The Auto Maker Riding High As Others Plunge

By Steve Hynd

There's one automobile manufacturer who is doing so well during this economic crisis that workers are having to come in at weekends to help meet demand.

Less than three months ago, thousands of workers were to be laid off from the factories of auto-maker Renault-Dacia. But now the order book is filled to the point that workers have to come to the assembly line even on Saturdays.

Thanks to the German market, the economic crisis has become a distant memory for these Romanian workers, explains Renault-Dacia CEO François Fourmont. “Last year we sold 25,000 Dacia cars in Germany, but this year we have almost the same number of orders in one month as we got in the whole of last year.”

Stimulated by a 2,500 euros trade-in bonus on older vehicles, German consumers have been pouncing on the Logan and the Sandero, models which are sold in Germany for about 5,000 euros. Aimed at conquering emerging markets at first, these cars have proven to be a hit in Europe.

In tough times, a car becomes less of a status symbol and more of a way to get from Point A to Point B. The Logan and the Sandero, neither of which are available in the U.S., are cheap runabouts designed to run on poorer quality fuel, to be easy to repair and have a minimum of bells and whistles, yet still look stylish. Supply goes where there's demand - a lesson U.S. automakers with their fixation on vehicles that need their own zip code might well want to re-learn.