Renault's Australian Outlook

Pug307

Pug307

Sense
Fellow Frogger
Joined
Mar 8, 2002
Messages
4,336
Location
Australia
Here is an interesting news article on Renault, speaking to their new director of operations, Rudi Koenig. He lives nearby, wonder if I should sticker slap the car or drop a flyer by :)

Renault gets a Rudi awakening</FONT></B>

A quick summary:
  • Renault does not expect to post a profit in Australia until 2006
  • Last year it lost $10 million, expects a similar loss this year.
  • Renault has missed all of its sales targets since arriving in Australia. This year it will be 50% short. It says that they were unrealistic.
  • No longer aims to become Australia's leading European brand, rather focus on incremental gains in revenue and sales volume.
  • Natural level of Renault sales downunder is estimated to be "8000-10000 cars p.a."
Here is a comparison of Renault sales & targets.

2001: Target 3500. Achieved 1947.
2002: Target 5000. Achieved 4565 (not too bad IMHO, not a huge shortfall anyway)
2003: Target 8000. Revised to 6000, now to 3200. Achieved 2893 as of November.

2007: Target 25,000.

[edit: removed colour tags from URL to fix problem]
 
Last edited:
The link to the article doesn't seem to work, but your summary seems to say it all :)

Sort of makes you wonder what happened this year as compared to 2003 when they nearly got their target. Either Budget bought a LOT of cars for their fleet, or Renault just are not able to penetrate into the marketplace apart from the enthusiasts who have already bought.

That drop in sales cannot all be blamed on the lack of a Megane sized car, otherwise the sales would be consistent or at least slowly climbing in the economic times of late.

Should be interesting to see how the sales of the Megane go. Also it would be intersting to see what people do trade on a new Renaults, moth eaten old Fuegos or a true trophy sales of something like a recent Holden Barina for a new Clio or a recent Vectra on a Laguna.
 
A mate was telling me he spoke to someone (yeah I know....Aunties workmates nephew etc) who said that you can pick up a ClioSport from any willing dealer for 33K driveaway when you push hard.

I'm guessing you can lop some more off that figure come the new year too.
 
Simon said:
The link to the article doesn't seem to work, but your summary seems to say it all :)
Click to expand...
Here it is.

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf/story2/6D109CC5F6431FF0CA256DF7007B0B2A

It's a little depressing I guess, but having watched Volvo sales this year, I can handle pretty much anything :D

It appears if you copy & paste from the title (which was coloured), the board software adds various bits of rubbish to the URL, which I've removed now.

Simon said:
Sort of makes you wonder what happened this year as compared to 2003 when they nearly got their target. Either Budget bought a LOT of cars for their fleet, or Renault just are not able to penetrate into the marketplace apart from the enthusiasts who have already bought.
Click to expand...
Budget did buy a lot of Renaults, but they aren't buying anymore. They're being replaced with other things, such as Maximas. For that reason, I'd argue Renault's sales last year were inflated by fleet sales.

Simon said:
That drop in sales cannot all be blamed on the lack of a Megane sized car, otherwise the sales would be consistent or at least slowly climbing in the economic times of late.
Click to expand...
Absolutely, the Megane should increase sales volumes, but the lack of it shouldn't decrease them. After all, apart from the RX4, nothing has been removed from the range (and the RX4 wasn't the volume seller anyway).

The Australian car market is headed for a record year.

Simon said:
Should be interesting to see how the sales of the Megane go. Also it would be intersting to see what people do trade on a new Renaults, moth eaten old Fuegos or a true trophy sales of something like a recent Holden Barina for a new Clio or a recent Vectra on a Laguna.
Click to expand...
I'm a bit ambivalent about the Megane - 150 cars a month is fairly conservative (less than half what the 307 does), but you can understand why they err on the side of conservatism now. The car will either do really well or flop, I don't think there's much of a middle ground here. On paper, it has the goods to succeed. Its styling polarises people, but at least people in this particular segment are somewhat less conservative than others.

