Can Renault Keep Dacia, Its Romanian Auto Brand, Cheap?

When Viorel Oprea started working at the ragtag Dacia auto factory in communist Romania in the 1980s, it was a sweatshop in the summer. In the winter, Oprea had to layer three coats to stay warm. Today the factory is bright and spotless, air-conditioned in the summer and warm enough in the winter that workers sport shirtsleeves on even the coldest days. “It’s like we’ve gone from hell to heaven,” says the 52-year-old machinery repairman.

That’s only one of a host of changes since Renault bought Dacia (pronounced DAH-chi-a) in 1999 and overhauled it to build Europe’s cheapest car. Running at 95 percent of capacity, the plant made 343,000 vehicles last year. In 1989, the factory, 80 miles northwest of Bucharest in Mioveni, used twice as many workers (it has 14,000 today) to produce fewer than a third as many cars. Romanians “were proud to have a national carmaker but ashamed that the cars were so bad,” says Bernard Jullien, director at French automotive think tank Gerpisa. “The pride is much stronger now.” Dacia is the fastest-growing major car brand in Europe. Its sales for the first half of the year on the continent rose 35 percent, to 195,069 vehicles, reports the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.