Dacia Sandero

Dacia is preparing a launch for this year Motor Show in Geneva. The Romanian car manufacturer will launch a special sport edition of Sandero inspired by the anniversary edition of the Logan 10 years in Romania.

Dacia could present at the Geneva Motor Show the first sport model since Renault bought the Romanian car manufacturer. The new model is call Sandero RS and was photographed by the Italians form autoblog.it with few days before the official presentation. The new model will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the revival of the Romanian brand. In 2005 Dacia launched the Logan model in Europe including in the Western markets.

The new Sandero RS will receive a TCe petrol engine with 125 HP that powers the Duster model, taking into account the fact that the car weighs only 1016 kg (version 1.2 wit 75 HP) can provide dynamic performances far beyond the current models in the range. The Sandero RS could include elements taken from the Renault Clio RS like a sport steering wheel, 17-inch alloy wheels and for the first time on a Dacia model we can find a rear disc brakes instead of the old drums. The brake discs offer superior performance, are more resistant to "fatigue" but also cost more.

The Sandero RS could have a starting price of 12,000 euros including VAT and will most likely come with all equipment in the standard version.

Dacia will present at the Paris Motor Show a new limited edition that will be sold only in France: Sandero Black Touch.

In addition to the new Lodgy Stepway and Dokker Stepway, Dacia will have two premieres at the Motor Show in Paris: Sandero Black Touch and Duster Air.

At the Romanian car manufacturer stand at the Paris Motor Show we will find the new Sandero Black Touch limited edition. As the name implies, the model was designed around the black color. Based on the Laureate trim level, the Sandero Black Touch limited edition comes with body colored bumpers, black pearl inserts and 15-inch alloy wheels.

The interior changes of the Black Touch limited edition are not very obvious, but they include the same black pearl inserts found on the outside and a little more generous equipment which includes, among others, cruise control, climate control and the MediaNav multimedia system.

The Sandero Black Touch will be powered by two petrol units (a 1.2 liter and 75 HP and a TCe turbo engine with 90 HP) and a 1.5 dCi diesel with 90 HP. The Black Touch limited edition will have a starting price of 10.450 euro in France.

Dacia promotes new Sandero in the UK with a letter to the Ministry of Finance of the United Kingdom. The Romanian car manufacturer advises the British official to abandon the current car for a  much cheaper Sandero.

Ever since the launch on the UK market, Dacia adopted an aggressive and jovial marketing campaign. The British officials of the Romanian brand have thought that such an approach is best suited to popularize the Dacia budget models.

The latest Sandero advertising of the UK marketing division reaffirms this strategy. To promote the new Sandero in the UK, the Dacia officials wrote a letter to George Osborne, the man in charge of the Ministry of Finance in the UK. The Romanian manufacturer suggests to the English official to change the current car with a new Sandero, which costs much less.

The letter argues that the Romanian model is the perfect choice for the English minister, in the context of an unstable economic climate. The advantages of the new Sandero are: "is solid, simple, and with frivolous equipment".
Using a jovial tone (the letter begins with "Dear George"), has made the letter very popular, and already published by most British publications, which means additional promotion.

Edward Preston, the head of the Dacia marketing division in UK, said that behind the relaxed tone, the letter has a serious financial message, to reduce costs.

The Dacia letter, promoted on Twitter with the hashtag # DearGeorge was published on the day the British finance minister presented the 2014 budget.

Dacia has manufactured 100,000 units of Sandero and Sandero Stepway models at its factory in Pitesti. The 100,000 Sandero Stepway unit will be delivered to a customer in France.

Dacia celebrates the production of the 100,000 units of Sandero and Sandero Stepway. Both models of the Dacia range have received a new generation in 2012 at the Paris Motor Show, and their production represents 30% of total daily production of the Pitesti factory.The anniversary unit is a gris platine Sandero Stepway model that is equipped with a 0.9 Tce engine with 90 HP, which will be delivered to a customer in France. The Logan  model, that was the first Dacia model launched on the European market,  has reached the one million units in October 2010.

Dacia Sandero is the sixth best selling model in France in the first nine months of this year. The hatchback manufactured in Pitesti has achieved a market share of 2.3% on the French market, the largest market for Romanian car manufacturer. In addition to the French market, Sandero is successful in the UK, where it is seen as one of the vehicles that best retains its value over time. According to the CAP organization, the leading provider of residual values ??of existing models in the UK car market, the Sandero is among the models that best retains its value.

The Sandero and Sandero Stepway models will be also manufactured at the Dacia-Renault factory in Tanger. The two models have their own production line, while a second production line is for the Dokker and Lodgy models. The Tanger factory has the capacity to produce 340,000 cars per year, but is not working at full capacity.

The new generation of Dacia Sandero has managed to get 4 stars at the EuroNCAP test, the best result ever achieved by a Dacia car. The result is due to the presence of the ESP and the side airbags as standard equipment.

The latest safety tests organized by the EuroNCAP have brought good results for the new generation of Dacia Sandero, with an overall of 4 out of 5 stars. This is the best result in the EuroNCAP tests of the Romanian car manufacturer, and will be transferred to the new generations of Logan and Logan MCV because they are build on the same structure.

