Dacia Berlina makes its final journey

In Mioveni, at the Arges-based assembly hall of Automobile Dacia, a new series of Logan cars is about to be unveiled. Their gleaming bodies are being looked over by members of staff who are not allowed to leave the production line.

However, the real star of the day is, for the last time, the old Dacia Berlina model. Workers from several sections have gathered around it, the lights from photographers are reflected on its surface. After having found its place in popular folklore, this is a car ready to become a piece of history.

“We had got used to it, it was a good car,” states a worker at Automobile Dacia’s Mioveni assembly platform. It’s the first time she’s been asked for her autograph, an event with even greater significance, since it’s to be written on a car – on the very last Dacia Berlina model to be produced in Mioveni, bearing the number 1,959,730.

As of Wednesday, Automobile Dacia will no longer be manufacturing units from the 1300 range. The last two cars, an artika white Dacia Berlina and a passion red Break are to take their museum places beside the first ever model, which left the production line on August 20th 1969, just days before the August 23rd parade of that year.

Constantin Stroe, Automobile Dacia’s vice-president, explained why the production of the Dacia 1300 range was no longer justifiable.

“The decision was made on the basis of some efficiency calculations. Of the 47,000 units we produced in 2004, only a few thousand were Dacia 1300 models,” he stated.

“Euro 3 requirements would have been impracticable. It would have been more expensive for us to adjust to these conditions than to produce a new model. We couldn’t use a Berlina model to enter competition on the European market”.

claudia.covaci@zf.ro