“I left Romania ‘intermittently’. I started college, the Mechanical Engineering Faculty in Timisoara, and then went to the Road Vehicles department in the third year. I left to Munich on a scholarship for the fourth year and then came back home (…),” says Andrei Filep who is now a graduate engineer in charge of tuning and testing for Audi’s steering systems development.
Andrei Filep attended the international test of the new Audi A4 facelift line, which includes A4 sedan, A4 Avant, A4 Allroad and S4, held in Lisbon, Portugal recently. This was also his first contact with the Romanian automotive journalists in his position as an Audi engineer.
Filep’s history with Audi began in 2000 when he went to the German company’s motorsports division to write his graduation diploma paper.
“I haven’t worked a day in Romania. In Romania I only worked as a journalist, writing the automotive column in the ‘Agenda’ weekly. After my graduation diploma paper I stayed in Germany and took a job with Continental.”
Why did he choose to leave Romania?
“Because this was the only way I could get to do my job – automotive industry and car road handling testing, to be an engineer, to design such elements. Back then in 2000 one could only work at Dacia in Romania (…), Filep said.
Filep still wanted to come back home during his first years with Audi and find a job with Dacia. This is why he applied for a position during the Auto Show in Bucharest where Dacia had come to recruit engineers.
“I wanted to get a job there but they didn’t believe me [when I told them] I was working for Audi, they said I lied in my CV. So my only attempt at getting a job in Romania failed and I stayed with Audi,” the Timisoara-born engineer recalls.
He started his auto industry career at Continental, where he learned about the adjustments of the Audi A6 Allroad model in its C5 version launched in 2000. His first project started at Continental was the then new Cayenne, the first Porsche SUV built on the same platform as VW Touareg.
He took a job with Audi AG in January 2003. He started with the old Audi A6 generation, the C6, which was his first major project started at the German carmaker.
Over the last three years has focused on the A4 and Q5 models of Audi, including the models based on them, as they were designed on a similar platform.
Along with the regular car projects, Filep has also been involved in the motorsports projects and the racing competitions in which Audi is involved.
Although he left Romania over ten years ago, Andrei Filep comes back once or twice a year when he usually goes to Timisoara or Targu Jiu (southern Romania).
Whereas in his first few years in Germany he felt tempted to return home, the current economic, social and political realities in Romania, make him think twice before considering coming back.
Filep says Audi has many Romanian engineers among its employees, who work in various departments such as motorsports, brakes, gearboxes or engine development.
Even though Dacia is in a different league compared with Audi, Andrei Filep continues to watch what happens in Romania, particularly now that the Mioveni-based carmaker has become very well known in Western Europe.
“As I see it, Dacia is doing a very good job. They are making a good product, adjusted to the market, which is very good for those who cannot afford an Audi. It’s an alternative solution, one can see a lot of these cars in the streets,” Filep says. “I live in southern Germany, which is a quite affluent region and I am surprised at how many of them I see in the street, especially Logan MCVs and Dusters. They are cars that give a high volume for a low price (…),”
As for Romania, ten years after having traded Timisoara for Ingoldstadt, Andrei Filep says, “it’s not that bad in Romania. I’ve seen regions in southern Spain, which were very poor, where roads were built using European funds that no one travels on. If we compare Romania with the poor areas in Spain, France and Italy, we will see the difference is not that big.”