Romanian carmaker Automobile Dacia, held by French group Renault, at the end of last week launched the Dacia Solenza model, set to replace the best-selling car in Romania, Dacia Supernova. Among other things, this is the first Dacia car that allows passengers to play their CDs.
"The car will be available on the Romanian market as of April 10 and is the necessary step before the launch of the 5,000 euro model announced by Renault Group's chairman Louis Schweizer for Q4, next year," Automobile Dacia general manager Christian Esteve said.
He added Solenza was the car that would allow Dacia to make a comeback on the international markets.
"Solenza sales will reach 35,000 units this year, that is about 50% of the total sales. We estimate to see 200,000 units sold throughout 2003-2007," Esteve specified. The car will be produced until 2007, when overall sales should reach 200,000 units, according to Dacia's plans, with one quarter of the total exported.
Solenza is also the first model that introduces Dacia's new brand image. "The model, codenamed X41 is superior to all the products made by the Dacia plant in the past and breaks away from the series of cars derived from the Renault 12 model," Dacia deputy chairman Constantin Stroe feels. He says the model was designed in 28 months, with a team of 128 specialists, most of them French, working on it.
Investments in the making of this model were in excess of 40 million euros, says the manager of this project, Alin Mihai. Most of the money (30 million euros) was invested in the industrial field, in several departments of the plant, to be precise.
The new Solenza model, whose name invokes the sun and the Latin spirit of the Romanians, as Christian Esteve explains, comes with the Renault 1.4 litre 75HP engine running on gas, like the Supernova before it. The mileage of the car is 8.3 litres/per 100 km inside cities and 5.6 litres/100 km outside cities. The combined mileage therefore stands at 6.7 litres/100 km.
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