Renault to launch 2,500-euro car: report

[FarCenter]

Renault is set to embark on a project to build an ultra-economic car costing just 2,500 euros (3,375 dollars,) a French business newspaper reported.

According to an article set to appear in Wednesday's La Tribune, a team at Renault-Nissan will on January 1 start developing several low-price car models for emerging markets, though the vehicles could ultimately find their way into the European marketplace.

The cheapest will cost only a third as much as the Dacia Logan, a small family car manufactured by Renault and its Romanian subsidiary Dacia.

http://www.france24.com/en/20111122-renault-launch-2500-euro-car-report

[frazzled]

1. And it will be worth 1,500 euros

Sorry, but once burned, twice shy. Back in early 90s we bought a Renault station wagon. It was actually very beautiful, an attractive automobile. And it fit our growing family's needs at the time, with even a back-facing third seat so our kids could take a few friends along. We knew to be leery of Renaults, but it was new on the market, and one of the board members of the museum where mr. frazzled worked (a classy dowager with a very well known family name, of national import) had bought one. We thought, well, if Mrs. P. can drive that around, it must be okay.

Oy vey. What a mechanical mess. Fortunately for us, we went overseas for a month, and let a young lady stay in our house the first few weeks. We said, go ahead and use our (shitty; no we didn't say shitty) car whenever you want. A month later, our neighbor came to pick us all up at the airport and informed us that the young lady had parked the car on the street one evening shortly after we'd let, and a very old man had come along, run into it, and totaled it. They didn't want to ruin our trip by telling us. We were ecstatic!! Finally a solution to the dastardly Renault! The insurance company gave us a check for the totaled value, and we went out and bought a very boring Toyota--which we drove trouble-free for 13 years.

C'est la vie!!

[shraby]

4. We had a Renault in the 1960s and got 40 miles to the gallon.

Believe it or not, we had to fill up so rarely I ran out of gas one day.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

2. I've always wondered why it's so hard to find a very basic transportation car here

If the price is low enough, people might be willing to buy a no-frills new car rather than a used one. I'm talking about a so-called stripee, a very compact car with no radio, manual windows and transmission, no power steering, no AC, no plush carpeting or fancy seats, and without the gigantic complicated dashboard on cars today. A car with maybe side molding as the only frill. Dealers probably wouldn't be able to pad the price on such a car. In other countries, the dealerships are owned by the manufacturers so that's not an issue.

[FarCenter]

3. It would also have no profit margin

My daughter bought a used 2005 Civic DX with manual transmission, which is about as frill-free as you can get.

Lots of the complications in modern cars are due to meeting environmental and safety regulations. So even if you strip out the non-essential features, you couldn't drop the price a whole lot.

If you designed a car for economy, without regard for environmental and safety regs, it could be a whole lot cheaper. The looser regulations for "trucks", as opposed to "cars" are why SUVs, vans, and pickups can be designed to be a better "value".