Renault scores with 'cheap' car
The Wall Street Journal Europe January 27, 2006 By Molly Moore (Copyright (c) 2006, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) In the automotive world, where faster and fancier are the buzzwords, Gerard Detourbet is a maverick for the 21st century: "I don't want to be the best," the Renault executive says. "I want to be the cheapest." With the French car maker facing plunging sales in saturated high-end, high-priced markets around the world, Mr. Detourbet set out to create a low-cost car for the hottest new international marketplace for cars -- developing countries with rapidly growing middle classes. But since Renault rolled out the Logan -- a boxy, no-frills vehicle with a $6,400 sticker price -- customers beyond Romania and Russia have lined up to buy. Fed up with expensive automobiles loaded with gadgets they never used, car buyers in France, Germany and Spain have put their names on waiting lists more than three months long to own a Logan. "It was a surprise," said Pascal Pozzoli, who runs a Renault dealership in this town on the southwestern fringe of Paris. "The customers come from every social and professional category." On a recent dark winter afternoon, Jan Radzynski, a 73-year- old retired engineer, climbed out of the roomy back seat of an azure model in the dealership's expansive showroom. He declared the Logan the perfect car for his vacation house on France's southern coast. "It's a new approach," said Mr. Radzynski, poking his head into the front to examine the stripped-down dashboard. "It's the kind of car you can repair yourself. Price and simplicity -- that's what I'm looking for." Like most West European customers, Mr. Radzynski said he would upgrade the basic model to include air conditioning and a few other extras, bringing the price to just above $12,000 - - still several thousand dollars cheaper than the base price of the closest competing Renault. In the car's first six months, Renault sold 13,719 Logans in Western Europe, nearly as many as it sold in its targeted markets in the formerly communist East, according to Renault officials. World-wide, the company sold 145,000 Logans, officials said. The West European market has been so successful that Renault began offering the Logan in Italy earlier this month and plans to expand sales to Austria, Belgium and Switzerland. "People buy it more out of practicality than passion," said Mr. Pozzoli. "They're not looking for power. They're looking to get from one place to another." But Western Europe's cheap, practical car remains the stuff of dreams in the countries Renault originally targeted for the Logan. In Iran, where production is scheduled to start later this year, Renault officials believe there is a market for 500,000 sales a year, as middle-class Iranians look to replace aging indigenous cars that haven't changed designs in decades. In India, where Renault plans to start producing the car next year, the Logan is aimed at upper-class and upper-middle- class buyers. "There's a reason Renault is getting a lot of attention with this car," said Adam Jonas, a European automotive analyst at Morgan Stanley in London. "They're the only one doing this so aggressively. If they are successful, there will be followers." The Logan is produced in Romania, Russia, Morocco and Colombia. The chunky car seats five people and has voluminous trunk space. Mr. Detourbet's team of 40 to 50 designers, engineers and other specialists designed the car on computers, cutting costs by using parts from older Renault models. "The only driving force for the concept of the car was cost," said Mr. Detourbet. His goal is to sell one million Logans a year. *** sustineti [romania_eu_list] prin 1% din impozitul pe 2005 - detalii la http://www.europe.org.ro/euroatlantic_club/unulasuta.php *** Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/romania_eu_list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
