Yes, yes, we know that we told you about the Easy-R gearboxes offered by Dacia back in September, when they were revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show. But pricing information has been announced in France and we can now check if buying such a car makes sense.
Dacia started out as a budget brand, but the latest Logan Laureate launched in Romania costs over €12,000. That's hardly a cheap car, especially when you look at equivalent Skodas. It's kind of the same deal here.
The cheapest automatic car made by the Romanian car brand costs €12,000 and comes in the form of a Sandero with the TCe 90 turbo engine. It's followed by the Logan MCV Laureate (€13,000), Sandero Stepway (€13,200), and Logan MCV Prestige (€14,000). Basically, the gearbox only costs €600 more than a standard manual, but it's only available on the top trims.
In addition to making a compromise in terms of interior build quality, you also have to put up with the TCe 90 3-cylinder engine.
But the higher-ups at Renault know what they are doing. Even though the self-shifting Dacia models are expensive, they are still among the cheapest available in France. For example, the least expensive Clio model you can have with the EDC auto is a TCe 120 model worth €18,500. That's because the more complex twin-clutch unit is a €1,400 option.
However, if you insist on not changing gears yourself and don't want a Dacia, there's a smaller and cheaper option in the form of the Twingo TCe 90 EDC. It costs just €14,300 but the downside is that the trunk is about half the size of the one offered by the Dacia Sandero.
If you want to know a few details about the first mass-produced Dacia cars with automatic gearboxes, we're going to tell you that the unit is called Easy-R and is technically not an automatic, but an automated manual. Basically, it's like your normal 5-speed, but a robot engages the clutch and changes gears in your place.
The technology has been around for a long time, but Renault switched from hydraulic actuators to electromechanical ones to improve response times. If you are worried about reliability, know that the Easy-R transmission underwent 130,000 hours of bench testing plus a total of 120,000 km of road testing, and all units are inspected as they come off the line.
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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