Not to be confused with the Renault Logan, the Dacia Logan is a source of national pride in Romania. In that regard, the locally made car is a Skoda Superb, but without the presidential appeal or the legroom.
It used to be the case that over 90% of all the cars sold in this Eastern European country were Dacias. But nowadays, the Romanians prefer cars from German brands like Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes, sometimes mixed with a bit of Renault or Opel.
Like the Russians, the Romanians have put up with totalitarian regimes for decades. They've been told that leather seats and automatic gearboxes are for people who aren't patriotic, capitalist pigs, as it were. So it's no wonder that Germans buy more Sanderos than they do.
Steadily, Dacia has looked at what customers want and added a few luxury features, even though this cuts against the grain of what the company stands for. But the stuff they have has always been inferior to what the Renault Logan and Sandero have in Russia or Argentina.
Has that changed? Sadly, no. But the Logan Prestige is the most luxurious Dacia you can buy in Romania. After being presented last year at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the new Easy-R automatic gearbox is also available. Ooh, aah!
While it might not be our favorite pick when it comes to automatic gearboxes, the automated manual is cheap. It works like a manual with a little robot that drops the clutch and changes the gear for you. While it might not be the perfect solution, the Easy-R is only €500 in Romania, which is quite cheap.
Starting this week, it can be ordered with the 0.9 TCe or 1.5 dCi engines, both producing 90 hp. What's more, the Sandero and Logan MCV may also be ordered as automatics.
Editor's note: a Logan Prestige Easy-R 1.5 dCi costs €12,650. What happened to the €4,000 car Renault was supposed to develop?
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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