Popular view of French SUV's.

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Russell Hall

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This piece in the Daily Mail is a clue as to how French SUV's are viewed in Australia. The comments section below the article is interesting.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-Europe-Land-Rover-Jaguar-sales-plunging.html
Is supply of French cars presently constrained by the third wave of the virus affecting France? France has 20,000 cases a day, 16 regions are in lockdown including Paris, the vaccine rollout in the EU is a bureaucratic mess but information on individual car plants is scarce.
 
I like; “SUVs aren’t 4WDs - totally different vehicles” a distinction that marketing discourages
(confusion/encouraged?) - following (forcing?) an appetite I guess.
Maybe Cairns’ disproportionate take up of the 3008 is the hire fleet?
 
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Prior to COVID-19 Koleos was Renault's best seller, setting sales records for the then recent times........
 
Some people I know are Renault tragics like myself and have had Renaults all there lives. Always bought brand new. Had R17, Fuego, Scenics and currently a series 3 Megane that's up to 400,000kms so it's time to update.
Renault wouldn't sell them a new Megane (only sport) and they don't like SUV's and almost in tears they bought a Mazda 3.

Another sale lost by Renaults poor marketing.
 
Not sure if covid disruption to production is the cause of poor French sales in Australia. The Renault Koleos is Korean. All the commentators I read on the slump in the French car market in February put it down to collapsing demand not production. There was no shortage of RHD French vehicles for the UK market. Of course the new lockdowns just imposed in France will cause problems but they are limited to Paris and sixteen regions. As the EU and France in particular have made a mess of their vaccination program the current third wave will get worse with potential widespread industrial shutdowns.
 
David Cavanagh said:
Some people I know are Renault tragics like myself and have had Renaults all there lives. Always bought brand new. Had R17, Fuego, Scenics and currently a series 3 Megane that's up to 400,000kms so it's time to update.
Renault wouldn't sell them a new Megane (only sport) and they don't like SUV's and almost in tears they bought a Mazda 3.

Another sale lost by Renaults poor marketing.
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David, understand the thinking but like you, they have to make a buck.

We can argue about what other car manufacturers are doing to sustain market share:
Lets look at Hyundai from the 80's to now.

HMCA is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Korean carmaker, been in for the long haul since 1986.
Renault, OTOH, has always looked at how they can make money and given the size of the parent company should have been there as well.
We are all familiar with the NUMEROUS false starts Renault has had in AU, yet they still drop cars.
Renault UK has a much bigger range (even after dropping the majority of the range) and it is RHD to boot!

We despair but too many middle men telling lies as we said.......
 
Russell Hall said:
This piece in the Daily Mail is a clue as to how French SUV's are viewed in Australia. The comments section below the article is interesting.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-Europe-Land-Rover-Jaguar-sales-plunging.html
Is supply of French cars presently constrained by the third wave of the virus affecting France? France has 20,000 cases a day, 16 regions are in lockdown including Paris, the vaccine rollout in the EU is a bureaucratic mess but information on individual car plants is scarce.
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Comments section is depressing in its banal ignorance and suv apologist wankers. Straya...
 
Haakon said:
Comments section is depressing in its banal ignorance and suv apologist wankers. Straya...
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Your illogical hatred of a style of vehicle that provides functionality, performance, comfort and handling for it's growing cohort of owners worldwide is well known and frequently re-iterated in your infamous addresses to the international motoring world. The vehicle type continues to grow in popularity at both ends of the size spectrum, and will continue to do so, regardless of your innate hostility. :)
 
Kim Luck said:
Your hatred of a style of vehicle that provides poor functionality, compromised performance, lack of comfort and borderline dangerous handling for it's growing cohort of clueless owners worldwide is well known and frequently re-iterated in your infamous tirades to the international motoring world and suv buying idiots everywhere. The vehicle type continues to grow in popularity at both ends of the size spectrum amongst the marketing and fashion victims, and will continue to do so, regardless of your innate hostility. :)
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FIFY ;)
 
That's a stupid article. The reason everyone wants a 4wd at the moment is to tow a big caravan. Now unless I'm mistaken, none of the pretend 4wds can tow 3.5tons. So they are useless. The land rovers and range rovers are also stupid suggestions. The hair dresser versions are just useless little fashion statements with (you can tell from the outside they have no internal space .... and are tiny competing with pretend 4wds). Range rovers are crazy expensive (for the proper range rover with some tow capacity ... way over $100,000). the defender is an unknown and most likely crazy expensive ... and possibly has no availability if you actually want one.

overall, one dumb, senseless article. Japanese and chinese wanks tanks are selling well as there is no real other alternative to for towing 3tons
 
My Giulietta had been registered as a demo for over a year and still only had 46kms on it when I picked it up!

Price was a very very long way south of RRP!
 
