I just checked out in Wikipedia. Before that, I thought it was only sold as a Renault here in Brazil (and maybe in Argentina)...hahaha!
Yes, it is sold as a Renault in some countries because it is a Renault, haha. Dacia didn't start on its own. Back in the communist era, Romanian's ex president, Nicolae Ceausescu wanted to be proud of his country in this "automotive" way and so he did this agreement with Renault back in the late '60s or early '70s. He had to choose between Renault, Alfa-Romea and Peugeot as far as I remember. So that's why Dacia is sold as a Renault in some countries. Now, the difference between Dacia and Renault is only the badge and sometimes the looks (slightly), but when Dacia took off, they were producing low end, like really low end cars and very low quality. Dacia 1100, Dacia 1300, Dacia 1310 etc. They looked good but they were very low quality and so you couldn't drive them for long distances without having something braking. Those models were based on other Renault models, Renault 12, Renault 10, Renault 11. But the Renault were kind of a higher quality.
Don't know about South America, but Renault- and Nissan-badged Dacias sold in former USSR (except Baltic States and Moldova) are different from euro versions. They have better interior quality, nicer materials and more options as they are positioned higher than euro Dacias, since the super-cheap segment is already occupied by other Renault-Nissan brands (Lada and Datsun) in these countries.
So...earlier this week, I went to the Renault dealership to take part in a contest (which I lost, hahaha) and I test drove the Sandero RS. It's a cool car. It has a simple sport mode (which only disables the traction control and the stability control, from what I got to know), a nice upholstery pattern and a really cool steering wheel. The guy didn't let me drive fast, so I couldn't taste the performance, hahaha. But I could feel that the engine was very strong for the car weight. The fit and finish is not very good, but I wasn't expecting it to be. Overall, I enjoyed the car.
