Clio's future

AS THE last remaining stock of Renault's Clio are sold in Australia, GoAuto can reveal that the French brand will relaunch its light-car range late next year with the red-hot RenaultSport model.

The hot hatch is expected to be the sole variant in the long-overdue Series III range, which was released in Europe in 2005.

Renault Australia has deemed the mainstream Clio III models too expensive to compete locally.

The current RenaultSport model disappeared about 12 months ago, and with dealers now running out of the Campus, the sole remaining Clio model, Renault has reduced the price of the larger Megane sedan to $24,990 to fill part of the product gap.

Renault Australia was able to cut a better deal on the Turkish-made Megane, thanks to a favourable exchange rate, but not on the standard versions of the French-made Clio.

Renault Australia managing director Rudi Koenig told GoAuto this week that the company had not been able to find a way it could sell the regular Clio III models at a competitive price, despite lengthy negotiations with Renault headquarters in Paris.

"The new Clio is a great product, but the unfortunate thing for our market is that it is a very expensive product," Mr Koenig said. "We are out of sync, we should get this car into this market between nine-to-12 months of it being launched in Europe, and in this case we are two years behind. That's because of the fact that always this car has been a very expensive proposition."

Mr Koenig said Renault was unable to introduce a Clio III model, with an acceptable level of features, at a $19,990 starting price. He said the company would not follow the lead of rival brand Peugeot.

"Peugeot Australia faced the same problem with its new 207 model, but they have tried to counter this same issue by bringing in a product at $19,990 that is an eight-valve 1.4-litre old technology engine, and then they have the 1.4 16-valve engine at $21,990 or around about. If you want a 1.6, the similar spec to the previous model if you like, in engine performance … you are talking $24,990," Mr Koenig said.

"We don't want to have a car with two airbags and an old technology engine without the latest clean engine technology, without the latest design techniques, all the things that have the mark of Renault DNA. We don't want to do that for the sake of having a $19,990 car.

"We want something that gives us good value, not something that is a compromise. That's why, to be honest, we haven’t considered doing what Peugeot has done," he said.

The high-performance RenaultSport Clio will be brought to Australia because it is not as price sensitive as the base Clio models. Mr Koenig said Renault Australia was considering other models in the Clio range, but would not specify which.

The RenaultSport Clios could arrive in Australia just before the car is updated in Europe.

Mr Koenig admitted there was a possibility that some customers would be put off by the fact the car has been on sale for so long in Europe.

"Yes, there is always that danger, but if a car is two or three years in global terms that doesn't mean it isn’t a fresh, good-looking car with all the latest features," he said.

The loss of Clio could not come at a worse time for Renault Australia, which slipped back from 3301 sales in 2005 to 2860 sales last year. The previous Clio was a sales star in 2002, making up 1710 of Renault Australia's 4565 sales for the year.

VFACTS sales figures for the first four months of 2007 show the company is 123 sales behind its total for the same time last year, with just 849 sales.

Mr Koenig admitted losing the Clio was not ideal, but hoped sales of the re-positioned Megane sedan would improve matters.

"It affected us last year and it has affected us a bit this year, but one of the things we are looking for with the re-pricing of our sedan product, we expect to get improved sales outlook for the rest of the year," he said.

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