Dacia News

The CNN reporters visited the Dacia factory and the Constanta port, where they followed the manufacturing and the export of the Dacia cars, emphasizing that Dacia is the biggest Romanian exporter.

In the first visit of a CNN crew at the Dacia factory, where they shoot a video report about the good things happening in Romania, Dacia being the most successful exporter and one of the most profitable employers. Every day, three trains leave the Dacia plant in Pitesti with more than 300 vehicles, all for export by sea via the Constanta port.

The Dacia success story began drawing more interest from abroad. The Renault subsidiary is admired by the automotive rivals, not only because it managed to launch a low-cost range at the beginning of the financial crisis but also because Dacia provided competitive models from several points of view, not only the price, as seen in recent years.

Here is the CNN Dacia video:

The 0.9-liter TCe engines produced by Dacia-Renault will power the future Smart Fortwo, according to Dacia representatives. The engine that will be manufactured in the Pitesti factory, will be delivered to Daimler, after a partnership signed by the Renault-Nissan concern with the Germans from Daimler.

The 0.9 TCe is a engine that complies with the Euro 5 standards, develops 90 HP and powers the Dacia Logan, Sandero, Sandero Stepway and Renault Clio models. With the onset of the new Smart ForTwo, the 0.9 TCe engine will be integrated on the new generation of Renault Twingo.

“Renault Technologie Roumanie has a partnership with Daimler based on which we export the H4 engine produced in Pitesti to Daimler for the Smart Fortwo and to Renault for the Twingo models, "said Sorin Buse, the General Manager of Renault Technologie Roumanie. The Renault Technical Centre was established in 2006, has over 2,000 employees, and operates in three centers: Bucharest – design, Pitesti – tests and Titu – test center.

The production of the H4 engine has started in Pitesti in 2012, and the 0.9-liter unit has debuted almost simultaneously in the Renault and Dacia ranges, marking an important step in the downsizing intentions of the French car manufacturer. In 2013, Dacia estimates that will produce 150,000 H4 engines.

Dacia started the preorders in the United Kingdom for the new Logan MCV that will have a starting price of at £ 6995, making it the cheapest estate in the UK.

Dacia will sell in the UK the new Dacia Logan MCV model, that was launched last month at the Geneva Motor show, making it the cheapest estate in the UK with the starting price of 6,995 pounds (about 8,300 euros).

With the new Logan MCV, Dacia sells four models in the UK alongside  Duster, Sandero and Sandero Stepway.

So far, Dacia UK has no plans to sell the Logan Sedan model and opted for the new Logan MCV version based on a simple reason – the MCV has a trunk capacity of 573 liters with all five seats in normal position.
Dacia Logan MCV will be sold in the UK in three equipment levels – Access, Ambiance and Laureate.

The Dacia Logan MCV basic Access version will have a starting price of 6,995 pounds (1,000 pounds more than the Sandero with Access equipment) and will be powered by a 1.2 liter petrol engine with 75 HP. The Logan MCV Access version will also have painted bumpers in the color of the car, 15-inch steel wheels, ABS with EBD (Electronic Brakeforce Distribution) and ESC (Electronic Stability Control).
The most expensive version of the Logan MCV in the UK, the Laureate, will have a starting price of 10,795 pounds (about 12 715 euro).
Dacia Logan MCV can already be ordered in UK, and deliveries will begin in July 2013.

Dacia Logan was the subject of many design studies, made by amateurs or by professional tuning houses. Such a design is the Logan Coupe, made by a Romanian tuning house, AutoK9, in 30 days.

Auto K9 did not release many details about the Logan Coupe, but we can see that the back was cut and that they used a sport kit that includes two chrome exhaust pipes, tinted windows, a sunroof and ten inches alloy rims.

Source: Promotor

Dacia Dealer Team will compete in the STCC with a car that takes the front side from the new generation of Logan. According to official information provided by the Swedish officials of Dacia, the model has a V6 engine developing around 400 HP, a sequential gearbox with six gears and can reach a top speed of 270 km/h. The acceleration from 0-100 k/h is reached in three seconds.

The front axle of the Logan touring model has 370 mm ventilated discs with four-piston calipers while the rear axle has 360 mm ventilated discs and four-piston calipers.The rally model from Dacia will have a mass of 1100 kg and will be equipped with 18 inches rims and with performance tires. The new Dacia competition model will be piloted by Mattias Andersson, a Swedish pilot born in 1973.

The engine that will power the new Dacia Logan rally model is produced by the Renault-Nissan alliance. The presence of the new Dacia Logan in the Swedish Touring car Championship will bring great benefits to the Romanian car manufacturer according to Joakim Johncke, the Dacia director in Sweden.

2012 was a very busy year for Dacia with the launching of Lody, Dokker and the new Logan, Sandero and Sandero Stepway. The beginning of 2013 brought the first derivate for Logan – the new MCV; with the exception of Duster, the Romanian car manufacturer has a very young range and is ready to conquer a significant share of the European car market.

It seems that the Romanian brand officials know this and plan to stop the brand expansion for the time, trying to focus on promoting existing models and increasing its market share.

