Has anyone ever actually seen a Dacia Denem in real life?

[Vinylseats]

There has only been brief mentions of the Dacia Denem on here and I was wondering if anyone has actually ever seen one in the UK, because I haven't in all my 30 years. Unless as a child I simply thought it was a Renault. How many were sold here?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lovejoy]

Yup VS, quite a few.... being a Renault 12 Estate fanatic ( i've had fifteen....) I used to frequent the local Renault dealership in Poole, Dorset, known as " Brian Whiteside's".

his customer courtesy cars were all black and yellow 12 Estates, with logos on the side; sorry, no pics of that, but....

 

the most interesting bit was his 2nd-hand dept, just down the road, known as " RenoVation" !!! very clever, eh ?

and lo & behold, LOADS of Dacia Denems, in all shapes and sizes. I use to muse about getting the bits to convert my current 12 Estate to the quad headlamp setup, which i think suits the styling perfectly.

 

I was in CZ republic for a month recently, and some very tasty Denems still being used daily there, but the build/fit quality, especially round the grille / headlight area was definitely naff... but these were generally later versions with the updated plastic bumpers.

 

The double-cab pickups are superb though, I am sure someone can post up a pic of one for us.

 

There was actually a movie I saw on channel 4 in Sept. called "My Beautiful Dacia" (pronounced Dachia, by the way)

Google the title, and you will see a Dacia Denem hearse !!

[M'coli]

Yes, I saw one going through the auctions in Glasgow in the early 90s.

[Rocket88]

I've driven a Dacia Duster [when they were new] an interesting experience......................

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

How do Dusters drive? I've been a passenger in one several times, albeit when I was about 7.

[Alexg]

Never seen a 'Denem', I'd love to know if any still exist! I've seen plenty of 1310s etc whilst an holiday abroad and a Hungarian plated estate in Tunbridge Wells a few weeks ago. But never seen the UK spec 'Denem'.

 

Anyone know of one?

[Rocket88]

How do Dusters drive? I've been a passenger in one several times, albeit when I was about 7.

 

From what I can remember, underpowered, drafty, and handlded quite alarmingly, although I suspect the Romanian remoulds may have had something to do with that. Build quality was epically shite.

[boobydoo]

I can't recall ever seeing one at the time. I lived in Bath in the early eighties...there was a Skoda garage, Yugo and FSO/Lada but no Dacia. I presume they would have been a joint dealership with something else....no-one could have made a living just selling Dacia!!

 

I think they look very handsome...the quad headlights suit it well as does the vinyl roof and door mouldings.

 

I heard there was just one left over here owned by the Romanian Embassy, but this is perhaps just a rumour.

[AnthonyG]

There was one in the car breakers where I worked in the mid 1990s. The interior was spectacularly awful - really poor quality.

[Doctormop]

My next door neighbour (circa 1990) dabbled a bit in old motors and briefly had a denem estate an A reg I think which I was considering making him an offer for, it was rhe twin headlights that really got me going!

Not sure what became of it, think he may have swapped it for an A reg Montego 2.0 that I also thought of bidding him on,

20 years on and I still haven't laerned my lesson

[nigel bickle]

Drove a couple way back in the day -and know of one sitting in a shed in east Sussex.

 

Already got my fair share of 12's though-

[barrett]

I don't think I've ever seen one. I don't think I've ever seen a Tagora either, or a Chrysler 180 or lots of things I love. Funny that

[Mash]

There used to be a blue one in my home town when I was about 12 or 13. It sticks in my mind because I wasn't sure what it was at first and I definitely knew it wasn't a run of the mill R12.

 

I also remember seeing a Lonsdale around that time or possibly a bit earlier but only once. It just shpws how much of a car addict I have always been that these fleeting glimpses have always stuck in my memory

 

There was only ever one Tagora in the town too - dark blue. There was a blue Tredia near where we lived but that was the only one of them I can ever remember. Some neighbours had a very rusty T-reg 180 when I was about 8 which was around 1984.

[lovejoy]

quote - "How do Dusters drive? "

 

-they tend to get "ragged" but I did drive an ARO in Spain (Duster in disguise, 4-seater rag-top) that had been driven there from a UK dealership, the guy bough it megga cheap, and did a wobbly when I drove it up a mountain track in 4-wheel drive ! Some problem about engaging/disengaging but I never got his point.

It was actually a very practical vehicle in that warm climate, and reliable with the R 12 running gear.

[Mr Lobster]

Three that I can think of.

