Paris 2016 / Dacia: Our social communities are our best spokespeople

Dacia unveiled the facelifted Sandero and Logan in Paris. 

Today we kick-start with Dacia a series of interviews I had the pleasure of conducting at the Paris Auto Show last week. We already met with Dacia at both the Paris Auto Show 2014 and Frankfurt Auto Show 2015, each time providing us with invaluable insights into one of the fastest-growing brands in the world. This year is no different as we interview François Mariotte, Dacia World Commercial Director.

BSCB: The big for Dacia this year in France is the Sandero new outright best-selling car with private buyers with 30% year-on-year gains even though its facelift, that you unveiled during this Show, is about to hit the market. What happened?

François Mariotte: This year will be another year of growth for Dacia, at end August we have reached 391.000 sales, up 7.3% year-on-year. 27 out of the 44 countries where the Dacia brand is available are at record levels this year, and we do indeed have a few golden nuggets in our commercial results such as the Sandero #1 with private buyers in France and Spain. As a reminder our business model is solely focused towards private sales, we do not do fleet as we already are selling our cars at the absolute minimum price and cannot offer any rebates. Our motto is “One product/One price” and our price is sensational.

The Dacia Duster is #2 in the C-segment with private European buyers.

With the current pressure on purchasing power that consumers are experiencing at the moment, Dacia is the way to buy a new car for the price of a second-hand one. One of the reasons behind our success is the fact that both the Sandero Stepway (the best-selling Sandero variant) and Duster are playing right into the fastest-growing segment in Europe: SUVs. In 2009 there were 9 SUVs on offer in Europe, in 2016 there are more than 30. In fact the Sandero is the third best-selling car of its segment across Europe with private buyers – below just the VW Polo and the Ford Fiesta – and the Duster does even better: it ranks 2nd overall in the compact segment below the VW Golf.

BSCB: Does this mean the Dacia Duster is the best-selling SUV in Europe with private buyers?

Read the full interview below.