The Dacia Duster will be joined by the larger Bigster this year, but the Romanian ambitions go further. Much further. The brand is launching a sedan that fully deserves the ‘premium’ designation. Dacia sees stars!
This year, Dacia will launch the long-awaited Bigster, an SUV that positions it one step above the Duster. Dacia has been dreaming of a model above the Duster for some time and the Bigster does not seem to be able to satisfy that hunger. There will also be a model above the Dacia Bigster. And what kind. In an interesting detour, Dacia has come up with a direct competitor to the Mercedes-Benz C-class. In fact: Dacia is launching a C-class!
Dacia and Mercedes-Benz are no strangers to each other. After all, Dacia is part of the Renault Group and car brand Renault maintains deep ties with Mercedes-Benz. Dacia’s top brass apparently sat around the table more than once when Renault managers sat down with Mercedes-Benz to finalize a deal on the arrival of the Citan on a Kangoo basis. Dacia may produce the previous generation of the Mercedes-Benz C-class. That could become interesting.
The new Mercedes-Benz C-class is available from almost €57,000. The previous C-class, which Dacia is adding to its line-up, will probably be tens of thousands of euros lower in price. Especially because Dacia seems to be planning to pour its budget sauce over the model. Jacques Riebètsj – high in the marketing tree – tells AutoWeek that Dacia ‘doesn’t see stars’ and certainly does not deny its brand values. “Nowadays, cars are full of things that Dacia customers do not want at all. Our new top model is available with leather upholstery and extensive climate control, but the basic versions have manual air conditioning, fabric upholstery and window winders in the rear. After all, it has to come out of the length or breadth.” Riebètsj even hints at versions without painted bumpers. “Nowadays, car manufacturers charge extra money not to spray paint things. Everything for the crossover look. Just think of those black plastic wheel arch edges. We can cleverly benefit from that. Less paint means less money and therefore a lower price for the consumer. That is also Dacia.”
In the first spy photos we see a C-class without chrome in its snout. The buttocks of Dacia’s dream have also been stripped of chrome. Also striking: Dacia seems to save extra money by giving the car only one exhaust tip. Will the chrome around the windows be retained? Who knows, you may have to switch to the Extreme version for this.
What will the new Dacia be called? Riebètsj also has an answer to that. “Our new sedan is considerably longer than the Duster or Bigster and of course previously had a star on its nose. We are very proud of that. We combine these features into Longster. Long for length. The star part of the name needs no explanation .” We do not expect a 510 hp AMG 63 S version.
