Dacia Duster

yllw.ldbttr wrote: »

Not a car for us, but I'd say they will sell langerloads of them, much like when the Fiat Punto came out back in the day.

I doubt it to be fair.

- Lack of available credit

- Lack of people in a position to buy new

- Mistrust of the unknown

little or no marketing push ....... and sales people can't be arsed.

As I said before, if it turns out to be tough and reliable, it could work.
A friend of mine just bought an 05 Audi A4 2.0 TDI for less than E6k.
Why?
Because Audi decided to put a pair of balancing shafts between drive from the engine and the oil pump.
After a certain while the chain tensioner snaps (made from chaep plastic, of course), the chain will only run for so long over a sharp metal surface, which lies under the tensioner, should the chains snap, the oil pump ceases to work, your turbos get fcuked and you're looking at a E6k bill to put it right.
Unless you're willing to strip half the engine yourself and get parts here, there and everywhere and you might be able to do it for E2k if you cut many corners.
So your 7 year old Audi is suddenly worth half of what it should be worth, you can sell it, cut your losses and buy a banger to get you around, or you take out a second mortgage to put it right and you will still have to sell it, because you're broke and cannot afford the astronomical servicing bills anymore.
Modern cars are a bit like a reversed lottery. You could drive one for ages and nothing goes wrong, or you get one where you hear "that" noise and you're looking at a 6-10k bill to put something right that has been overdesigned and mostly designed on the cheap and made cheaply by the manufacturer, thinking "Ah, be grand, we'll just let the poor sap who buys the car pick up the bill for that"
So, if Dacia manages to build a cheap, cheerful car that doesn't go "boing" and cost you E10k every time it does, they could be onto a winner.
Some people will always want to buy their premium brands because either the neighbor has one, or they genuinely like them, and a lot of other people are more interested in cars that don't cost them half the purchase price again in things that go "boing".
It worked for these guys:



Actually in Germany you will see a lot of Ladas and Dacias, because there is a big market for cheap, simple rugged automobiles there, if anything it will be Irish badge snobbery that prevents it taking off here.