Renault's Australian Outlook

Hmmm interesting...

When buying my 03 Clio Sport they showed me a list of "standard service" charges, which were round the $300 mark. As for parts.. well after my Clio ate a cat at 80km/h, i needed a piece of plastic which held the front under-bumper thing off the radiator... 1 piece of flat plastic & it was $190... thats truely a rip off, however all "performance" cars are the same & you really have to expect it i suppose.

I think the aussie market is also hard to conquor.. the good ol "Holden" vs "Ford" mentality, lol what a joke! (Clio Sport vs Astra Turbo??? *chuckle* hard choice)
But of course the good ol Govt taxes imports like hell, so there's no competition! and of course it doesnt help the local manufacturers to pull their finger out!

I'm sure Renault will come good, they've had a bad name in the past, but they've got the goods now!
 
Yeah i have been told that the discs are made of a softer compound for better stopping...but i wasn't sure on the truth behind it, as i thought it could have been the service centre trying to make the extra $ or two.

I understand that owning a performance car such as the RSC will be expensive, but i guess i just hoped that on-going costs could slowly dip down in price, instead of accumulating!! :(

Oh well, guess i need to woken up eh? Tell him he's dreamin'!

:)
 
nate said:
1 piece of flat plastic & it was $190... thats truely a rip off, however all "performance" cars are the same & you really have to expect it i suppose.
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I'd agree on the parts pricing thingy, Renault parts are overall not overpriced in comparison wiith others. Plastic things always seem to be expensive for some reason, someone at work wanting to keep their VL Commoore in good condition wanted a plastic strip that is above the bumper just below the headlights, it is similar to the well known plastic strip on a Fuego under the headlights. The price from a friendly Holden dealer for this strip was in the order of $160, not cheap for something made in OZ and in OZ volumes.

For things like a timing belt change on an RS Clio, I have heard that the cost is in the order of $1K, again though this does not seem excessive considering that a similar service for a Honda Integra is also in the order is $1.1K. My brother sold his Honda at 90,000k's for this reason alone.

As for the brake cost of an RS Clio, I suppose it is a high performance car, if it is used as it has been designed it is likely to suffer more expense in terms of parts. Some people seem strange when it comes to spending money, paying out for things like massive body kits etc, but they seem to baulk at the normal costs of servicing.......
 
I once heard that a the 100K km service on a Chrysler PT Cruiser costs nearly 2 grand, as the engine has to be removed to do the timing belt :eek:
 
Haakon said:
I once heard that a the 100K km service on a Chrysler PT Cruiser costs nearly 2 grand, as the engine has to be removed to do the timing belt :eek:
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Now I'm sure that we can dredge up examples from all over of how people pay big bucks for service costs. The problem is that people have this idea that "different" cars cost a lot to maintain....in this case they could be right.

Having said that,any designer who goes for the notion that engines have to come out for scheduled maintenance ,without making the removal and replacement a piece of p*ss needs their head read. The whole idea of removng the engine to perform routine service operations is weird really. I heard that rumour about something to do with 900 series SAABs, and Toyota Taragos (the plugs I think) and thought to , myself that the whole idea was unbelievable.

I would be in favour of legally imposing a mandatory disclosure of service costs to prospective buyers...as totalitarian as that sounds.

I think we have to understand that Renault in Australia just isn't doing itself any favours at the moment. Among other things it hasn't really addressed its history here.

In Frogland they push some very attractive finance packages to prospective buyers...along with other ideas expressed here that doesn't seem to make bad sense....but at the end of the day Renault has to solve its own problems and take what the market dishes out in the process.

Maybe we could convince Renault to hand out fat retainers to marketing experts such as ourselves.


