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| "How you say? You can stick Logan." |
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Renault makes a cheap car called the Logan. It’s made in the old Dacia plant in Romania and you wouldn’t want one, especially if you can recall the truly dreadful Dacia Duster.
The Logan is not intended for Europe: it’s a car made for ‘emerging markets’ where anything with four wheels is preferable to a camel or a donkey. And it’s selling like hot cakes, particularly in Iran, where 89,000 punters have already paid to take delivery even though the local factory – it can hardly be called a plant - that assembles the Logan from crates of bits shipped from Romania can’t cope with the rush of orders.
And there is an interesting sub-plot to add to Renault’s woes. The French government is preparing for possible sanctions against Iran and will expect Renault and others to back its stance, by restricting business with the country until it shelves its nuclear programme. I believe the word is dichotomy. Whom to upset: Nicolas Sarkozy or Mahmud Ahmadinejad?
According to Reuters, Renault’s strategy chief Patrick Pelata is reported to have said (in connection with pressure from the French government): “Together we have to find a solution, we cannot let the clients down. They have written out a cheque and they need to get a car or get their money back,” adding that the latter “…would not be good for Renault’s reputation”.
If the Iranian situation gets out of hand, I imagine that being a supplier to a Middle East aggressor “…would not be good for Renault’s reputation,” either. What was that word again?
Back in the seventies and eighties it was Citroen who had a cosy relationship with Iran when a locally assembled version of the Dyane (the Gyane) was the popular affordable alternative to the Donkey or the Moped.
It was in fact quite fun to drive in a perverse way once you became accustomed to the push-twist-pull gear change and accepted the fact that you had to climb under the bonnet to reset the linkage with monotonous regularity in order to retain mobility.
But what was that word again?
AlfaMartini | 27 Sep 07 - 18:20