“We have the product, the investment was made. The time has come to reap the benefits, trying to focus on what we sell, ” said Carlos Tavares, the head of Renault.

"Our brand is orientated towards the public and the mass and an expansion of the range would not be excluded. There is a temptation to extend the Dacia range, but not on a short-term period. We have more important things to achieve in the Renault-Nissan group and Dacia will grow in time, " explained Tom Lane, the head of Dacia product planning. Tom Lane supports the idea of a Dacia city model, the size of Volkswagen Up! and a project of ​​a compact sedan, the equivalent current Octavia.

The Dacia Mechanic and Chassis factory has produced one million TLX gearboxes. The TLX gearbox is is a six speed manual gearbox that can transmit up to 240 Nm torque and that is adapted to the new 1.8 and 2.0 petrol engines and to the 1.5  diesel engines. The TLX gearbox is the first common gearbox of the Renault-Nissan alliance.

An important part of the one million gearboxes was used by the Dacia factory for the Duster units, and the over half of the production was exported to the Renault factories in Russia (Avtoframos), Turkey (Oyak), Brazil (Curitiba), Colombia (Sofas), India (Chennay) and to the Nissan factory in the United Kingdom (Sunderland).

The production and assembly of TLX gearboxes began in 2008, with a production of 7500 gearboxes per week.The Dacia Mechanic and Chassis factory also produces the JH gearbox with five-speed that are used for the Logan.
In 2012, The Dacia Mechanic and Chassis factory has produced 542,376 gearboxes of which 280,435 JH gearboxes (5-speed) and 261,941 TLX gearboxes.

The Romanian car manufacturer enjoyed a large audience in the second day of the Auto Motor Show in Geneva. After six months from the launch of the new models of Logan and Sandero, Dacia continues the new models offensive with the new Logan MCV launched today. After 380.000 units sold from 2006, the new Logan MCV is ready to meet the requirements of the new customers with an improved design and a number of technological items taken directly from the new Logan.

The new Logan MCV promises to be one of the best model from the Dacia range. With 4.49 meters long (about half a meter longer than Sandero), the new Logan MCV proposes a trunk of 573 liters in a five-seat configuration. The folding of the seats allows the transport of up to 2.7 meters objects. The novelty of the new Logan MCV is the vertical opening of the tailgate, thus avoiding the two previous binding doors. With this change, the Romanian model gets a more dynamic look, the hatchback’s glass is tilted and more appropriate for a family model.

For the five passengers (the model will not have seven-seater version), the new Logan MCV prepared a lot of storage space, totaling 16 liters. At the technological level, the new Logan MCV receives items that have appeared half a year ago on the Logan and Sandero: the Media Nav System with a 7-inch touchscreen, a speed limiter and controller, rear parking sensors and assisted steering. For the safety – the Achilles heel for Dacia in recent years – there are four airbags as standard (driver, passenger and front side) and ESP and emergency brake assist for the basic version.

The engines that power the new Logan MCV are no surprise: for petrol there is the classic 1.2 16v and 75 HP and the recently launched 0.9 Tce and 90 HP. For the diesel fans, there is the 1.5 dCi available in two versions of 75 and 90 HP. For the 75 HP version Dacia promises a combined average fuel consumption of 3.8 liters/100 km. In addition, there will be petrol-LPG option available for the 10% of Dacia customers who order this type of engine.
The new Logan MCV will be launched in Europe in the summer of 2013, and the price will be comparable to that of the current version of Logan MCV.

The German division of Dacia, announced officially that the Romanian car manufacturer will present two new models in Geneva: one will be the Logan MCV and the other might ne a Duster facelift. The announcement was published by the Dacia officials on the German Facebook channel. It is the first official announcement that confirm the rumors about the presence of two new Dacia models at the Geneva Motor Show.

The first premiere will be the new generation of Logan MCV. The model will adopt the front used on the new Sandero and Logan and only the back side will present some novelties and a different design with vertical taillights and a distinctive spoiler.

The second model that Dacia is preparing for Geneva could be the Duster facelift. The Romanian SUV has already three years from the launch, and needs a few touches to maintain the appeal of the Western European customers. The revised list would include a redesigned front side, with a new grille and smaller lamp units. The interior will get new board clocks and some new equipment, including cruise control, steering wheel controls and a new multimedia navigation system.
It remains to be seen whether the new Dacia Duster facelift will have an increased price  and if the Logan MCV facelift will be more expensive than the current generation.

Dacia plans to extend aggressively its online sales until 2014 to cover all European markets. Thus, Dacia wants to extend the Dacia Store portal and to take advantage of the rapid development of this type of vehicle retail.

The analysts of the Frost & Sullivan consulting company predict that carmakers are increasingly using the Internet to promote and market their models. Worldwide, about 4%, about 4.5 million cars, could be sold only online by 2020, a very big figure considering that in 2011 only 5,000 units were sold online.
The Dacia customers in Holland can calculate the prices and buy all Dacia models through the Dacia Store portal. In Italy and the UK, the customers can calculate the price and pay advance payments for the Duster and the Sandero models.