Dacia Logan
The Dacia Logan is a family of automobiles produced and marketed jointly by the French manufacturer Renault and its Romanian subsidiary Dacia since mid-2004, and was the successor to the Dacia 1310 and Dacia Solenza. It has been produced as a sedan, station wagon, and as a pick-up. It has been manufactured at Dacia's automobile plant in Mioveni, Romania, and at Renault plants in Morocco, Argentina, Turkey, Russia, Colombia, Iran and India. The pick-up has also been produced at Nissan's plant in Rosslyn, South Africa.
It has also been marketed as the Renault Logan, Nissan Aprio, Mahindra Verito, Renault L90, Lada Largus, Nissan NP200, Renault Symbol, Renault Taliant, and as the Renault Tondar 90 depending on the existing presence or positioning of the Renault brand.
Since its launch, the Dacia Logan was estimated to have reached over 4 million sales worldwide as of 2018.
First generation (L90/U90/F90; 2004)
The first-generation Logan was designed at Renault's Technocentre near Paris, being the result of four years of development of the X90 project, announced by Renault in 1999, after the purchase of Dacia in the same year.During a visit to Russia by French President Jacques Chirac, Louis Schweitzer noted that at Lada and Renault dealerships the €6,000 Ladas were selling very well while the €12,000 Renaults stayed in the showroom. "Seeing those antiquated cars, I found it unacceptable that technical progress should stop you making a good car for €6,000." The cheapest version of the car is €5,900, and the price can reach €11,200, depending on equipment and customs duty..
The Logan was designed from the outset as an affordable car, and has many simplified features to keep costs down. It replaces many older cars in production, including the Romanian Dacia 1310 series of Renault 12-based cars.
It was officially launched in June 2004, and began marketing in September 2004. Renault originally had no plans to sell the Logan in Western Europe, but in June 2005, they began importing a more expensive version of the car, starting at around €7,500. It was an unexpected success with people wanting an inexpensive, no-frills car they could repair themselves.
Facelift
On 1 July 2008, almost four years after the release of the first Logan, a facelifted version called the Dacia New Logan was announced. The new version features a more modern design and a more attractive and more comfortable interior. This facelift was adopted on the station wagon in October the same year.Features
The Logan is based on the Dacia B0 platform, also used for other Renault and Nissan models. It has 50% fewer parts than a high-end Renault vehicle and has a limited number of electronic devices. This makes the car cheaper to produce and easier and cheaper to repair.Some parts are also much simpler than those of its competitors. For example, rear-view mirrors are symmetrical and can be used on either side of the car, the windshield is flatter than usual, and the dashboard is a single injection-molded piece.
The developers have taken into account several differences between road and climate conditions in developed and developing countries. The Logan suspension is soft and strong, and the chassis sits visibly higher than most other compact cars to help it negotiate dirt roads and potholes on ill-maintained asphalt roads. The engine is specially prepared to handle lower quality fuel, whereas the air conditioning is powerful enough to lower the temperature several degrees.
Trim levels
In Romania, it was initially available in four trim levels: Ambiance, Preference, Laureate and Ambition. The basic trim level, Ambiance, featured a driver airbag, optional body-coloured bumpers, wheel trims and electric door locks. The second trim level, Preference, added a passenger airbag, power steering, electric front windows, a radio, two rear seat head restraints and remote locking. The third trim level, Laureate, added front fog lights, air conditioning, a trip computer, electric mirrors, three rear seat head restraints and a multi-adjustable driver seat. The top trim level, Ambition also had ABS, electric rear windows, a CD player and alloy wheels. The 1.6-litre petrol engine was only available starting with the Preference trim level. In September 2005, the 1.5-litre diesel engine was introduced, initially not being available on the Ambition trim level. In January 2006, a new intermediate trim level called Laureate Plus was added, which in addition to the Laureate trim level featured ABS, electric rear windows and a CD player. Also, the diesel engine became available for the Ambition trim level.In September 2006, several improvements were introduced to the range, such as a new button for the trunk lid, a new knob for the gear lever, crystal rear lamps, as well as new designs for the wheel trims and the alloy wheels in addition to three new paint colours. Also, the new top of the range level Prestige was introduced, which featured larger door mirrors, body-coloured bumpers, side moldings and door handles, leather-trimmed gear lever and steering wheel, as well as other interior refinements. It was only available with a new 1.6-litre 16-valve petrol engine, which developed.