DoubleChevron said:
That's a stupid article. The reason everyone wants a 4wd at the moment is to tow a big caravan. Now unless I'm mistaken, none of the pretend 4wds can tow 3.5tons. So they are useless. The land rovers and range rovers are also stupid suggestions. The hair dresser versions are just useless little fashion statements with (you can tell from the outside they have no internal space .... and are tiny competing with pretend 4wds). Range rovers are crazy expensive (for the proper range rover with some tow capacity ... way over $100,000). the defender is an unknown and most likely crazy expensive ... and possibly has no availability if you actually want one.

overall, one dumb, senseless article. Japanese and chinese wanks tanks are selling well as there is no real other alternative to for towing 3tons
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There are a band of Australian motorists with caravans who dream of being able to tow a 3.5 tonne van, but never need to because their vans gross out a lot less than that. Or should! By the time you acquire the $135K off road van from T-Van and a decent 280 kW $80K puller you will still be restricted as to where you can go and probably should have bought one of these: http://traveltrucks.com.au/expedition-camper which can still tow 3.5 Tonnes whilst you live in it....................
 
David Cavanagh said:
Some people I know are Renault tragics like myself and have had Renaults all there lives. Always bought brand new. Had R17, Fuego, Scenics and currently a series 3 Megane that's up to 400,000kms so it's time to update.
Renault wouldn't sell them a new Megane (only sport) and they don't like SUV's and almost in tears they bought a Mazda 3.

Another sale lost by Renaults poor marketing.
Click to expand...
There's nothing Renault offers that I want to buy. Full stop. Add to that the local dealer hiding in a Suzuki yard with barely a sign up and nothing in a showroom that I could find....... Hopeless. Maybe Ateco will ream them out or throw them out. This is on Perth's main car sales strip. Peugeot has moved 10 km or so to a road with a few used car yards, nowhere near where the main action is. Suicidal attitude.

I won't start on customer service, but a friend's first service on a newly purchased car was grossly overcharged, items changed unnecessarily (scheduled for a much later service), they denied (incorrectly) that a key function that had stopped working was actually on that model and topped off with reluctance to cooperate. B++++ hopeless.
 
JohnW said:
There's nothing Renault offers that I want to buy. Full stop. Add to that the local dealer hiding in a Suzuki yard with barely a sign up and nothing in a showroom that I could find....... Hopeless. Maybe Ateco will ream them out or throw them out. This is on Perth's main car sales strip. Peugeot has moved 10 km or so to a road with a few used car yards, nowhere near where the main action is. Suicidal attitude.

I won't start on customer service, but a friend's first service on a newly purchased car was grossly overcharged, items changed unnecessarily (scheduled for a much later service), they denied (incorrectly) that a key function that had stopped working was actually on that model and topped off with reluctance to cooperate. B++++ hopeless.
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My Koleos was serviced for 10 years at my local Renault dealer. No overcharging, no unnecessary replacement of parts, and nothing fell off or broke. I now service it at an independent, only because I no longer need to spend 15% or more of it's actual value on every service. I still use the official service interval as a guide and look forward to many more happy years of ownership. It's something that comes with buying a new car and having it properly looked after by the people nominated by the manufacturer.
 
Kim Luck said:
There are a band of Australian motorists with caravans who dream of being able to tow a 3.5 tonne van, but never need to because their vans gross out a lot less than that. Or should! By the time you acquire the $135K off road van from T-Van and a decent 280 kW $80K puller you will still be restricted as to where you can go and probably should have bought one of these: http://traveltrucks.com.au/expedition-camper which can still tow 3.5 Tonnes whilst you live in it....................
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like I said .... useless. it would be a microscopic number of people that do real offroading. The people that used to travel overseas are all desperately trying to by caravans at the moment. There is nothing really available new or used for sale (same deal with towcars). that truck is useless and pointless unless your one of the serious offroaders that already knows what you want. Most will be middle aged people... possibly with older kids. They will need a twin cab ute (more than two seats) as the car will also be a family car when not towing.

Just go try and buy a caravan or towcar now, and you will rapidly understand what the issue is. My sister has just gone through this and finally found a caravan.... and just bought an everest. Like I said, towcar and caravan. No overseas holidays possible. Most will want a big spacious caravan ... certainly they will want to keep up with the neighbours. those little offorad campertrailers you mention such as the ulitmate and Tvan aren't what people want (unless as above ... serious offroader types). People want space, comfort, ensuite, shitter ...... something that doesn't need putting up and putting down.
 
I gave up camping years ago due to crowded sites and the proliferation of pee-wee and trail bikes that roared incessantly around the camping areas day and night. I'd suggest that caravanning is going to now be similarly attractive with rug rats, generators, airconditioners, Fusion Hi-Fi entertainment and overloaded sewage systems clogging up caravan parks everywhere around Australia. I now consider touring by car and staying in country hotels to be the only option left if you can't afford a TravelTruck to really get away from it all............
 
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