Does Dacia offer automatic gearboxes?

Does Dacia offer automatic gearboxes? I have emailed its headquarters, which did not reply, and asked two franchise garages, which shrugged off the inquiry. I would have bought two vehicles on the spot had automatic transmissions been available.

PP, Crawley

The Romanian car maker, which is owned by Renault, confirmed that there are currently no automatic Dacias on sale in the UK or indeed anywhere in the world. “The rationale for this,” the company explained, “is that Dacia’s business model is one of ensuring extremely good value for money. One thing that helps to contribute to this is keeping the range simple. Automatics represent a small percentage of sales and as such do not form part of the line-up today.”

Replying to emails of course costs very little. For future reference the company’s customer service number is 0344 335 1111, or you can “text chat” live to a representative via dacia.co.uk, by going to “About Dacia” and clicking on “Customer relations”.

LADY DRIVER
Emma Smith is a journalist specialising in consumer issues and is a regular Driving contributor – read more from Emma here.

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