with a car than with a knife, or a fridge, though a tool like a knife or a guitar is going to become more comfortable - and therefore more engageable with - as it ages.
I think you are typical of the majority of people who buy cars. They are looking for a tool that will do the job competently. For many the colour will be more important than the badge or 0-100 time.
The badge is as important as the colour for many people, though most manufacturers offer a similar range of colours.
But don’t people do any research about acceleration, reliability, comfort, efficiency, etc.? I know I do, although I never bothered with a test drive before ordering the Tiguan (the best of the seven cars I’ve owned).
I think the fact that you can have 6 models from 6 different manufacturers which are based on the same platform and so are 80% the same car, very much agrees with your thought that the badge is incredibly important, although with the badge comes the price of course as we’ve already said. If a Kadjar and a Duster are basically the same vehicle with styling, price point and brand differences (I’ve no idea if they actually are, just an example) the intangibles (brand) become as important as the tangibles (price)
I would tend to agree with this. If you look at the VW group range, some can’t move past Skoda being a joke of an Eastern European brand while, for others, only the Audi 4 rings of entitlement will suffice.
I considered getting a Dacia Spring until I read the safety results. Sorry but no way would I take my grandchildren in little more than a thin tin can. Yet I do like the other Dacia models very much and would buy a Sandero because to me its transport from A to B and I do not feel right about leaving thousands of euros worth of car sitting idle for days at a time. I’ve done the sports cars, people carriers, SUV’s, big trucks 4x4 and now, a car is for not going very far - trains and planes are for that!
Others will have their own criteria, but badge means nothing to me (ah Vienna) and it’s all about a combination of price, performance, economy, reliability and comfort. I note that VAG group cars have certain trends for particular badges, so if more power/sporty pretentions were important I might instinctively look at seat, cupra or audi. Colour never enters the equation for a used car, although if there were 2 otherwise equal then it might make a difference - it’s on the outside and barely visible.
Renault have never been a make I’ve seriously considered, but if they were, a Dacia might well fit the bill.
No car I’m ever likely to own will make me ‘proud’ to own it, and it’s hard to imagine a particular sense of pleasure in ownership for something like my Skoda Karoq. It’s just boring functional transport that’s reasonably economical, spacious and comfy. It could be a Mundaneo for all it matters.
