Bought: 1984 Dacia

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Saturday was pick-up day. 

 

I had to be at a wedding in the UK, so asked a Romanian friend, as a massive favour, to do the honours. He had never driven a Dacia before - or, indeed, any old car. The car itself had not been driven any length of distance for over a year. The total distance was only 530km. So we were firmly in WCPGW territory. 

 

On the Friday, I had a phone call from the current owner in Romania. "The car ... It has trouble starting. And the brakes have gone. I'm not actually in town tomorrow for when your friend comes to pick it up. Do you have a Plan B?"

 

Plan B involved finding a mechanic who could patch up the car so that it would at least be in with a sporting chance. A dodgy alternator was fixed; brakes were bled; electronics were given the once-over; encouragement was given to my friend, who was by now terrified (as well as suffering from an unwise evening in Bucharest the night before). The elderly mechanic, bemused at seeing a young bloke in a car that is only driven by very poor pensioners, refused payment and sped them on their way home...

 

Interestingly, the Romanian plate in your photo "SB 05 BVN" comes up on DVLA's database as a white Ford 2.4litre diesel (no idea what model, though); MoT only just after expiring.

 

.....till very recently, these cars survived in large numbers in tough conditions and took a LOT of abuse. Domestic-market cars were notoriously worse-built than those destined for the West - particularly on rustproofing. How did they survive for three or four decades carrying potatoes across ploughed fields but manage to get so defeated by suburbia??

 

As was common in ex-Soviet bloc countries, there were long waiting lists for cars if you were an ordinary citizen. Communist Party officials had priority, and only they could have the higher-spec ones. Those lucky enough to (be allowed to) buy one had to keep it going somehow; that would have meant loads of improvisation, as spares weren't always easy to come by. Not sure how they dealt with corrosion in that difficult era, if they dealt with it at all.

 

The 1980s were a miserable period for ordinary Romanians, as everyone knows - I remember reading about such privations as being limited to only being allowed 40w bulbs to light your home, and shortages of just about everything. Then there was the Securitate to make private life even more miserable. After the '89 revolution, people just wanted better cars, amongst other things.

 

That said, they still managed to build almost two million of the things over a 30+ year period; quite a few were exported, and a few might still be floating around North Korea....

[martc]

to make private life even more miserable. After the '89 revolution, people just wanted better cars, amongst other things.

 

That said, they still managed to build almost two million of the things over a 30+ year period; quite a few were exported, and a few might still be floating around North Korea....

 

Knicked off the internet, apparantly quite recent pictures...

 

 

 

 

 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Knicked off the internet, apparantly quite recent pictures...

 

Clearly there's no regulation against driving a car with heavy frontal damage.....

[adw1977]

One final thought: till very recently, these cars survived in large numbers in tough conditions and took a LOT of abuse. Domestic-market cars were notoriously worse-built than those destined for the West - particularly on rustproofing. How did they survive for three or four decades carrying potatoes across ploughed fields but manage to get so defeated by suburbia??

Because under the Communist system you had no choice but to keep the thing going. You waited years to be allowed to buy it and were unlikely to ever be allowed another.

[martc]

Clearly there's no regulation against driving a car with heavy frontal damage.....

 

 The damage had only just occurred (looks like a Volvo to me) - here's the full video.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYprA3VteZU

 

or maybe a Lada

Edited February 9, 2018 by martc

[TataBobu]

As was common in ex-Soviet bloc countries, there were long waiting lists for cars if you were an ordinary citizen. Communist Party officials had priority, and only they could have the higher-spec ones. Those lucky enough to (be allowed to) buy one had to keep it going somehow; that would have meant loads of improvisation, as spares weren't always easy to come by. Not sure how they dealt with corrosion in that difficult era, if they dealt with it at all.

 

 

4 years, to be exact. And the way to buy it was you had to put a deposit (40.000 lei) wait those 4 years and then pay the remaining 30 something thousands and get it (alternative you could go down to the local talcioc - that's the bootsale - and buy a brand new one for 150.000, avoiding the 4 years waiting list). Take it home, take it apart and rustproof it: oil poured in sills, grease smeared on the undercarriage for those who didn't have access to a proper paint like the one called "antifon" (translation: soundproof, it was a rubber-like paint, also used to keep the rust out). 

Then the petrol "rations" were in: if you lived outside Bucuresti you were allowed to buy 40 liters per month.

My dad bought his in 1981, and got a 6 months or 6000 km warranty. The car ended up doing about 400.000 kilometers in the life it lived, being driven until 2006, and then taken to the bridge in 2010. One engine rebuild, one gearbox rebuild, 2 weldathlons (1996 and 2003).

[mercrocker]

 The damage had only just occurred (looks like a Volvo to me) - here's the full video.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYprA3VteZU

 

or maybe a Lada

Its a Volvo, but what's with all the 240s in NK?   Old trade deal or shonky repros?

[stuboy]

i hope the flag is staying

[Datsuncog]

Its a Volvo, but what's with all the 240s in NK?   Old trade deal or shonky repros?

 

According to the story, they're 144s - stemming from a trade deal that went sour in 1974. The Swedish government got badly burned with distance selling and is still owed megabucks for 1000 or so Volvo 144s shipped over to NK, in the hope of trading minerals. Seems NK kept the cars and simply ignored any requests for payment.

