The West awaits Logan MCV

French and German customers are willing to wait eight-nine months for a car produced at Dacia’s factory in Pitesti, which today complies with the highest standards of Renault’s plants.

Industry sources say this phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the Romanian station wagon is the only one offering seven seats for a maximum price of some €14,000 on Western markets, far below average prices for Western-European monovolume cars, whose prices start at €20,000.

“A customer who now orders an MCV in France will receive it by the end of the year,” said François Fourmont, General Manager at Automobile Dacia, while delivery time in Romania is two months tops. Average delivery time for a Mercedes-Benz on the French market is about three months, according to Daimler-Chrysler officials.  Delivery of a Ford takes about six months.

“Our problem is to increase production capacity to cope with demand. At present, we need to produce more cars in order to sell more cars,” Fourmont said.

The MCV model is the star as far as sales are concerned on the French and German markets. Thus, in Germany, in March alone, an average daily order of 100 station wagons was registered.  Last year, some 3,600 units of the Logan MCV were sold after the launch in September 2006 in Paris. These sales mean higher revenues for Dacia, since Logan MCV is about 20 percent more expensive than a Dacia sedan, and is the most attractive model outside Romania. By 2009, Dacia will produce 1 million Logans a year and six different models.

Dacia sold more than 177,000 Logan cars last year, according to statistics from the Automotive Manufacturers and Importers Association (APIA), of which about 80,000 were intended for export. In 2007, the company targets the sale of 220,000 units, half of which will go to the company’s 52 foreign locations.

The Romanian auto market has an extraordinary growth potential, since the car ownership rate is low even compared to countries in the region. Romania has a mere 200 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to 323 in Poland, and 400 in the Czech Republic, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). Bulgaria is lagging behind, with only 150 cars per 1,000 inhabitants.