'The right car in the wrong clothes'

Renault is in a mess in the UK. Just before Christmas it axed several of its best known models, including the Laguna and Modus, and is in the process of closing 40+ dealerships. The reasons are many and complicated, but in short they come down to exchange rate issues and poor sales. At Geneva I had a fascinating chat with Stephen Norman, Renault’s senior vice president for global marketing. As a bullish Brit he clearly cares enormously about what’s happened and reasons behind it. “It was a difficult decision, but Renault was no longer willing to support losses in the UK from other country’s profits,” he explained. “We’ve put in place a plan that will allow the UK to break even by 2013 and be in profit thereafter.” The biggest problem was the Laguna, which should be popular with company car drivers and private buyers. It was neither. Norman believes a French upper medium car can succeed in the UK, but that particular one couldn’t. He admits the problem was the design, which is what I wrote after attending the launch. Norman labelled it “the right car in the wrong clothes”, adding: “People expect a car to say something about their social status and it didn’t. Citroen got it right with the C5 and more so with the DS5. Is that the direction we will go in? Yes, in terms of the success they’ve had.”