The Dacia Logan is already a household name with buyers of budget family cars from across the world. It was launched in 2004 and while it didn't cost the 5,000 euros that Renault bosses originally promised, it was cheap and practical enough to become a success story.
Fast forward to the 2012 Paris Motor Show and the second generation Logan arrived on the scene. This was a clear improvement over its predecessor, although sharing some components. A new 0.9-liter Renault engine with a small turbocharger was also added to the engine range, together with other novelties like parkings sensors and a touchscreen infotainment system.
However, soon after the Logan 2's launch, Renault realized the Dacia formula could work under its own brand as well. So the "Renault Symbol" sedan was launched, followed by the Renault Logan (in North Africa and Brazil, respectively).
Starting this month, a Russian-spec model is also available and it's the most different-looking of them all. Not only have they increased the suspension height and changed the bumper, but the Russian also used different engines.
This locally-assembled sedan model is only available with the old-school 1.6-liter naturally aspirated four-banger with two valves per cylinder. It this promises to deliver 82 horsepower and claims 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in anywhere between 10.5 and 11.9 seconds, depending on the tires fitted to the car. Top speed will not exceed 172 km/h.
We've saved the best for last with this story, which features a Russian-language review of the Logan from Anastasia Tregubova, a sexy blond-haired beauty who's also passionate about cars. If you're one of the hundreds of thousands of people who bought a Logan in the past 10 years, you need to watch this!
The faults Anastasia discovered with the Logan are typical of both Renault and Dacia models: hard materials, weirdly-placed buttons and dubious engineering. Flawed as it might be, the Logan costs only 355,000 rubles (7,500 euros), being one of the cheapest new cars on the market.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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