:dance:
 
Its the dealers fault

My two cents worth. Its the dealers that are failing. The product is bordering between good and excellent. jr20516v has it right by relaying his experience. I am in the market to quit my everyday Commodore. I go to multiple dealers of multiple makes. The Renault dealers are clearly the worst of the lot. They ignore you, they are poorly trained, they make you fell like they are doing you a favour. I found they were closely followed by Audi dealers as being a waste of time. The Volvo dealer was great and the Peugeot OK. But leaving them all for dead were the Holden dealers. They treated me like royalty, were well trained, knew there product, were willing to deal but didn't push too hard.
Before I went shopping the Laguna was my top pick. I didn't even get a test drive cos it was all too hard.
I've ordered a new Holden not because it is any better or worse (some would say worse) than any of the others but because it was a pleasurable experience.
It doesn't matter how good the product is - until they can address this then they have no hope.
I continue to maintain a 17TS for fun and the Holden for everyday use.
 
wow..haven't been back in a few days and this long thread (3 pages and long posts...) so sleepy and no time to read them all...

I hope the management at Reno-Aus/VDA are reading this thread, it's a good collection of comments they can refer to.

Anyway, I feel that Renault did a good job in the first year (2001), the "We don't make cars, we create cars" phrase were very well known among my female friends who normally wouldn't even pay any attention to any car ads. Back in Jan 2002 when I bought my Clio, it was in my opinion a very nice package, good value for money. Can't remember the exact pricings, but I remember for $2k or so over Barina/Echo you get 3 more air bags, ABS with EBD, elec windows (front) and elec mirror, plus the safer body, more power, better handling etc. But during the purchasing decision, it took me a fair bit of energy to "take the risk" that it will be a reliable car.

From what I have observed, for the average car buyer who aren't interested in cars, they know Renault as a brand, and that's about it. Somehow Renault will not be in the list of cars to consider. This problem" is probably similar to other small volume Euro car makes I guess.

So in a way the 20-mil is sort of well spent in building up the brand recognition for the long term, but I think thar like some one mentioned previously, it is equally important if not more, to tell people why Renault is better, and why should they buy one instead.
 
MY 4 said:
Hi Guys,

interesting thread, this one. I've been reading everyone's posts, and there's some very valid points raised.

I only disagree with one thing though, well it may not be total disagreement, more a point that i think hasn't been covered.

I have a Clio RS, for those who didn't notice the avatar :mallet: ....

The cost factor of parts...i wouldn't be saying it's "cheap"...
The last few times i have had my car serviced at the dealers, i've had to pay a huge amount due to the cost of replacing brake parts. Apparently the discs are made to wear out almost as frequently as the pads. Each time this has been serviced it's brought the total service cost in excess of $800. (Once for the front brakes, then a second time for rear brakes).

However, i don't know whether this is more or less than any other similar spec' car...

But it seems to me that the parts are made to wear frequently, to increase on-going costs of the car.
Click to expand...

Well having heard that i'm gonna remove a wheel & get out the ol Mircometer, check the thickness of each of the discs...
Come Service time I'll check again & see if they try to do the same

My philosophy... I work my ar$e off for my money, which is exactly what the dealer will have to do... they aint gonna make easy money off me...
MY4, how old is your Clio? after how long did they have to do the brakes?
 
My only experience with the dealers was when I went to take an Scenic RX4 for a spin. Happened to be in my suit at the time and thought what the hey!
Well I earnt my drive in it - it took me nearly an hour trying to get out of the situation. The dealer was so unbeleivably pushy and wanted me signing on the line then and there.
That was after he took one look at the R21 and said no thanks (fair call I know, but he was pushing for a sale, so I expected something), and I caught him out several times as not having a clue about the car (I knew much more than he did just from what had been in magazines :rolleyes: ) and Renaults in general. Is it because they just have Nissan salesmen selling Renaults?

In conclusion, bloody hopeless dealers that take all the fun/satisfaction out of it.

ps agree with the Holden dealer comment - had to take a work Astra for a warrenty repair/service, and they bent over backwards to help and knew the car very well.
 
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