I think the best marketing for the car will be seeing them on the road. You'll notice a bum like that :) Hopefully it will improve acceptance of the styling too, afterall Europe has accepted it. I could handle a Megane.

I think this quote from the GoAuto review says it all:

The question now for the French brand is how well Australians take to the Megane hatch – and far from pretending the radical rear end doesn’t exist, Renault’s television commercials will concentrate on little else than the back passage.

That could be a masterstroke for the individualistic target audience aged 25-40. Or it could backfire for the car with which Renault is banking on boosting its standing at the so-called arse end of the world.
Click to expand...
 
Certainly looks like 2003 was a rotten year for Renault locally.

I hope they can get their act together again. Not quite sure what went wrong there, although the cars being sold now (with the exception of the Megane II) are pretty well all at the end of their life. Maybe the Megane II will provide the spark that is required to get people interested again. Euro sales seem to go from strength to strength, as reported here

I find it interesting that the Laguna really hasn't taken off here, the Phase I model seemed to sell extremely well, especially considering you would have had to BEG Volvo to let you buy one.

Looks like the GoAuto crew have a bit of a "bum" fixation too, fancy dedicating 10 paragraphs to a 30 second TV commercial, including extensive viewing to count the difference between male and female!

[Edit: Continue comments after interruption]
 
Last edited:
Europa said:
Nah, they won't be going, not this time ;)
Click to expand...

I dunno, whatever the case, the decision would be totally profit driven and for now at least there ain't much in the way of profit on the radar.

Why would a mulinational like Renault stay long term in a market where there aren't profits to be made?

:dance:
 
It's a shame we're only a small country 20mil people, on world standards not worth pandering too. Therefore all we can do is accept whatever the nightman delivers. ie shoite from every car manufacturing country.
In the last 10-15yrs that's not been much better, than a drunk leaves on the back seat of a cab, after a night of beer & prawns IMHO.

Steps off soap box :cheers: Have a good day :rolleyes:
 
Damien Gardner said:
It's a shame we're only a small country 20mil people, on world standards not worth pandering too. Therefore all we can do is accept whatever the nightman delivers. ie shoite from every car manufacturing country.
In the last 10-15yrs that's not been much better, than a drunk leaves on the back seat of a cab, after a night of beer & prawns IMHO.

Steps off soap box :cheers: Have a good day :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I agree Damien with the exception of the Lada Samara.

The Kiwis have done much better than us in the more recent French car stakes. ADR's and politics haven't helped us a lot I guess.

:dance:
 
Damien Gardner said:
It's a shame we're only a small country 20mil people, on world standards not worth pandering too. Therefore all we can do is accept whatever the nightman delivers. ie shoite from every car manufacturing country.
In the last 10-15yrs that's not been much better, than a drunk leaves on the back seat of a cab, after a night of beer & prawns IMHO.

Steps off soap box :cheers: Have a good day :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I don't think it has a lot to do with us only being 20 mi people. Look at NZ they have 4 mil and they get every car under the bloody sun. I think you;ll find the reason aussies don't get good cars is becasue the government keeps them at bay with taxes and ADR's. Tho damien i do agree we get the beer and pawns that the been passed through someone. The car industry in aus is complete shat!

Cheers Nick
 
BogMaster said:
I dunno, whatever the case, the decision would be totally profit driven and for now at least there ain't much in the way of profit on the radar.

Why would a mulinational like Renault stay long term in a market where there aren't profits to be made?

:dance:
Click to expand...
You could ask Peugeot the same question.

I'm sure there are profits to be made. They just need to get the balance right. I think this time around they aren't doing too bad of a job, except they do seem to throwing a fair bit of money around without seeing results. It could take some time.

I'm just happy to see the cars without a Nissan badge on the front, as has often been suggested...

I bet that would be a tactic for the USA.
 
I suppose in a way my following rave relates to this topic loosely somehow, in that it relates my less than successful attempts to buy a new Renault in the past.

