[veave]

I live in Spain and:

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.

[ako]

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.

[danaris]

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.

[veave]

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.

[JohnFen]

> most people would buy expensive bmw’s, Porsches or ferarri’s if they could

I am very skeptical that this is true.

[ffgjgf1]

> buy Dacia because they can't afford anything else

In much of Eastern Europe most people would just rather buy a beat up BMW or even a relatively decent one for 10-15k.

To be fair I kind of feel the same. Getting a 2-3 old car seems like a better option than a brand new Dacia

[friendzis]

2-3 year old BMW for 10-15k? 116d with chains rattling.

Let's be real here, new Dacias are bought by people who care about not visiting service every other month and total cost of ownership.

[ffgjgf1]

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”.

[NikolaNovak]

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.

[phatfish]

Hang on, you mean people only buy things they can afford (or have the ability to get some sort of terrible finance deal on)?

I thought they went and robbed a couple of banks like I do.