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The Dacia brand arrived in Ireland in 2012, the year the country was in recession after the banking crisis and failed bailouts, writes Trish Whelan.
At the time, the media said that Dacia’s arrival was timely as people were looking for smart buys and value for money. Ten years later, Dacia is now a mainstream volume brand in Ireland.
January 2013 saw the first registrations for Sandero and Duster with Stepway following in March and the Logan MCV in September. In 2016, Dacia registered its 10,000th vehicle in Ireland. Models progressed and the volumes went up. In 2019, some 20,000 vehicles had been registered here.
Today, that number has stretched to over 30,000.
The Dacia Sandero won the Irish Compact Car of the Year 2022 award.
We have now been introduced to the New Dacia Bigster Concept which embodies the Dacia brand evolution, taking the company to new customers and segments.
Bigster Concept is roomy, robust and meant for open air and dusty roads. A 4.6 metre-long SUV, Bigster is the Dacia way of making the C-segment accessible delivering a larger, more capable vehicle at the cost guyers would expect from the segment below, and soon to be made a reality in 2024.
This year, Dacia also revealed its new brand identity which includes a new logo, new dealerships, new design and new colours. All Irish Dacia dealerships will have the new brand identity in place by the first half of 2024 with over 70pc completed by end of next year.
Dacia’s financial partner Mobilize Financial Services (formerly Dacia Bank) has lent over €300 million to new and used Dacia customers since 2013 with over €130 million lent to Duster customers.
Paddy Magee, Country Operations Director, Dacia Ireland said at a special celebration of the brand’s decade in Ireland at Keary’s Belgard in Dublin, and the new Bigster reveal: “We are so proud of Dacia which has grown in the past 10 years into an established, trusted and smart buy brand in Ireland. Huge kudos to the dealerships that embraced the Dacia brand and to the Irish customer for making the smart choice over the years. Having our own finance arm has made a huge difference to the volumes of Dacia vehicles on Irish roads and we believe that the brand has many more stories to tell.”
The Dacia management committee of Tim Devane, Cian Allman, Lynne Boucher, Liz O’Gorman, Alan Gormley, Jeremy Warnock and Paddy Magee, Country Operations Director, Dacia Ireland, are pictured above with the Bigster concept.
Paddy Magee is also pictured below with the Dacia Duster.
