French Workers Protest "Chevy-fication" Of Renault

Cammy Corrigan
by Cammy Corrigan

Autocar reports that Renault workers in France are jumping on a bus and heading to the Paris Motor Show. Are the doing it because they fancy a day out? Maybe they want to see all the nice cars on display? Nope, they’re going there to protest. OK, so who do you think they are going to protest? Hyundai? Toyota? Ford? Nope. They’re protesting against Renault. So, a bunch of French Renault workers are going to the Paris Motor Show to protest against their own company? Why?

The new Renault Latitude is ruffling a few French feathers. You see, the Renault Laguna, which is built in Sandouville, France, isn’t selling very well (and the Vel Satis has been canceled), but Renault have stated their intent to stay in the mid-large saloon market. Hence the Latitude was born….in South Korea. As the Samsung SM5 [Ed: which was once considered as an Aura replacement for Penske’s Saturn rescue attempt]. Needless to say, the workers don’t like that, so in the finest French tradition, they’re protesting it. And they’re not alone.

The French government, which owns 15 percent of Renault, are just as unhappy about Renault sourcing from abroad. Renault and the French government have had previous run-ins about production coming from abroad. Christian Estrosi was quoted as saying “he would be keeping a close watch” on the Latitude. Renault aren’t the only ones having union troubles. The same thing is happening at Peugeot-Citroen, where unions are concerned at PSA’s growing interest in importing products from abroad.

All of which is a bit like the UAW protesting Korean-built and developed Chevy Aveos… mixed with a little British Leyland-era union-government dysfunction. It almost makes America’s experiment with government-owned automakers look downright rosy.

Cammy Corrigan
Cammy Corrigan

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  • ZoomZoom ZoomZoom on Aug 18, 2010

    Robert Schwartz, when I read your post, I saw "automobile" was a link. Thinking you provided a link to a "french automobile" (and hoping) for something funny, I clicked on it, and... Mike Ro. Roe? Row? Aaaah, who gives a rat's ass? That's one sure way to p!ss me off, and I won't buy a Ford as long as his smarmy face is in/on their ads. Man, that will teach me to click on links on this site. I feel like Pavlov's dog, only instead of the treat, I got a swat with a newspaper. Somebody bring back Jill. Please.

  • Don1967 Don1967 on Aug 19, 2010

    Only the French could demand a shortened work week, build notoriously crappy products, and then complain when their employer goes shopping elsewhere. With a work ethic like that who needs unions?

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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