I’d have to describe myself now as a bored potential new Renault owner. My search for a brand new Renault to replace a 12 started in 1989, bugging the Renault dealer about a 19 16V and its availability. He tried to sell me a 21 Marseille instead, but I didn’t want a French Magna. My old green 12 soldiered on, until a white 12 was offered, it had a bit extra icing on the cake but needed an engine rebuild. I figured it would be fun to have a big sunroof on a car for say 12-18 months until a 19 16V arrived, and a bird kept repeating the price of the car, cheap cheap. The white 12 was bought and the engine rebuilt.

The 19 was finally launched in AUS, what a slug, and I still waited for the 16V which never came. The white 12 kept going, Renault departed from the new car scene.

Melbourne Motor Show 2001 rolls around. I was all keen on a shiny new RS Clio, however you couldn’t test drive one until release in May, by which time I found out there would only be 85, and the car would then be an old model. I can’t understand how people can buy a new unknown car without driving it first. The impulse to buy by that time had dissipated, and a later drive of a Rent-A-Clio indicated to me that it was probably on the small side for my liking anyway.

The new Megane just doesn’t stimulate any interest in me, even though it seems the size of car I like. It would be the first new Renault I haven’t bothered to visit the showroom to see (since owning a Renault). The front end styling and conflicting shutlines just put me off, even though I like the rear end, but not the seemingly narrow boot access. I really didn’t think that I would be affected by such a superficial thing such as style, especially when one of my other cars is a Renault 4. The RS Megane, admittedly only seen in pictures, goes one step further by having afterthought wart like driving lights and a seeming “Styled by Besser” body kit. Perhaps it is because I’ve bought a house, or just being too picky and being adverse to parting with the cash, or is it a closet jealousy of those who do end up buying them? Who knows? The old white 12 will just have to last a bit longer.
 
Maybe with the introduction of the Traffic, renault sales may improve in Australia!

Cya Stalled
 
With the traffic, they will have to concentrate advertising on its cheap running costs, reliability and load carrying ability, and not on style or the fact its a Renault. Done right it should sell, but if the target market is left to figure it out themselves, it will fall victim to the "expensive euro trash" myth I'm afraid.
 
I think its sad that Renault cant make a dent in the car sales game especially when we are in a new car feeding frenzy. If Renault cant sell them now they never will unfortunately.
I wanted to purchase a cliosport when they arrived however i was treated like a leper by their salespeople in the showroom, a very bad experience i'll never forget. Maybe it was fate as nearly all clio ppl i speak with have had some sort of problems ...gearboxes renewed under warranty etc etc
NOT good advertising even to the converted so imagine how the non converted feel when they get the vibes on the car grapevine. DONT BUY!!
i was talking with my motor journo friend and he said he loved the test drive of the new Megane...what a great car he said. Actually i'm in the market for a new car soon and one of these would do the job but then SHUDDER!! i've got to deal with my local leper controllers again. Also this Nissan dealer has had a few bad reports about their servicing of Nissans so imagine what they will do with those funny French cars.
So for me at least its a big no no for a Renault purchase along with so many other OZ ppl.

Sorry for the longish post, cheers jr
 
No alternate dealers to choose from? (I see a total of 7 in QLD, but obviously they are all over the place)

Do you know if the sales person you had problems with is still working there?

Have you reported the concerns you had with the dealer to VDA on their hotline?

I think you could take a proactive approach to solving this problem - who knows, maybe you'll get a good deal out of it. It would seem silly to cross a car off your list because you had a salesperson who had got out of bed on the wrong side that morning...
 
The answer is blanket advertising..I want them to do well here.... :2cents:
 
danielsydney said:
The answer is blanket advertising..I want them to do well here.... :2cents:
Click to expand...

OK Daniel, if your thought is correct, please explain where the previous Renault budget for $20,000,000 of blanket advertising went wrong?

And seeing you want them to do well, and are one of the few people on this forum who has actually made a choice recently and bought a new car, why did you buy a Citroen?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top