Read all about it: Peugeot to be revitalised

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Palo Verde

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Fellow Frogger
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Peugeot made its name making good solid bread and butter cars that were well designed, nice to drive and well constructed. This is very optimistic thinking. To take cars that the market already regards as overpriced and less desirable than their competitors, tart them up with more options and present them as an alternative to the high end German brands will result in even fewer sales and lead to a mass shedding of dealers. Peugeot sales will bump along the bottom beside makes like Alfa Romeo for a while but the trend will be downwards to eventual disappearance. But Inchcape will certainly make the maximum profit off every car sold. Is the long history of Peugeot in Australia to end with a whimper?
 
Not a fan of the pricing strategy, but I am not one to buy brand new cars. Just hope they remain committed to sedans and hatches, as I am also very sick of the SUV trend. The new 308 looks like a really nice car but hate to think what they will price it at after seeing the 3008/5008 and 2008 prices. 508 GT is getting on now, so likely one of those will be my next Peugeot.
 
Russell Hall said:
Peugeot made its name making good solid bread and butter cars that were well designed, nice to drive and well constructed. This is very optimistic thinking. To take cars that the market already regards as overpriced and less desirable than their competitors, tart them up with more options and present them as an alternative to the high end German brands will result in even fewer sales and lead to a mass shedding of dealers. Peugeot sales will bump along the bottom beside makes like Alfa Romeo for a while but the trend will be downwards to eventual disappearance. But Inchcape will certainly make the maximum profit off every car sold. Is the long history of Peugeot in Australia to end with a whimper?
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If, as it appears, you already consider Puegeot to be an inferior brand to German marques nothing will help you or the compagnie.
 
The Australian buying public considers BMW and Mercedes to be superior to French cars and most international studies find Skoda build quality higher than any French make. Everything I've heard from Skoda buyers over the past few years supports that view. Don't know anything about the German makes but most of my old Peugeot owning friends drive Skoda.
Comparative tests such as Drive comparisons against cheaper Japanese models do not notice any Peugeot quality or engineering premium. If Peugeot wish to be seen as a premium brand they need to make a premium design. Quality service and parts back up are included. There's a lot more to successfully selling cars in Australia than tarting up a non-seller with a smart radio and putting the price up. Been tried before.
 
Volkswagen own Bentley, BMW own Rolls Royce, both German. Who owns Jaguar? TATA, an Indian company. Who owns MG? SAIC Motor ompany. Who owns Volvo? Geely, a Chinese company. All the aforementioned seem to be doing very nicely thank you. If French car manufacturers want to increase their sales they just might need to get rid of their current owners.........
 
Peugeot is doing quite nicely with 25% of the French market. Stellantis is working hard on increasing the efficiency of FIAT production at the moment. They are expanding sales in some very non- premium markets.
The issue here is the Inchcape response to falling sales in Australia by putting the price up and playing the premium card. C&G tried the same thing with the 404 and killed sales and Renault did the same to 504 sales in 1970-71. Marketing people have their own ideas and never bother to ask the opinion of the thousands of people who drive Peugeots about why they aren't buying them again.
 
I don’t see a bright future for Peugeot in Australia even considering their cars are probably some of the best looking design wise inside and out (IMO), among a gaggle of sameness or plain ugliness.
Look at what other manufacturers do trying to be different in the name of style like the ugly grille on Lexus, the oversized kidneys on the BMW’s, the blandness of Volvo and Jaguar but they’re all well regarded and outsell the PSA products available here.
They still have the stigma of being overpriced, unreliable and underpowered with many spares being ex-France.
A small dealer network does them no favours either.
Until they get serious about repositioning their pricing below their competitors they’ll go nowhere.
The disasters of the 1.6 & 1.2 engines only compound buyers scepticism towards the brand.

As Johnnie Walker says-‘Keep Walking’.
 
