Dacia 1300, Romaina’s Renault 12 Built For 35 Years
The Dacia 1300 is a huge part of Romanian automotive history and started with kits of Renault 12s from France. But it wasn’t the first car that Dacia produced, the 1100 was the old Renault 8 built as a stop gap until the new car was ready.
On the 23 August 1969 the first Dacia 1300 rolled off the production line, some 9 days before the French version, and it remained in production until the 21st of July 2004. The pickup lasted another couple of years. Some 2 million were built in the 35 year production period.
The once common sight on the roads of Romania is slowly disappearing. The CKD kits from France stopped and production was totally in house at the Mioveni factory where it was said quality declined. Not in reliability or mechanically, but rust. The cars slowly started to dissolve reducing their numbers.
The car is ingrained in the memories of many Romanians who have carefully restored them, one such person is Mihai, an architect at Renault Technologies in Titu.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, this was the car that saw many Romanians take to the road. This is a true Romanian people’s car with as much significance as the Beetle had in Germany.
Mihai, the passionate owner presents us his carefully restored 1989 Dacia 1310. Mihai has many childhood memories tied to the model and is proud of having restored his father’s Dacia 1310 and has become a truly devoted fan.
The 1300 really did leave a mark on the nation, with production over 3 decades it was a true product of the cold war where alternatives were few and far between. A choice of one was often the case, and if you were lucky a different colour.
It was the family car, the taxi, the business vehicle, just like the Beetle.
Mihai says, “The Dacia 1300 is a robust, simple, and comfortable car; qualities that are true to the Dacia DNA.”
The Romanian customers bought lots of them, it was the most modern car in Europe in the early 1970′, and it was also the cheapest with an equivalent cost of just €3,200 today.
Mihai’s car is 1.3 L Dacia 1310 TLX petrol that his father bought in 1992. The earlier cars were 1300s for the initial 1969 to 1979 production, which was an identical copy of the Renault 12. The later 1310 was produced until 2004.
There were plenty of facelifts over the period, but the car more or less remained the same. Enhancements to the engine and running gear gave increases in performance and improvements to fuel economy.
“the two main differences between the 1300 and the 1310 are the new design on the front end with four lamps and black centre grille, as well as the rear optics.”
By the mid-1980s Dacia were making the car with 98% locally sourced parts, which made the car easy and cheap to repair, and keep earlier models on the road with genuine parts. This is how Mihai was able to restore his Dacia 1310 TLX back to its original condition. The support of the local network of Dacia fans.
“As time passes, there are more and more Dacia fans in Romania. And there are more Romanians discovering the model every year.”
Mihai can often be found behind the wheel of his 1310, the same car that took the family on holiday and the car he learned to drive in.
These memories have created a sentimental bond, but Mihai is proud to drive a Dacia. It is a car he will pass down as a sort of family heirloom
“When I’m driving my Dacia 1310, I just feel good”, he confides.
More and more Romanians are proud of their automotive heritage and are keen to promote it. The Dacia 1300 provided incredibly cheap mobility to lots of people and affected generations.
It wasn’t that fast, early versions put out 47 hp and could hit a top speed of 86 mph. The 1310 saw that increase to 61 hp and 99 mph. The very last versions with fuel injection would nudge 99 mph, but to think of the car in purely performance terms is missing the point. Your performance would be comparable to all the other road users.
Some 2 million of the Dacia 1300 and later 1310 and variations were produced over the 35 year production period. There were six evolutions of the car in this time and the sales finally ended when production of the Logan started.
“The Dacia 1300 is Romania’s iconic car. Its affordable price made it the true people’s car,” Mihai explains.
If you want a Renault 12 there may be no better place than Romania to get one, before they all realise and start to collect them.
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