UK FONDER OF HONDA
CAR giant Honda heads the field in popularity, according to a study, and Dacia brings up the rear.
Japan’s Honda received the highest proportion of positive tweets with 78.8 per cent.
In contrast, 48.2 per cent of social media messages about Romanian rival Dacia were negative.
One Twitter user said of the Dacia it “looks like a Nissan that’s had a crash.” But another wrote: “I bought a Dacia car and it was 25 per cent cheaper than the train and 100 per cent more reliable.” Other highly rated makes were Volkswagen, Peugeot and Mazda. While languishing near the bottom were Land Rover, Renault and BMW.
The research, commissioned by parts firm QX Components, analysed 5,000 tweets for each car brand.
QX boss David Pilgrim said: “One of the results that really surprised us was how negatively Twitter users talked about the Romanian car brand Dacia. Contrary to what people may think, we’ve found Dacia models to be one of the most reliable car brands.”
Dacia, started in 1966, is regarded as Romania’s national brand but it was taken over by the French car giant Renault in the 90s. It was launched in the UK in 2013 and more than 100,000 have sold here.
Its Sandero model is the biggest seller. Dacia did not respond to requests for comment.