The Peugeot product is already very , very good. That's not really the issue. If they want to attract customers in the upper price brackets those people will expect Lexus type servicing backup. Can't see it happening given my recent dealings trying to get something as simple as a spare key.
 
We are talking about Australian market? Just going back to the days of Renault Australia and JRA, the first value for money Peugeot in this country (after the 404) was the 205 Si, released by Inchcape.
 
The
GRAHAM WALLIS said:
We are talking about Australian market? Just going back to the days of Renault Australia and JRA, the first value for money Peugeot in this country (after the 404) was the 205 Si, released by Inchcape.
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The only 205 I ever saw sold in Australia was a very small version that was of limited appeal.
 
dayofthejackal said:
The Peugeot product is already very , very good. That's not really the issue. If they want to attract customers in the upper price brackets those people will expect Lexus type servicing backup. Can't see it happening given my recent dealings trying to get something as simple as a spare key.
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They need an different approach to engine design to improve life and reduce service and operating costs. Producing small capacity highly stressed turbo charged engines with timing belts that won't run on standard unleaded and have particle filters may seem technically smart but don't appeal to buyers.
Have a read of some of the problems owners talk about on this site. They indicate the old Peugeot approach to quality and testing has been long abandoned. Which is why the tens of thousands of people who bought Peugeots over the last 20 years don't buy them today.
 
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Russell Hall said:
They need an different approach to engine design to improve life and reduce service and operating costs. Producing small capacity highly stressed turbo charged engines with timing belts that won't run on standard unleaded and have particle filters may seem technically smart but don't appeal to buyers.
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Australia has been the dumping ground for obsolete Euro5 spec cars from all over the world for years. There are still not that many today that comply with Euro6. Now that Australia has no need to protect it's own motor industry we should refuse anything that doesn't pass current standards, exhaust scrubbers or not.
 
Russell Hall said:
The

The only 205 I ever saw sold in Australia was a very small version that was of limited appeal.
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Small version? The GTi was sold here from 1987 to 1993. The Si from 91 to 93. I have owned GTis but never liked them much. On the other hand the 205 Si is the most versatile, best looking, most reliable, toughest, best visibility, most comfortable car I have owned. Also, very adequate performance and economy. As Thanos said you can do anything in a 205.
 
Russell Hall said:
They need an different approach to engine design to improve life and reduce service and operating costs. Producing small capacity highly stressed turbo charged engines with timing belts that won't run on standard unleaded and have particle filters may seem technically smart but don't appeal to buyers.
Have a read of some of the problems owners talk about on this site. They indicate the old Peugeot approach to quality and testing has been long abandoned. Which is why the tens of thousands of people who bought Peugeots over the last 20 years don't buy them today.
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Timing belts are fine it is the later model engines with crappy single row chains that are the problem.
 
O
GRAHAM WALLIS said:
Small version? The GTi was sold here from 1987 to 1993. The Si from 91 to 93. I have owned GTis but never liked them much. On the other hand the 205 Si is the most versatile, best looking, most reliable, toughest, best visibility, most comfortable car I have owned. Also, very adequate performance and economy. As Thanos said you can do anything in a 205.
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Only ever saw one and it was very small. The market had moved away from such very small cars.
Why use a timing belt when it is possible to use a steel timing chain that has a long life.
 
Palo Verde said:
Peugeot is not sold in America
They left the market for decades now and hope to be back in 2023 but who knows? It's a very tough market to get into the cars are cheap in America.
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No kidding, I live in North America and I've been living the "no new Peugeot" dream since 1991.

Newsflash to your second point: despite noises and even some PR fanfare from PSA one year ago about Peugeot coming back over here, they have definitively pulled out again even before 2023. At least there is not another generation of orphaned owners. Small victories, eh?

So yeah my comment was meant as a bit of a joke.
 
Not possible it seems as many problems occur with the timing chains fitted to 1.6 PSA engines and also Alloytec Commodores.
 
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