 

There was a green saloon in a back street in Great Harwood 10 - 15 years ago. Obviously long since gone. A pick up just outside Preston and a dead Denem at the scrapyard in North Wales that has loads of long dead stuff in (can't remember what its called at the moment though). That one might still be there though!

[scooters]

A certain shitemiester of my accquaintance has a current hairbrained plan to drive an abandoned one from Bucharest to Blighty

[RedSparrow]

Nicked from the PC forum

 

As for the Dacia Denem - the mag did an endangered species feature on them recently and said only 1 is known to survive!! I remember about 1 or 2 pickups in use, I saw one well used one at secondhand car sales premesis parked in the corner, at Leighton Buzzard over 10 years ago.

 

http://www.practicalclassics.co.uk/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9606

[barrett]

ha, I like how all the cars nominated in that PC thread are owned by shiteists!

There is one extinct car I can think of - the Fairthorpe Atom, although there are rumors of one survivor. I suppose there are lots of cars that are extinct but they all had tiny production runs so I guess they don't count

[Timewaster]

There was a white saloon, like the one in the brochure on a driveway on my paper round. That was in about 1986

I remember them at the 1982 NEC motorshow, what a day that was for a 9 year old

 

Even then I was more interested in the FSO's and Yugos than the Porsches and Lambos.

[warren t claim]

David Kellys scrapyard in Wrexham used to have a couple of them decomposing in the weeds.

[Vinylseats]

Some interesting info here, thanks everyone. I've seen at least one Dacia Duster in my time but never knowingly a Denem.

 

 

...Even then I was more interested in the FSO's and Yugos than the Porsches and Lambos.

 

Sounds like me at the 1994 motorshow. My favourite stand was the Lada one - I especially loved siting in the back of a Riva saloon, on it's really springy seats!

 

The Lada stand had gone at the 1998 motorshow. I'd have loved to have gone to the 70s and 80s motorshows.

[Albert Ross]

I used to work at a Dacia and Yugo main dealer, Great Bedwyn Garage, Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire. Right on Savernake Forest. I loved the fact the Dacias had glass header tanks. We had a few pickups around too.

[eddyramrod]

I saw plenty back in the UK, but can't pin any down to recent years even though I had a Riva as late as 2001. Where you do see them though, is Turkish-occupied Cyprus. We were there in the summer for a few days, and they were on every corner! Dacias, obviously-older Renault 12s, not to mention the 9 and 11 models (still in service as rentals!) and the Turkish Fiat 131 derivatives. We felt quite out of place in a Greek-Cypriot-registered, UK-badged Japanese pickup!

[hennabm]

At the 82 motor show in the nEC I was seriously considering the purchase of one. This was following the running of firstly a 12TL and then a 12TS.

 

Un/fortunately I didn't go through with the deal.

[barefoot]

This is a dull tale, but I did see one, I'm guessing 20 years ago.

it was at a Loughborough petrol station, it was white

& even though although still relatively new, looked decidedly shabby.

 

But can I refer you all back to the Jalopy buying guide which even back in '93

rated them as 'rarer than a Ferrari*'

 

 

 

 

*or something, I can't be arsed to go upstairs & have a look

[Mr_Bo11ox]

There was an estate one on eBay a couple of years ago, sold by a fella called 'mosky-mark', A-reg i think it was

[Lord Sterling]

Seen loads in Syria a while back (Known as the Dacia 1300). I think I have seenprobably one or two around the UK at some point.

[gtd2000]

Where you do see them though, is Turkish-occupied Cyprus. We were there in the summer for a few days, and they were on every corner!

 

That's the only place I've driven one, can't say I've seen one in the UK at all....

[ashmicro]

There was a brief flurry of them here back in the "day". We had a Shite Dealer extraordinaire in North Belfast who sold all the eastern chod - Yugos, Wartburgs, FSO etc. I would have been about 9 I suppose when Dad and I were at this emporium of class, and I remember being vaguely aware of these cars that looked like a neighbour's Renner Douze, but weren't quite the same.

 

One thing that does stick in my mind from that visit was getting in to a brand new 2CV that was there for some reason, and thinking how high it was, and that the seats looked like a fancy bed. Dad ended up buying a Chevette 4 door in Ember red, with a Starsky & Hutch stylee silver wedge stripe.

[mattblack]

I've probably seen one at some point, couldn't tell you where or when though. I've a vague idea that Wynnes, the Lada dealer in Hinckley may have had one/some, they were possibly agents for them.

 

I have seen a Duster, there was a dead one with the front hub/suspension in bits outside a farm building, opposite a holiday cottage we stayed in. That would have been about 1995 ish.