Renault’s decision to back its new Laguna lll with a 100,000-mile warranty will have “little or no effect” on Britain’s relatively low-mileage motorists, according to the company’s vice president of sales and marketing, Patrick Blain.
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Blain claimed that moving from two to three years in mainland European markets demonstrated confidence and faith in the rehabilitated Laguna lll but admitted: “In the UK it will not really mean much and not change people’s lives in any way. It will have little or no effect. Outside of Britain where the average annual mileages are significantly higher then it is a massive phenomenon.”
Asked why Renault had not also extended the number of years covered, like Korean counterparts Kia (seven years for the cee’d) and Hyundai’s five-years Blain said: “Kia’s deal does not cover everything and the Koreans are quite marginal on the market.”
Renault has spent EUR1 bn and involved 1,000 engineers in the Laguna lll project covering 32 months from design freeze to job one with the company’s president Carlos Ghosn demanding a top-three sector quality and reliability performance even against premium brand rivals.
Jacques Faure, head of customer specifications in Renault’s safety department, conceded that missing the “podium” quality target would be “very embarrassing” but he maintained: “We are very confident of achieving it and the data will be measured objectively by agencies like JD Power.”
Tim Jackson, Renault UK’s PR director, said the 100,000-mile guarantee had already demonstrated “visible faith and commitment to the car” with marginally higher Laguna lll residual values than the new Ford Mondeo from EurotaxGlass’s at 32.4% (after three years and 60,000-miles) versus the Ford’s 31.7%.
Jackson argued that the 100,000-mile threshold would benefit a “significant proportion of company car drivers”, who account for nearly 70% of Laguna sales but Tristan Young, editor in chief of the UK Business Car magazine, said “not many” fleet drivers reached the higher mileage.
He added: “As with Honda and its 90,000-mile level Renault believes it will benefit from the Laguna being marked up on the residuals’ front and improve the disposal element even if used car buyers do not get the asset of more miles beyond the three years’ warranty.”
Blain conceded that the previous Laguna was a “quality disaster” generating residual values of around 25%. Internal Renault audits showed that in 2003 40% of Lagunas spent time off the road with faults, although this was cut to 20% in 2004 and 8% two years later.
Hugh Hunston