 

I think that basically makes Kim Il Sung the grandaddy of all eBay arseholes and fuckwits.

 

http://www.newsweek.com/2014/09/05/north-korea-owes-sweden-eu300m-1000-volvos-stole-40-years-ago-still-using-267043.html

 

https://jalopnik.com/north-korea-still-owes-393-000-000-for-volvos-it-bough-1629521713

[Adrian_pt]

By popular demand, a few more pictures. These are all from November. The interior is both basic and knackered. The dashboard is the simplest you could get on a Dacia - for 1985, it was upgraded, with a trip counter, rev counter, temperature gauge and other goodies. Decadence! Since then the front and rear seats have been changed to an almost unused set in mustard, complete with headrests - original and hyper rare. I may sort the split on the dashboard out too, though it doesn't bother me too much. The rust in the boot is the only real bit of rot - the rest is surprisingly well preserved. The flag is staying!

 

No restrictions on buying cars under Communism in Romania - there were admittedly waiting lists (which could fairly easily be bypassed) but it wasn't unusual for a middle class family to change cars every 10 years or even more frequently. The only snag were that they were extremely expensive - 78000 lei, which was about three years' salary (though many people earned much more). Second cars were rare, though not unheard of. The biggest problem was petrol rationing which could be as low as 20l per month, depending on the region. There were ways round this, as there always are under rationing. By 1989 there were about 220,000 cars in Bucharest - roughly one for every two families. 

 

Until about 1981 you could also get Skodas and Ladas (and the odd Trabant); after 1982 there was the option of the Oltcit. Till the late 70s imports from the West did a flourishing trade and it was fairly normal to see quite recent Opels, Fords, Mercs and Volkswagens, as well as some rather more exotic kit. And in the 60s, Fiats and Renaults were officially imported and freely available. Bucharest and Constanta had the best cars but pretty much every town had some interesting vehicles. 

[HMC]

Amazing! I've only just realised that these have a body crease in the back of the roof linking the cabin air extractors. #decadentwesternstylingflourish.

[CanaryinManc]

Dashboard and exterior (large rear lights etc.) look to be post 1976 facelift Renault, like my late lamented 1977 12L, while the steering wheel is pre facelift. Great cars though.

[CanaryinManc]

This thread has re-awakened a desire for Renault 12/Denems so looked for photos. This one stood out.

[Adrian_pt]

Some more pictures of the thing, all from February, all very miserable. It's now been bought a few more goodies such as chrome wipers and, er, seatbelts. Oh, and my mate managed to pull in it. Great news!

[Adrian_pt]

Family emergencies meant I had to fly back to Romania for three weeks and use the Dacia for daily transport. It was ... entertaining. 

 

Since February my mate had been using it to pootle around town every fortnight or so. This hadn't done it much good - starting was nearing the level of a white G-reg estate, the noise above 80 km/h was horrendous, braking was practically non existent and on top of that the clutch had started slipping. The fuel tank leaked when above half full; a quick check also showed that it had quite happily been running without oil, while water had to be topped up every couple of days or so. £40 later the clutch and brakes were resolved (you can, it turns out, still get NOS parts if you know where to look), and a bit of spirited* A-road driving and proper daily usage served to blow the other cobwebs away. 

 

Unfortunately this level of abuse proved too much for other, non-mechanical, bits to handle. Over the course of 1400 km, various bits of electrics began to give up the ghost to the extent that by the end the only info the dash showed me was whether the choke was out, while hot air blasted out regardless of what the ventilation settings were - which was pleasant at 35 degrees. A particularly fun bit was when it conked out doing at 120 on one of northern Romania's few dual carriageways. It turned out, embarrassingly, this was not due to something going dramatically wrong but simply running out of fuel - which happens when you share ownership but don't have a fuel gauge or trip counter. First time for everything I suppose...

 

On the plus side, once it gets going there's very little stopping it; it's incredibly forgiving on unmade roads; and the new orange velour interior seems to be much loved by passengers. And they've become a massive rarity - I'd say in the entire county there are now under 100 pre-86 Dacias in use, with examples being scrapped weekly. So though there's a bit of work to do to keep it in good nick, it's definitely worth it. 

 

Back next week for another go...

 

 

 

[GeordieInExile]

Were the Dacias noticeably more shite than the Renault 12s?

[Adrian_pt]

Good question. The first series was initially identical to the phase 1 R12. Gradually various parts were phased out to be replaced with locally manufactured versions, but build quality remained decent till the early 80s. The 1310s were designed to be cheaper and more economical, with more robust suspension and slightly dampened performance; chrome gave way to plastic; the rather decent Takosan instrumentation fitted to prototype 1310s was replaced with truly spartan Craiova-made dials showing the bare minimum; steel became lower quality; finally, the knackered and demoralised Pitesti workforce began to lose pride in their product, and build quality deteriorated to an alarming extent. Meanwhile the facelifts Dacia introduced to try and bring it up to date only served to make it look more and more comically obsolete. 

 

That said, most of the problems with Denems stemmed from truly shonky RHD conversions done in a warehouse in Wiltshire. And I maintain that a well maintained 13xx can be a pretty reliable steed - it's just that most were horrendously abused (and fair enough - if you're reduced to burning furniture for warmth, as middle-class Bucharesters did in the late 80s, you probably will struggle to spend money on keeping your car tip top). Most surviving examples led a quiet life in the hands of wealthy pensioners.