Renault acquired Dacia in September 1999, and at the time, the Romanian brand, which was founded in 1966, has an outdated model lineup.
This changed in 2004 with the introduction of the Logan, which became one of the best-selling cars in Eastern Europe and Russia, and the Sandero hatchback that followed in 2008.
Dacia decided to revamp its core line-up at the same time and picked the 2012 Paris Auto Show for the debut of the new Logan, Sandero and Sandero Stepway.
All three models share the same newly-styled front end and new dark-carbon or two-tone (according to model and trim) dashboard that sports chrome accents on the air-vents, steering-wheel logo and gear lever and, according to Dacia, better fit and finish.
I don’t know if the word Dacia gives James May that fizzing sensation he often talks about, but the Top Gear host seems pretty fond of the Romanian brand. Same goes for low-budget European buyers who see the Renault-era Dacias as well priced models with affordable maintenance costs. One of the Romanian firm's latest cars, the Duster was even nominated for the 2011 COTY award.
However, the brand's models aren't exactly exciting, even more so when it comes to sheer performance with their mundane, small displacement petrol and diesel engines. But as always, for every problem there's a fix. This man's answer was to ditch the Logan sedan's four-cylinder and throw in a 2.8-liter VR6 Volkswagen engine.
For the time being, Dacia's parent company Renault doesn't seem to have any solid plans to further expand the range of its low-cost Logan subcompact, but that hasn't stopped tuning companies from creating their own unique proposals.
Enter the world of Auto K9, a tuning house based in Romania. The company has just presented its latest creation in the form of a one-off Dacia Logan Convertible study based on the sedan model.
The Renault Group has opened a brand new test facility in Titu, Romania. Built on a 330-hectare site located between the Dacia plant in Pitesti and the Renault Technologie Roumanie (RTR) engineering center in Bucharest, the Titu Technical Center will complement the company's Aubevoye and Lardy test centers in France.
All three models share the same newly-styled front end and new dark-carbon or two-tone (according to model and trim) dashboard that sports chrome accents on the air-vents, steering-wheel logo and gear lever and, according to Dacia, better fit and finish.
