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From Dacia 1300 to Dacia Logan/Duster. The History of a Controversial Brand (Page 7)

Constantin StroeDacia DedicatieDacia SupernovaDacia Supernova
Continued from Page 6 of "From Dacia 1300 to Dacia Logan/Duster. The History of a Controversial Brand"Constantin Stroe, Dacia’s general manager, was aware since 1990 that the 31,000 workers who managed to make only 450 cars per day were in danger of losing their jobs and the brand awareness Dacia had accumulated in the past decades was going to turn into thin air if the company’s policies were not remodeled substantially.

He begun to search frantically for a possible investor, capable of building modern, better cars than what was being produced by Dacia in those times. And who could have been more fit for this role than good old Renault? Unfortunately, even though Renault tested the water for a while, they were going through a “financial rough patch” (according to a member of their delegation) so the deal fell through and Stroe was forced to open discussions with Audi, Peugeot, Fiat, GM, Hyundai and others.

After nearly two years lost in endless discussions with Renault, Dacia got real close to being acquired by Peugeot but again the deal failed due to some issues at the government level (Dacia was still a state owned company). Through a stroke of genius, Stroe managed to sign a contract with Hyundai which, although employed only 500 of the over 30,000 Dacia workers for assembling the Accent model at the Pitesti production plant, was enough to reignite Renault’s interest, who were now seeing its “offspring” ready to change teams and move to the Koreans’ side.

“I played that card especially to rattle their cage a little and get their attention. I was desperate after discussions with eight large European manufacturers didn’t turn up any leads. We publicized the Hyundai deal locally and it was promptly picked up by European news agencies. The next day I got a call from Renault: «Hei, Constantin, c'est ca au pas? » C'est ca». «Mais pourquois?». « How long was I supposed to wait on you, until the day I die? ». The Hyundai thing was instrumental in convincing Renault to come real quick, in 1997, to Romania”, recounted Constantin Stroe for the press.

For over a year, Renault made preparations and reorganized the company’s management, while getting ready to acquire a 51% stake in Dacia and announce a new automobile.

Naturally, a Dacia Nova facelift followed a year later. In 2000, Dacia/Renault present the new Dacia SuperNova, a much improved Nova who now benefitted from a 1.4L MPI (Euro 2) engine provided by Renault and a Clio-borrowed transmission system. It was the first Dacia model to get aluminum rims and air conditioning, all for a price of about 5800 Euro! Note that the 5500-6000 Euro price range obsession was still going strong since 1966. Dacia SuperNova was produced until 2003 and was a transition model for what Renault planned to do with the Dacia brand.

In fact, during the Paris Auto Show, Louis Schweitzer, president of the Renault Group, officially announced the Dacia XC90, a project who soon became known as the “5000 Euro Dacia”.

Unfortunately, the base model ended up costing 5800 Euro, while the full option variant approached a whopping 10,000 Euro. Solely based on the price, Romanians who hoped for a cheap car were way off on this one, even though Dacia was still cheaper than other, more established, brands.

In 2000 a special car called Dacia Dedicatie was launched. It was yet another 1310–based car and had aluminum rims, electric windows, assisted steering, painted bumpers and a lot more attention to detail. Dacia Dedicatie was only available in two shades of grey.
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