The most eagerly awaited car on the Romanian market of recent years, the Dacia Logan, has found itself in vogue despite the fact that its official unveiling is still two or three weeks away. Although not having had the change to test drive it, over 4,200 Romanians have already made a down payment of 50 million ROL to place a firm order for this car.
The Logan has therefore brought the Romanian carmaker more than 5 million euros.
"We have already received more than 4,200 firm orders for the Dacia Logan. We had high hopes, but this is a bit more than we expected," Constantin Stroe, Automobile Dacia vice-president told Ziarul Financiar.
Any customer that wants to place a firm order needs to make a down payment of 50 million ROL (some 1,250 euros) regardless of the model requested. This means the Logan model has seen more than 5.2 million euros enter its accounts since its commercial launch on June 15.
"This amount is beyond comment. We must not forget that production estimates for this year were in the range of 10,000 -12,000 units. This means that nearly half of the output has already been sold in less than a month, just based on the photos of the new car. No test drives have yet been made. Under the circumstances, we may find ourselves seeing people queuing up to buy a Logan," commented Marius Carp, executive director of the Association of Vehicle Makers and Importers (APIA).
To be able to satisfy all the orders received, the Romanian carmaker has already sped up the new model's rate of production. Whereas it was making 30-35 cars a day one month ago, it is now making 80 units a day. "We will reach our top production rate, 100 units a day, next week. After all, we are now making cars to client specifications, who have already placed firm orders," Stroe added. He says the waiting period will be shorter as soon as deliveries begin in September.
"This is why we chose to have a delay between the commercial launch and the actual start of deliveries. When we begin to actually make deliveries, we will have already built up a significant stock of cars to supply to clients, meaning that their wait will be reduced to as little as possible from the moment they order their car," Stroe says.
This all makes it likely for the number of Logan orders to exceed the 11,000 units Dacia officials projected as representing the full-year sales early in 2004.
"Our projections will most likely be exceeded, and this can only make us happy," Stroe added. He explained that he uses a Logan as his company car, having travelled over 3,000 kilometres in it. "It might seem subjective, but I've had no problems so far and its pearly grey colour has attracted the attention of many people wherever I drove it," Stroe says.
ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro
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