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Dacia Understand VFM

Topics: Dacia

Dacia Understand VFM

Geoff Maxted
DriveWrite
January 18, 2014

Time flies. It doesn’t seem that long ago we were welcoming Dacia to our shores with a cheery wave and now, suddenly, they’ve been here for a year already.

2013 might have been a turning point for the economy, but cost-conscious Brits, from all classes, continued to make their money work harder than ever. With old school “value for money” sweeping the high street, 12 months ago, one fledgling brand, Dacia, embarked on its mission to shake up the UK car industry with its unique take on “shockingly affordable” motoring.

And what a record-breaking year it’s been. Western European buyers have been snapping up Dacia’s in their thousands for years. But, because of their stunning success, aside from “eye spy” Dacia spots in sunnier climes, like typical Brits, while the French and Germans, among others, eagerly filled their boots, we’d queued up patiently to see what all the fuss was about. All that changed on 17thJanuary, as the Duster and Sandero burst onto the scene.

On that day, the ‘Dacia don’t do frivolity. You Do The Maths’ media campaign it every media channel, and all main Dacia Retailers had their first Duster SUV and Sandero supermini demonstrator cars available.

Right up until launch, the word on the street and the internet was that there was no way the brand’s bullish aim of offering a new supermini for “significantly less than £7,000”, let alone a spacious, family SUV for “under £10,000” would stack up in the real world. Or, at least with them making a profit. How wrong they were. With customers queuing up at its showrooms, awards being won, plus two more new models up its sleeve for release later in the year, Dacia fast became the envy of many established rivals right from the start.

Much of it didn’t come as a huge surprise to parent company, Renault. The Dacia brand, already the darling of the automotive industry (their words), continues to ride the crest of a wave. Bucking the trend in many countries with falling sales and ever-decreasing profit margins, it had cleverly carved out its own niche, filling a void left behind by other brands who had their hearts set on becoming more upmarket.

The omens aren’t looking too shabby so far for Dacia in 2014 either. Having sold more than 17,000 cars in 2013, with an ever-growing fan-base and four models available to tempt British buyers for the full year, it’s setting its sights on smashing that figure this year.