Note: I have a good friend in Romania, since I have never heard of a car specifically “Romanian”, I asked him what type of car he drives and some specifics about engines and other components on his car. He says he is not a car guy, but this is fairly complete if you were to ask me.
The text links he included will work, I think they are highlighted in red (I’m color blind), so please take some time to copy and paste, it will be worth every second of your time.
I drive a Dacia, that’s the name, it is the “national car”, started somewhere in 60 something, I guess, then at one moment Renault made a deal with Dacia (or the other way around) and Dacia started to produce a car that was a copy of Renault 12.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Renault_12_in_green_1972.jpg)
To make an idea, here’s “our” car of back then, a Dacia 1300 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia_1300)
Pretty much the same, don’t you think? We used to have a shock at one moment when me and my friends, as kids, when we saw a french movie from the 70′s, to see their roads full of Dacia cars. We didn’t know at that moment it was actually a Renault 12…
It was a hit back then, I guess, since, they kept on producing this car, with small, and I really mean SMALL modifications until a few years ago, like 6-7 years I guess, so it was a really old model, you do the math. As far as I know it was, along with a mexican car, the car that was in production the longest time…It had a lot to do with the comunist regim here, that kept the car production on a very low level, the imports were zero, so they kept on producing that car and you really couldn’t buy anything else. For 40 years…
Then after 1989 they started to experiment, started to produce a few new models that were not very succesful, one that was designed by our designers here, not very good but hey, it was the first, Dacia Nova, (http://www.tuningfever.fr/fr/pics/picture-10652-214813-dacia-nova.php)
It evolved in Dacia SuperNova,(http://pictures.topspeed.com/IMG/crop/200603/2002-dacia-super-nova_460x0w.jpg) kind of an unfortunate name, but it was a pretty popular car, it was OK as a car, you could use it well, but it didn’t have any of the features you would have expected in a modern car, as far as I know.
Then that model came, Dacia Solenza, a “link”,a step forward, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia_Solenza) but still not “there”
Then, they produced that long waited model, Dacia Logan, the one I am driving at this moment, a car that is build again under Renault’s design and coordination. The factory, by the way, it is here, they use to say the factory in Pitesti (my city), but actually it is near the city, 20 km away. The car was a really big hit here, sold like hell, it was promoted as “the 5000 Euro car”. A target not quite easy to reach since I paid for mine 10k Euro, but hey, it is a good car.
Dacia Logan suffered some face lifts in the last years, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia_Logan) but it pretty much the same. I recently went to a dealer I know and questioned him about a new model, Dacia Sandero (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia_Sandero) He asked me what I am driving and told me OK, and then why do you need to test this one? It’s 95% the same!
So, cutting the story, I drive a Dacia Logan from 2005, so 4 years old, I bought it for 10k Euro, it was the top model, I have air conditioner, “servo-direction” (I don’t know the word for it in english, but you get the point), electrical windows both front and back, ABS system.
I can tell you in 4 years I didn’t change anything, it worked like a charm, it has a large trunk, and I mean large, but they could have made the opening larger since the large drum didn’t fit in there 
I have more than enough space in the back seats, comparing to a lot other models, you really can’t complain about space in there.
Mine looks like this (http://www.vootar.com/imgs/elementos/1244817109_Dacia%20Logan) with some black things on the front.
You can see a history of it here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia_Nova)
Or here, not an official site but works (http://www.renault-dacia-logan.com/)
The official site is here (http://www.dacia.ro/) but I don’t think it has an english version.
Also, you should see what concept car they presented at Geneva this year, a really futuristic car, if they make this one, I will consider buying one…
Dacia Duster (http://www.autoblog.com/2009/03/02/geneva-preview-dacia-duster-concept-first-from-low-cost-brand/)
They recently started to sell a cross over, Stepway they call it but I didn’t like it that much (http://www.motori.it/attualita/1833/dacia-stepway-on-road-e-off-road.html) and they want to make a SUV.
Well, that’s about all about my car, I recently wanted to change it for one of these, but it’s a bit more expensive (http://www.netcarshow.com/honda/2009-accord/) and I have decided to enjoy the fact I have just finished paying for my current car just about a week ago so I will just sit and wait for a while
I hope you enjoyed my presentation of Dacia cars 
By the way, I am not a car lover or something, but I just had to say all these things here
PS Two days later::Just a short correction, The car company started in 60 something and they kept on producing that car until a few years ago, but starting 1989 you could actually go and buy whatever car you wanted, so the car had competition. Even before there was a Citroen copy here, Oltcit was the name, but it was nto that popular so Dacia was the main car with ahuge percentage in front of Oltcit. (http://agolan.info/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Oltcit.jpg)
I actually wanted to buy one of these, you know…An interesting car, difficult to maintain, since fixing almost anything implied getting under the engine which is not pleasant. By the way, Dacia from before 89 had the funny reputation of getting fixed with just a wire…Pretty convenient since my if my Logan stops on the road, I just have to call the guys from the service since I couldn’t tell where to start looking at it…
Also, it seems to be pretty popular today in Germany, seems that this car is heavily sold in Germany, strange if you consider they make such great cars. Also Brasil, South America a lot as far as I have understood. END.
I find this stuff interesting, even though we probably will never see these cars in the US. As far as I can tell, they are gasoline powered engines and not overly technical. Enjoy, GotEngines.com @ 1-888-344-8044.
Ultimate post, I really like it, can you please share some more info on it, which is quite more helpful for us.
Great post, I am pleased to read your article, please let me know when you update current one. Fully Impressed Thanks.
What a post, it’s really good to read, please send me some more relevant article on that topic, also if you can provide any other information then its pleasure to having a great logger.
All you guys,
Thanks for your comments and your welcome.
Well, Danny, thanks for posting this article here, I didn’t expect it! You know, I can add more to this story, I just came back from a 2 days trip and my car worked fine, next to the other 2 cars that my friends are driving, a VW and an Audi A4.
[...] created. In many Foreign countries like Romania, people have little choice, most Romanians drive a Dacia, which is Romania’s ‘national car’. If you still drive a larger car with a larger [...]