Final 40 Peugeot RCZs go driveaway

PEUGEOT Australia is marking the end of the line of its RCZ coupe by dropping the price by about $14,000 to $49,990 driveaway for the final 40 examples of the sleek French sportster.

The car-maker's CEO Maxime Picat told reporters at last year's Shanghai motor show that the RCZ would not be replaced with a new-generation model as part of Peugeot's wider model cull, that will see it reduce the number of vehicles it produces from 26 to 13 by 2022.

The driveaway deal relates to existing stock of the RCZ which ended production at Magna Steyr's Graz, Austria plant in September last year.

Pricing for the RCZ usually starts at $58,990, plus on-road costs for the 1.6-litre petrol matched with a six-speed manual gearbox, the same price as the 2.0-litre turbo-diesel HDI version that also uses a six-speeder.

The driveaway pricing is based on a New South Wales price and includes registration, stamp duty and other dealers charges.

Peugeot's local importer Sime Darby Motors Group said the offer is strictly limited to existing stock of the RCZ and does not include any examples of the more performance-focused RCZ R.

Standard fare on the RCZ is dual-zone climate control, Bluetooth and USB connectivity, satellite navigation, heated leather seats that are electrically adjustable, as well as LED daytime running lights, automatic wipers and headlights, an active rear spoiler and 19-inch alloy wheels.

It comes with Peugeot's five-year/75,000km capped-price servicing program, five years of roadside assist and a three-year/100,000km warranty.

At the Shanghai show last year, Mr Picat said the car-maker needed to place more emphasis on building its core model range, rather than niche models like the RCZ.

“I love the RCZ, but I want us to focus on making the best of our core models, from Peugeot 108 upwards, and to exploit what we then have to the best of our abilities,” reports Autocar at the show. “For each of those cars we can choose attributes and be the best. Chasing niches is for premium brands for us it has been a distraction.”

In Australia, the RCZ arrived in late 2010 bringing striking design to a small coupe based on the first-generation 308 hatch, and was offered with a choice of two 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engines co-developed with BMW, and a 2.0-litre HDi turbo-diesel.

A facelift arrived in mid-2013, with the RCZ taking on the car-maker's then new front-end design and then a year later the spicier RCZ R arrived, powered by a 199kW/330Nm 1.6-litre turbocharged engine capable of sprinting from 0-100km/h in 5.9 seconds.

The RCZ had its best sales year in Australia in 2011 – its first full year on sale – shifting 304 units before dropping to 163 in 2012 and 108 in 2014 before hitting a low of 70 last year.