3rd Sep 2001, 21:29

Hey, what do you expect for $3000 dollars. But, any moron can fix it. I can't find a car like it in Canada, I mean that gives you such simplicity and dependability for the money.

The main reason that the earlier Dacias were so much more dependable was the Renault sourced powertrain. My uncle's Dacia is older than me, a 1978 Dacia 1310, and the thing has not had anything done to it except for basic maintenance.

15th May 2002, 07:24

The Dacia 1310 is an incredibly cheap car when you think about it in western standards, but it's not bad in Romania. You can complain about rust, bad paint and other little problems, but mine is an '86, it's had three engines dropped into it (125 USD a piece!) and it still shifts! It may not be strong, pretty or fun, but it is useful, moderately dependable and it has an excellent manual transmission.

4th Sep 2002, 14:59

I've read all your comments, but I still feel that I would prefer not to be forever worrying about when my car would break down. I would prefer my car to be dependable, and such a thing is not even out of the means of the ordinary Romanian- how about an used foreign car (they're everywhere!)

11th Dec 2002, 13:12

Well, just a small comment for the last...comment.

Having a second hand western car is a pretty good idea, but if you buy it on Romanian market is likely to be an expensive junk!

And because you are not allowed (any more) to import a western car which doesn't have Euro 3 norms, I think you can forget about. The cheapest western car with this pollution feature is at least 5000 €! And the risk is still on!

A new Dacia Super-Nova (Renault Powered) at about 5 k € is a better choice.

Strange enough, this one has only Euro 2 norms!!!

15th Feb 2003, 15:59

I live in America, but when I travel to romania I always drive around a 1998 Dacia Double Cab. This car is fun. Its already broke, so it cannot break down any more. If I have my window down and I go to about 75 km/h and then I try to close it the current pulls the window outside and it doesn't close. I have to slow down, close the window and accelerate again. FUN TIMES... Then I actually learned some mechanics. I started the car, and if I didn't have my foot on the acceleration it would stall. Took it to a mechanic and some pliers and some taping of a wire that keeps the engine idle at 500 rpm fixed the problem. About a week later the same problem reocurred, but I was prepared. I had my tape and pliers with me! However I still have to slow down to close the window.

30th May 2003, 09:00

Personally I owned a Dacia 1310 for 6 months. In this period it broke down 7 times although it was only 2 years old. I advice everybody to buy no Dacia, the quality is simply very poor.

12th Sep 2004, 06:53

I was asking myself if all of you are from Romania. I guess not... if you were you would've understand that a Dacia is the cheap car for the pours. I've bought mine for 1,500 euro, it's a 1310, it's running on G.P.L. (it's half of the gasoline's price) and I'm very satisfied. I'm a student and believe me I've worked very hard to get it, and it's pretty expensive for my budget to repair it all the time. Thank God the parts are cheap! What else could you possible buy for this price??? A second-hand foreign car brought from outside the borders has to be with euro 3 norms to be able to drive it in Romania, and these cars are a lot more expensive, so this choice is out of our discussion. Another choice is to buy a very old second-hand foreign car from Romania. This could offer you more comfort than Dacia, but if something will broke -- and it will, because it's old -- you will have a surprise how expensive the parts are.

So, in the end all I want to say is:

DACIA'S ARE FOR (POOR) ROMANIANS ONLY!!!

1st Nov 2005, 10:14

My parents have an old Dacia car (from 1988). It has about 140.000 km and still works well. It's true that almost everything have been replaced... but if you drive it daily and give little attention when buying parts the car it's good enough to move you from one place to another.

Another tip: don't try to fix something if it's not critical. Don't worry about all the strange noises because the car won't let you down. The car will never function normally, but will function someway if you know how to make it to function... that's what you get for about $1000 - $3000!

2nd Nov 2005, 07:18

As an American who lived in Romania for over 5 years, I bought a 28 year old Dacia for the equivalent of $300. I spent that amount over again 4 times in replacing engine, body parts, interior pieces and electronics. The car spent an equal amount of time in the shop as on the road. I was raised the son of a mechanic so I have all the needed skills to keep a car going. However, when you own a Dacia you no longer ask yourself if it is practical to fix it - it only becomes a matter of keeping it alive and part of the family! I loved my Dacia and I always enjoyed being pulled over by the police (for any reason or no reason) and seeing their expression to find an American owning a Dacia.

19th Jul 2006, 20:04

Hello people, is it the car that’s the problem or the so-called roads you are trying to drive it on?

I live in London and brought a Land Rover (Range Rover) to drive in Campulung Romania. This seemed to do the job for the first few trips, but then last winter (95-96) even a car of this reputation shed a mount from the rear axle. Sorry, but if one of the strongest cars in the world can't deal with your roads, how on earth do you expect that poor little Dacia to do the job?

23rd Feb 2023, 15:56

The secondary roads in Romania were pretty unforgiving back them - and still today to some extent - but I understand the Dacia had a suspension built for such poor conditions by design - remember it's a design from the 60s sold from the 70s. When Ceausescu started selling these in early 70s, the first cars still had components made in France by Renault; by the late 70s most components were made in Romania for the Romanian market, with some still by Renault (engine, etc) for the many continents where the Dacia 1300 was exported - including Africa, Asia and... North America. Now that was the Dacia 1300, these very reviews are for the later model 1310 which I believe had several components designed and produced 100% in Romania - I believe the 5 speed manual transmission, perhaps parts of the engine, the instrument panel and so on. So this 1310 model must have had much lower overall quality than the original Renault 12 1300 model. Plus, after 1990 Romania went through deep economy changes which also had a negative impact on the quality of the products, for example it's possible the parts were build to even lower quality standards. Interestingly, the industry producing Dacia was one of the very few ones from the Communist era that managed to survive through the new capitalist market after the 90s.