Dacia 1300 variants

[RedSparrow]

Bit of Dacia love going on recently so this thread is all about finding as many different models based on the 1300 as possible.

 

I'll start with that bloody Liberta thing:

 

And my favourite, the 1410 Sport:

[Adrian_pt]

Pedant alert - that's not a Liberta but a 1320. Liberta was confusingly also known as the 1325 and was first presented at the end 1989. The 1320 had a very short shelf life...

 

A warning: there are at least 50 or so Dacia variants! Including several versions of the Dacia Sport - I can think of at least 4...

 

1320:

 

Liberta / 1325

 

Finally something mega rare - Dacia 4x4. About 10 made in the mid 1980s. WHY?

[RedSparrow]

Amazing they went to the trouble of making new glass/panels for 2 models that look basically the same. What a waste of time!

Feel free to be as pedantic as you like btw.

[Volksy]

Another offshoot from the R12 - not strictly Dacia I know - was this:

 

The Ford Corcel..

 

[Guest]

947 variations on a theme of ming. Qualidee work, Romanian fellers.

[freebird]

  Volksy said:

Another offshoot from the R12 - not strictly Dacia I know - was this:

 

The Ford Corcel..

 

That actually looks more 70s/80s Audi 80 to me, mind you i do need glasses.

Is that one of those jobbies made in Brazil/Argentina?

[warren t claim]

Here's a question. Why did Dacia fail in the UK? It's not as if we weren't happy buying cast off designs made in the Eastern Block and the Renault 12 wasn't long discontinued and was a good seller in the UK, certainly better than the Fiat 124/125. It was well priced and a generation newer than its Polish and Soviet rivals.

[RedSparrow]

This is from AROnline:

 

  Quote

In 1980, it was given a light facelift to become the 1310 and it was in this form that the car came to the UK as the Dacia Denem. It actually went on sale at the end of 1982 – hitting the market at the same time as the Ford Sierra – and was sold as the ‘New name in family cars’ and ‘the very acceptable Dacia Denem.’ Priced from £3190, it was a new entrant in the extremely busy budget car sector.

 

Rivals included the Lada 1200 (£2499), FSO 1300 (£2599), Skoda Estelle 120L (£2449) and Yugo 511 (£2849) and, in that context, the Denem wasn’t exactly a bargain, despite being arguably better to drive than the lot of them. Anyway, needless to say, UK buyers ignored the Denem in thier droves, choosing instead to buy more established rivals.

 

The Denem’s failure here was a reflection of how wide the differences between East and West had become – working families here turned up their noses at a car reserved for the Communist Party nomenklatura in its homeland.

 

So I'd say a combination of it being a new brand to the market and being that bit more money than the others.

Mind you, the UK was more friendly with Romania than most other commie countries back then.

 

From spottedlaurel's flickr:

[warren t claim]

If they'd of fitted electric windows throughout the range then I'm sure it would of sold better. How did it compare on price and spec to a base model Sierra/Escort?

[Guest]

That pickup was sold by Hazeldene Motors in Norwich. They sold Dacia, FSO and Yugo for a while.

[Adrian_pt]

Difficult to say why the Denem failed so badly. The advertising didn't help, of course. Build quality, though never great, was actually pretty good on early 1310 models till about 1985. And IIRC the concessionaires went bust about eight months in. Only about 700 ish were sold, press reported at the time.

 

Shifters were sold from B reg through to at least H reg so they did quite well.

[RedSparrow]

  warren t claim said:

If they'd of fitted electric windows throughout the range then I'm sure it would of sold better. How did it compare on price and spec to a base model Sierra/Escort?

 

The closest I can find is the MK2 Escort from 1980:

1.3 L Two Door: £3430

1.3 XL Two Door: £3730

1.3 XL Four Door: £3830

1.6 Ghia Four Door: £4420

 

Dacia obviously thought they were a cut above the other Eastern bloc tat!

[warren t claim]

  RedSparrow said:

  warren t claim said:

If they'd of fitted electric windows throughout the range then I'm sure it would of sold better. How did it compare on price and spec to a base model Sierra/Escort?

 

The closest I can find is the MK2 Escort from 1980:

1.3 L Two Door: £3430

1.3 XL Two Door: £3730

1.3 XL Four Door: £3830

1.6 Ghia Four Door: £4420

 

Dacia obviously thought they were a cut above the other Eastern bloc tat!

 

With rack and pinion steering they probably were!

 

I think that Dacia should of succeeded in the mid 1980s in the same way that Proton scored a success in the 90s by having a slightly out of date design priced between the Comecon imports and the base model Escort.

[trigger]

[warren t claim]

Hang on a minte, the Shifter pick up is rear wheel drive????

[pandamonium]

[barefoot]

According to Wikipedia

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia_Pick-Up

 

The vehicle was available with a number of different transmission styles including front wheel drive, rear wheel drive and 4x4.

[RedSparrow]

 

Loads of brochures here:

http://www.lesrenaultdepapier.fr/Dacia_Vintage.htm

[Volksy]

The Dacia Nova looks like a shrunken offspring of the Peugeot 309 and Saab 9000.

 

A bit of research shows that its a 100% Romanian design.

[Cavcraft]

I seem to remember a lot of dealers who sold low rent cars like the Dacias back in the day were usually really shit and seemed to swap from one brand to another. This can't have helped sales.

[warren t claim]

I honestly can't remember who my local (Wirral) dealer was.

[Cavcraft]

Something (probably wrongly) tells me it was Hardings but I think a garage in Flint also sold them.

[warren t claim]

And another thing, I call these Day-see-ars but the new models Dat-chi-as.

[Cavcraft]

Oh, just found this...

 

http://www.daciaforum.co.uk/topic/308-a ... mory-lane/

 

 

And one user must have superglued his own fingers together after typing this..

 

'Fortunately Dacia has come a long way since those cars'

[Adrian_pt]

OK - a bit more on Dacias in the UK...

 

Duster in 1991

 

Duster in 1985

 

Duster ad

 

Shifter from this site

 

Denem in Wales - apparently got scrapped in 2011. Still in good nick in 2003 when I saw it.

 

Denem estate - but with the front end and bumpers off a R12! I guess parts were hard to find

 

Price list from 1988

 

Shifter in 1987

 

Ads from 1990

 

Shifter in 1985 - this must have been one of the first

 

Shifter in 1991

 

On Ebay a long time ago

 

Dacia at a West German motor show in 1984

 

Finally, in Israel they were known as the Delta. Advertising was similarly inspired...

[pandamonium]

[pandamonium]

And a Ford Corsel

 

[catsinthewelder]

  pandamonium said:

 

I'd never noticed how much the front on these looks like a BL princess

[ren12ts]

Hi Long time lurker on this site.

 

Here are my 2 versions of the Denem.

 

Firstly my 1974 Mk 1 12TS

 

 

IMG00426-20121212-1103 by balby62, on Flickr

 

Secondly my 1976 Mk2 12TS

 

IMG12ts by balby62, on Flickr

 

Cheers

[Alexg]

Hi Ren12ts and welcome. Two lovely 12s you have, you should start a thread on them with more info and pictures