The second generation of the Dacia Logan finds itself in a position that’s both favorable and difficult, all because of one very good reason: the success of its predecessor.
Dacia has gained international awareness and the Logan is known to be a trusty partner for any A to B transportation situation. This robustness and reliability of the car has snowballed into a reputation and now the second generation must come with the same assets. What’s more, the market has evolved and the lumberjack exterior and interior styling of the first Logan won’t do anymore. Customers will take the aforementioned dependability for granted and also want a bit of refinement.
Renault are well aware of this and while they’ve kept an important part of the platform, they’ve made serious upgrades to the engine range, body and cabin of the vehicle.
The Logan was born as a dream, with people being amazed by the idea of being able to buy a new car for half the usual price of an usual cheap model. First of all, Renault promised that it would gift the Dacia brand with a vehicle that would cost €5,000 ($6,700) on its home market, Romania. This target was not met, but the end result was far more affordable than the closest competitor, so the vehicle became a hit. This is also what persuaded people to overlook the countless flaws brought by the cost-cutting.
This incredible price for a new car, coupled with the aforementioned assets, turned it into a success that spread far beyond the borders of Romania. The Logan ended up being manufactured in nine facilities located on multiple continents and enjoyed hefty sales on markets ranging from Germany to Brazil.
In this process, the car was not only sold as a Dacia, but also as a Renault, Nissan, Mahindra and Lada. It was even imported to the US, where an
electrified version was sold in limited numbers.
The Logan was also a dream for Dacia, as it brought the brand back in the headlines. The company had been created in partnership with Renault in the mid 60s’, but the French carmaker pulled out of the deal after a decade or so. During this time, Dacia built its own, trimmed down versions of the Renault 8 and 12. The Romanian brand continued to sell the rebadged Renault 12, with multiple facelifts, up to 2006. During this entire period, it developed one single model on its own, the Nova.
Fitting the Nova with a Renault engine and gearbox in the year 2000 was the first step towards reestablishing the connection with the French carmaker and this lead to the birth of the Logan in 2004. Dacia was once again Renault’s child and, as we said, it has returned impressive results. You can find an in-depth history of the Romanian brand
here, while our guest editor Lou Cheeka is eager to give you some
Dacia folk tales of his own.
Now the Logan show must go on and we recently invited the second generation to perform a test drive. The star of the new engine range is the downsized 0.9-liter turbocharged TCe petrol engine, so it took our center stage. It was accompanied by the almost complete list of features one can order on the Logan, as this is an area that has also received significant updates.
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