The four stars achieved by Dacia Sandero in the EuroNCAP tests got good reviews in the information published by the European Organization, much better than those published about Dacia Lodgy, in November last year. Even if Sandero didn’t managed to collect the maximum five-star, the result is very important because it represents an improve of the behavior of the car in an accident, especially if we consider that EuroNCAP has tightened the test criteria from 2008, when the previous generation of Sandero achieved 3 stars.

EuroNCAP notes that the interior hasn’t suffered structural changes on the frontal impact and the protection offered was good at the knees and femurs of the driver and the front passenger. The rear impact, which measures the level of safety provided by the seats and the head restraints to the cervical level, the Sandero managed a mediocre result. Overall, Dacia Sandero has gathered 80% of the maximum possible points for this test.

The new Sandero got the best safety results in the Child protection chapter. According to the independent European organization, Sandero collected maximum points for protection of the seated children between 18 months and 3 years.

The designers of the new Sandero worked closely with the engineers to develop a car that takes care of pedestrians. Dacia Sandero obtained maximum points for the protection offered by the front bumper to the feet of the pedestrians in an eventual accident. The appearance of the ESP in the standard equipment of the new Sandero made ??the difference between the previous result of 3 stars and the actual 4-star result in the EuroNCAP test.

Renault unveiled the first images of the new Sandero and Sandero Stepway that will be launched in Russia under the French car manufacturer logo.

After the new Dacia Sandero and Dacia Sandero Stepway impressed the automotive world with a coherent and pleasant design concept, after their launch at the Paris Auto Show last year, the two models are ready to debut on the Russian market. Because Dacia is not present in Russia as an independent brand, the new Sandero models will be sold under the Renault logo.

The Renault versions of the new Sandero take the design lines and the profile of the Romanian models and the only differences are at the front side, where the simple front grille is replaced by a more complex one, that has the Renault logo in the center. The aesthetic changes do not necessarily represent a step forward in terms of design, and may seem unnecessarily complicated.

The interesting changes appear on the interior, where are used higher quality materials than those found on the Dacia models, the Renault Sandero and Sandero Stepway models becoming a sort of hybrid between Dacia models and the Renault Clio.

The Russian versions of Sandero and Logan are assembled at a Renault factory near Moscow, but the subassemblies are being sent from the CKD Export Center in Romania.

After the success registered on the European market, the Sandero is ready to conquer the Russian market, under the Lada logo. According to zr.ru who published these photos, the AvtoVaz factory will produce from 2014 two new Lada models based on Dacia Sandero and on Dacia Sandero Stepway.

Compared to the Romanian Dacia Sandero model, the Russian Lada Sandero will  have a pronounced facelift, the front side will be more aggressive than robust, using elements of design from the Lada Chest X-Ray concept, presented last year.

The back side has more extensive changes: the vertical taillights are connected by a horizontal bar to the rear window, there is a third side window for better visibility, and the body is slightly modified in the superior side.

There are no official information about the names of the tow new Lada models, but it seems it will be Lada BM and Lada B-Cross. The Lada sandero model will be exported also in Europe, and will be a direct competitor to the Dacia Sandero.

The Dacia Sandero has received the first prize in the United Kingdom: the car of the year in the Supermini less than 12,000 ponds category, awarded by What a car?

Here is the motivation of Euan Doig, the What a car? group production editor.

The Sandero makes history for Dacia in January in one of the most important automotive markets in Europe. The new generation of Sandero managed to reach the first position in sales in Spain becoming the first Dacia model that was the best selling car in a country outside Romania. The previous success was registered also by Sandero, when it was ranked second in March 2010 in France.

Dacia managed to sell nearly 1,700 Sandero units in January 2013, that represented a market share of 3.4% of the total cars sold in Spain. The Romanian’s model performance is even more valuable as the Sandero was ranked 18th in the top selling models in Spain during 2012. This spectacular increase is due to the launching of the new generation of Sandero in December last year. Behind Sandero, in the best selling models ranking were Nissan Qashqai (1577 units sold) and Seat Leon (1352 units sold).

The other Dacia models were ranked on 48 – Duster (with 338 units sold), 76- Lodgy (182 units sold) and 121- Logan (60 units sold).

In the brand sales ranking, Dacia occupied the 13th position with 2,272 units sold in Spain, while the first positions were occupied by Seat (4123 units sold), Volkswagen (3730 units sold) and Opel (3629 units sold).

The new generation of Dacia Sandero launched in Europe late last year, has had a great January month in France, where the model produced in Romania ranked sixth in terms of sales. Sandero is the first non-French model in the ranking. The 3682 Dacia Sandero units sold in France represent an increase of 20.2% compared to the same period last year. Sandero took advantage of the decline of the market in France in January (-15%) to gather an excellent market share of 3%.

The first position in sales in France in January was Peugeot 208 (6890 units sold). followed by Renault Clio (6595 units) and Citroen C3 (4377 units). Just below the podium and in front of Sandero were Renault Magane and Renault Scenic.

Dacia Lodgy had a first complete month of sales in France and was ranked on 29th position with 1168 units sold. Overall, the Romanian car manufacturer owned by Renault sold 7263 cars, that represent an increase of 9.9% compared to January 2012.