Romanian President Basescu To Buy Dacia’s First SUV

Dacia said the president, who currently drives a Dacia Logan, will receive his new car early April and the car goes on sale starting April 15.

Dacia's new crossover SUV can be bought in Romania for between EUR10,500 and EUR15,600 (including VAT).

Dacia, the local unit of France's Renault, spent EUR290 million on developing the Duster model, investing EUR70 million in its plant in Mioveni, southern Romania. According to the carmaker, the investment was optimized by borrowing around 50% of the new model's parts, such as the engine and gearbox, from other Dacia and Renault models.

The car plant in Mioveni can build up to 25 Duster cars per hour and the new model could soon account for more than a third of the plant's production.

The new SUV will be available as of this spring on the markets in Europe, Turkey, the Maghreb (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Libya and Mauritania), and as of June will be marketed under the Renault brand in Ukraine, the Middle East (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon) and certain countries in Africa.

Vehicles destined for all these markets, under both the Dacia and Renault brands, will be made in Romania.

In 2011, Duster will also be built by the plant in Curitiba, Brazil, which already produces the Logan, Sandero and Sandero Stepway models under the Renault name. Vehicles built here will be sold on markets in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Chile.

The Duster will also be produced at the Avtoframos plant in Moscow, Russia.

The new model will be available on markets in the Persian Gulf as of 2011 as Renault Duster. Cars destined for this region will also be built in Romania.

Automobile Dacia, a member of the Renault group, sold 311,282 cars last year, up by 20.5% compared to 2008, but sales in Romania slumped by more than 50%, to 41,862 units, although the company managed to slightly increase its share of the local market.

Apart from the Duster, Dacia makes six other vehicles: Logan Berlina, Logan MCV, Logan Van, Logan Pick-up, Dacia Sandero and Dacia Sandero Stepway.

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