Because of killer bang for buck. Dacias are essentially cheapened versions of Renault models. The cars are reliable enough for first two owners not to be bothered, so resale value does not drop too much. Of course the absolute price point is also relevant.
Sure, but again. People are buying it because Dacias are the cheapest, and there is nothing cheaper besides some Chinese brands, which have questionable quality, and are not available on very market. My dad has Sandero. He bought it because he cannot afford any other new vehicle. If he could, he would have bought Kia X-ceed, or Toyota Yaris X-Cross or something similar.
At least in Italy, nowadays a Sandero starts around 12,500 Euro for the base-base model, it is more likely that actual sold cars are in most cases more around 14,000 Euro.
It remains the cheapest car avaialble, though the 10,000 price point is a thing of the past.
The Fiat Panda nowadays (I know as we needed a small car and asked for one no more than 1 month ago) is realistically around 17,000 Euro, and (as said recent direct experience) they are going to deliver one no earlier than six-seven months (i.e. in practice it doesn't exist).
A Renault Clio is around 18,000 Euro, three, more likely four, months time to deliver.
The whole market is simply crazy in Italy right now, in the end we settled for a (more expensive, but actually also a little bit higher level) Hyundai I20, managed to get one in 10 days time (the only model they had available, with a few largely unneeded by us optionals) for around 23,000 Euro.
All the mentioned models are so-called "mild-hybrids", so - at least in the case of the Hyundai - you have an useless small battery that prevents from having a spare tire/wheel.
As a current-gen Panda owner I can't believe there's so much demand for such a terrible car. The Sendero is vastly superior in nearly every way.
I only own it because it was dirt cheap second hand and was very satisfied with the previous gen model which was an actually good car. This one is not.
Yep, though currently they are not even very cheap used, right now a used Panda year 2021 with low mileage (10-20,000 km) is around 12,000-13,000 Euro.
A 2019 one with relatively low mileage (50,000 to 60,000 km, maybe 70,000 km) is likely to be in the 9,000-10,000 Euro range.
I wouldn't however attribute the scarcity exclusively to high demand, for all we know it could simply be under-production (for whatever technical reason or as part of a plan to sell higher priced models).
>right now a used Panda year 2021 with low mileage (10-20,000 km) is around 12,000-13,000 Euro
Fuck me, 13,000 Euros is what the original owner of my used Panda paid for it back in 2013, while I got it in 2017 for 6000 Euros with full kit and an extra winter tire + wheel set. I'm guessing it was cheap because it hasn't got much demand for it on the used market so users wanting to get rid of it need to lower the price.
People only buy Dacia because they can't afford anything else. If they could you would see the Dacia market share shrink to almost zero.
Some people cope with "Dacia is just a cheap Renault" the same they cope with "Seat (Spanish brand) is just a cheap Volkswagen", but deep down inside them they know they can't buy the car they really wanted.
So? most people would buy expensive bmw’s, Porsches or ferarri’s if they could, but they can’t afford them, so they settle for opel, Renault, Hyundai , Toyota or other more affordable cars. Nothing wrong with that. What is surprising is that are not more brands focussing on the market targeted by Dacia.
I dunno about "most people", but I would in no world buy a BMW, Porsche, or Ferrari.
Not everyone wants a status symbol, and not everyone wants a Go Very Fast Very Loud car. Some people genuinely want a car that's comfortable, reliable, and good for the environment.
Read the comment I'm replying to. People aren't buying Dacia instead of Volkswagen because Dacia is better, people are buying Dacia because most of Europe is poor.
No, not BMW. You’d have to go 5+ years at very least.
My point was that in a lot of places people who can’t afford a new car other than Dacia would still rather buy an older car from a more prestigious brand due to “reasons”.
Wouldn't old BMW kill you on maintenance and other costs of ownership compared to cheaper cars?
For about 15 years I kept having a hyundai of one sort of another while my friend has Audis. Our regular planned maintenance and our repairs were about 500% different. Anecdata n=1 of course.