Renault has attempted to explain why two new Dacia models achieved only two stars overall in recent Euro NCAP crash testing.
The Sandero Stepway and Logan last April received only two (of five) NCAP stars, despite rather good protection provided to passengers (four out of five stars ) and average protection provided to pedestrians and cyclists.
“We do not compromise on the safety of car passengers and pedestrians, but we carefully choose the assistance systems,” Gilles Le Borgne, executive vice president of engineering Renault Group, said, according to Economica.net cited by romania-insider.com.
Several Renault officials, including Denis le Vot, CEO Dacia and Lada, Le Borgne and Laurens van den Acker, executive vice president of design Renault Group, were in Bucharest recently finalising details of the next generation Duster.
In discussion with a group of Romanian journalists, they explained how the safety level of Dacia cars, one of the main points of criticism expressed by local buyers still reluctant to “buy Romanian”, is designed to respect the idea of “essential” equipment.
As already known, the word that currently defines the Dacia models is no longer “low-cost” but “essential,” they said.
This concept floated by le Vot explains not only the frugal safety features of Dacia models but also the prices that have increased significantly compared to the previous models, the local report said.