In July 2007, a more powerful version of the 1.5-litre diesel engine was added, developing. It was initially made available only for the station wagon, on the Preference and Laureate levels, and in September 2007, it also became available for the sedan version, on the Laureate, Ambition and Prestige levels.
In June 2009, the new 1.2-litre 16-valve petrol engine was added for both the Logan and the Sandero. The engine was capable of developing a maximum power of and of torque.
Safety
In June 2005, the car achieved a three-star rating at the Euro NCAP crash tests. This result confirms initial expectations stated previously by Renault.Depending on the equipment level, standard on some variants and optional on others, the facelifted Logan comes with driver, passenger and side airbags. In terms of active safety, all versions feature the latest generation Bosch 8.1 ABS, which incorporates EBD and EBA.
Engines
When the Logan appeared, all engines complied to the Euro 3 standard and since January 2007, all engines have complied with the Euro 4 standard, including the diesel engine, whose power has increased to 70 hp.| Name | Code | Capacity | Type | Power | Torque | Top speed | Combined consumption |
| 1.0 16v | D4D Hi-Flex | 999 cc | 16 valves SOHC | at 5850 rpm | at 4350 rpm | ||
| 1.2 16v | D4F 732 | 1,149 cc | 16 valves SOHC | at 5500 rpm | at 4250 rpm | ||
| 1.4 8v | K7J 710 | 1,390 cc | 8 valves SOHC | at 5500 rpm | at 3000 rpm | ||
| 1.6 8v | K7M 710 | 1,598 cc | 8 valves SOHC | at 5500 rpm | at 3000 rpm | ||
| 1.6 8v | K7M Hi-Torque | 1,598 cc | 8 valves SOHC | at 5250 rpm | at 2850 rpm | ||
| 1.6 8v | K7M Hi-Power | 1,598 cc | 8 valves SOHC | at 5500 rpm | at 2850 rpm | ||
| 1.6 16v | K4M 690 | 1,598 cc | 16 valves DOHC | at 5750 rpm | at 3750 rpm | ||
| 1.6 16v | K4M Hi-Flex | 1,598 cc | 16 valves DOHC | at 5750 rpm | at 3750 rpm | ||
| 1.5 dCi | K9K 700 | 1,461 cc | 8 valves SOHC | at 4000 rpm | at 1900 rpm | ||
| 1.5 dCi | K9K 792 | 1,461 cc | 8 valves SOHC | at 4000 rpm | at 1700 rpm | ||
| 1.5 dCi | K9K 796 | 1,461 cc | 8 valves SOHC | at 3750 rpm | at 1900 rpm |
Marketing and production
The Logan, vital to increasing sales of the Renault group to the 4 million mark by 2010, is manufactured in nine production and operational assembly centres: Romania, the pilot plant of the Logan Programme, Russia, Morocco, Colombia, Iran, India, Brazil, and South Africa. The CKD centre is named the International Logistics Network and is located near the Mioveni plant in Romania. It is the biggest logistic centre of its kind, not only within the Renault Group but in the entire global automotive industry.Dacia models
In markets where Renault has a presence, such as Europe, Turkey, the Maghreb, and Chile, it is generally sold as the Dacia Logan.Renault & Nissan models
Exceptions are South Africa, Argentina, Russia, Ukraine, Colombia, Ecuador, Israel, Egypt, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Saudi Arabia, India, Nepal and Venezuela where it is marketed as the Renault Logan, and furthermore Mexico, where the Logan was sold as the Nissan Aprio, given the better reputation of the Japanese brand and stronger brand recognition of Nissan itself in the Mexican market. The Nissan Aprio has the 1.6-litre 16 valve straight-four engine with a 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic transmission, and was assembled in Brazil. It was later discontinued from that market in August 2010, due to decreasing sales, and the Versa replaced it for the 2012 model year.In Brazil, it was manufactured by Renault at the São José dos Pinhais factory since 2007, with the facelifted model being introduced in 2010.
In South Africa, only the pick-up version was manufactured, at the Nissan factory in Rosslyn, starting from 2009.