Dacia does not have the best image among car brands when it comes to safety. The latest Sandero city cars and Logan subcompact sedans both received just two stars in Euro NCAP crash tests. The ratings are even worse for the Spring electric city car and the new Jogger seven-seater family station wagon since these two models only get one star. Is the boss of the company worried about these results? No way.
One of the main reasons why Dacia models perform poorly in crash tests has to do with the lack of active safety technology. The vehicles were designed without features such as lane keeping assist to keep the price down, but also because the Romanian brand knows that many people would simply disable this type of technology.
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In an interview with Top of the line magazine, automaker CEO Denis Le Vot explained:
“A lot of people turn off lane keeping assist. You do that because you’re a human being and you assess the situation in order to turn off the technology. What we do is we don’t sell it to you No. We know people turn off the lane to keep helping, so why would we sell it?”
Don’t think Dacias are death traps, because they’re not. When Euro NCAP tested the Sandero and Logan last year, he explained that the lack of active safety systems kept the cars from getting a much better rating: “Collision protection is respectable, with performance that would make the car a four-star car if it weren’t for its faults elsewhere.”
Dacia products remain honest and cheap, as you can drive a Sandero sedan in the model’s home country from just €13,650. Even the much larger Jogger costs just €15,890 while the Duster SUV is a few hundred euros more attainable. To keep prices low, Renault’s budget arm will stick to combustion engines for as long as possible, beyond 2030. Indeed, it wants to have petrol cars until 2025, when sales of new vehicles emitting CO2 will actually be banned.
Many people still see Dacia as a small brand, but it’s the third best-selling carmaker in Europe this year so far when it comes to private buyers, according to Automotive News Europe. Not only that, but DONKEY quotes industry lobby group ACEA as saying the Eastern European automaker increased its market share in the first half of 2022 by 2.9-4% compared to the same period last year .
With the Jogger now on sale and a larger SUV above the Duster arriving in 2025, the future looks bright.
Dacia does not have the best image among car brands when it comes to safety. The latest Sandero city cars and Logan subcompact sedans both received just two stars in Euro NCAP crash tests. The ratings are even worse for the Spring electric city car and the new Jogger seven-seater family station wagon since these two models only get one star. Is the boss of the company worried about these results? No way.
One of the main reasons why Dacia models perform poorly in crash tests has to do with the lack of active safety technology. The vehicles were designed without features such as lane keeping assist to keep the price down, but also because the Romanian brand knows that many people would simply disable this type of technology.
21 Pictures
In an interview with Top of the line magazine, automaker CEO Denis Le Vot explained:
“A lot of people turn off lane keeping assist. You do that because you’re a human being and you assess the situation in order to turn off the technology. What we do is we don’t sell it to you No. We know people turn off the lane to keep helping, so why would we sell it?”
Don’t think Dacias are death traps, because they’re not. When Euro NCAP tested the Sandero and Logan last year, he explained that the lack of active safety systems kept the cars from getting a much better rating: “Collision protection is respectable, with performance that would make the car a four-star car if it weren’t for its faults elsewhere.”
Dacia products remain honest and cheap, as you can drive a Sandero sedan in the model’s home country from just €13,650. Even the much larger Jogger costs just €15,890 while the Duster SUV is a few hundred euros more attainable. To keep prices low, Renault’s budget arm will stick to combustion engines for as long as possible, beyond 2030. Indeed, it wants to have petrol cars until 2025, when sales of new vehicles emitting CO2 will actually be banned.
Many people still see Dacia as a small brand, but it’s the third best-selling carmaker in Europe this year so far when it comes to private buyers, according to Automotive News Europe. Not only that, but DONKEY quotes industry lobby group ACEA as saying the Eastern European automaker increased its market share in the first half of 2022 by 2.9-4% compared to the same period last year .
With the Jogger now on sale and a larger SUV above the Duster arriving in 2025, the future looks bright.