Louise O’Sullivan, who was promoted to network operations director, Renault UK, in January, said: “With bigger volumes come bigger budgets and [the] new Duster is really helping us to drive that.”

Louise O’Sullivan, who was promoted to network operations director, Renault UK, in January, said: “With bigger volumes come bigger budgets and [the] new Duster is really helping us to drive that.”

Thinking and acting “big brand” may seem like a strange aspiration  for Renault’s Romanian budget partner to embrace after it ended 2018 with registrations down 3.9%, at 24,169 – Dacia’s lowest UK total since 2014. But it is clear that O’Sullivan has been listening to the analysts and felt emboldened by suggestions that consumers made wary by Brexit will tighten their purse strings.

“We know what we are at Dacia,” she told AM during a visit to the Maple Cross headquarters the brand shares with Renault UK, Nissan GB and RCI Financial Services, Renault’s financial arm.

“We are a budget brand, we’re the cheapest in the market and we very much see ourselves as competing with the used car market.