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First it was Mitsubishi that inked a deal with Renault Samsung to bring their wares over here as Mitsubishi branded cars. Now Fiat is getting into the action, by having Renault produce an unspecified commercial vehicle.
Renault and Fiat announced a vaguely worded deal to have Renault build a commercial vehicle for Fiat starting in 2016. There is no indication of what it could be, but now that the Ram ProMaster lineup is firmly Fiat-based, it’s not out of the question. Between that and the Samsung SM5, we’ll have an even better idea of all of the wonderful oddities currently off limits to our unsophisticated automotive palates…
30 Comments on “Which Will Be Our First Renault? Mitsubishi Or Ram?...”
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I won’t buy until Daewoo and Vauxhall sign on.
Scarcasm? Beacuse 500k GM/Daewoo Cruze’s are already cruising the streets of North America since 2012.
Yeah jkk, just kidding. It is funny to me for some reason to see Renault/Samsung/Mitsubishi, even though this sort of thing has been going on for a long time. The first car I actually owned was a Dodge Colt, which was a rebadged Mitsubishi something or other.
I love damn near all cars, but I am the first to admit that what I don’t know about cars greatly exceeds what I do know.
I had to Google Samsung today to learn about their involvement with Nissan and Renault. Had no idea….
Samsung has been wantiing to put wheels on their frides and washers for quite some time now. I recall paparatzi pics of Mr. Lee leaisurely testing 3 Merc SL’s, specifically a regular 500, amg63 and and amg65. Hopefully LG will sell them batteries in the near future for Samsung’s EV’s which I doubt will ever happen on either side.
@jkk6
I wish the Koreans made/imported small pickup trucks and/or Jeep-like vehicles into the US. I have been impressed with the quality/value proposition of their cars. I am just not in the market right now for the cars they offer in the US.
I have a Samsung Note 3 phone, which is great, and a Samsung fridge, which is also great. When it is time to replace my crappy washing machine I’m going straight to LG or Samsung. Same with the big screen TV. Korea is on a roll as far as I’m concerned. They are eating Japan’s lunch in a lot of areas, in my opinion.
Over here(the Netherlands), where Renault is a popular brand, quality has improved when they started working with Samsung. Renaults used to be haunted by electrical woes, but since 2003/4 it has disappeared, probably thanks to samsung electronics used inside. SM5 is sold over here as a Renault Latitude (looks nice), and another oddball is the Renault Koleos, which has been hugely impopular here, it’s not even sold anymore, but available in neighbouring countries. In my opinion, the Mitsu deal to bring samsungs to the US is great, you guys finally get Renaults of some sort. Personally, I’m lusting for a few Renaults. Haven’t pulled the trigger yet, but it’ll have to happen one day.
Servaas
Would you tell me what it is about Renault that makes them so attractive to you vs. a typical Japanese car I might be more familiar with? Do they make a hot little rally style car, for example? (That WOULD be cool.)
Servaas are you sure it’s Samsung who improved Renault – or is it Nissan who improved Renault?
I’m gonna go with the latter option.
Well… long established cooperation between Fiat and PSA on commercial vehicles and minivans has ended and time has come for new Italian-French tie-up. In the past, Fiat developed and produced smaller (Fiorino, Doblo) and bigger commercial vehicles (gazillion Ducato variants now reborn in USA as RAM ProMaster) whereas PSA developed and produced the middle-sized Scudo. So it would seem logical that the later needs to be replaced but there is nothing appropriate in the house to take this role. Above pictured Trafic fits this role best, although perhaps a little bigger than Scudo. As it is not the newest kid in town I guess it is to be replaced soon and it would seem appropriate if the cooperation started with the new generation.
The Doblo is coming as the Promaster City so that might make sense.
The SM5 is nothing special, really. No different or better than an Impala rental.
Better than an Altima, smaller than a US Maxima.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Teana
Always intrigued at how good Samsung/Renault marketed the SM5 against Kia Optimas and Hyundai Sonatas. I’ve noticed younger genereation Koreans were less embarassed driving this over a Sonata, until the Optima/K5 showed up circa 2008-2010 and then played out getting the nick name “civilian hauler”.
The Samsung versions have very underwhelming interiors! That Teana interior as pictured is worlds away from the SM5 one with the scratchy plastic and rattly everything.
Whereas previous generation of SM5 was a facelifted Nissan, the current one has been developped from a slightly stretched Renault Laguna platform.
The SM7 (Renault Talisman) is the same platform, stretched a bit more.
The SM3 (Renault Fluence) is based on the Renault Mégane.
QM3 is a Renault Captur, QM5 is a Renault Koleos, soon replaced by something similar to the new Rogue
If Renault hasn’t ditched the Samsung brand name (officially it’s called “Renault Samsung Motors”), it’s because it is quite popular (not as popular as the Renault name, you imagine why) and Renault is paying a lot of money to keep using the Samsung name (I’ve read somewhere it was around 1500$ per car).
Thinking that these cars are any different than the Renaults is quite wrong. Renault is a global company after all :)
Thought our first Renault was the Nissan Versa.
Wasn’t our first Renault the Nissan Quest?
The Quest was a JV between Nissan and Ford. I don’t think it was very Renaulty. Which reminds me, I haven’t seen a Nautica Villager in forever.
The Renault-Nissan alliance wasn’t until the late 90s.
Not that one! The Quest which happened after the Mercury one.
BTW, I do like the Nautica Villager, and I think those later versions of that particular Quest aged very well. I just saw one yesterday and it still looked modern -pic below-. (Larger headlamps version with chunky grille.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Quest#mediaviewer/File:2001-2002_Nissan_Quest_GLE_–_03-16-2012_2.JPG
The one AFTER the one pictured is the Renaulty one I’ve always thought, related to the Espace.
If its a Nissan, I always assume that its related to the Altima in some capacity.
Commercial van re-badges are very common in Europe. Mercedes is selling a small Renault van, Fiat/Peugeot/Citroen have a van, as do Opel/Renault/Nissan.
I think the main reason is that commercial users like to single-source their purchases, but it’s not worth it for every conglomerate to offer something in every segment. MB, VW, GM, Renault, Peugeot, Fiat can’t each design, develop and build what amounts to a big white box. You’d never get economies of scale that way.
That roofline is an abortion.
“We have this nice line here and we could just make it a little tall…”
“NO, STOP!”
You don’t buy one of these for the striking design. I drive one exactly as pictured, except the corporate livery. It’s ugly, but I don’t care because it’s nice to drive and has an interior that’s well thought out and spacious.
You won’t get that one either way though because it’s a decade old and finally going out of production.
I have a request for the first Renault in the North American market (the first one in decades, anyhow):
Twingo.
Don’t care if they call it a Mitsubishi, Nissan, or any Chrysler brand. I still want one. Don’t care what they call it.
Smart Forfour?
Smart Forfour and Twingo are similar cars.
Engines are the same on the ForTwo, and these are Renault ones so unless Smart pulls out the US market soon, there will be French engines on the US roads very soon.
I’ve seen these a couple of times here in Houston , Renault something- or other with Mexican plates .
Makes me think about a great trivia for your next dinner party.
Can you name the 3 cars made in France that you can buy in the US ?
* Smart ForTwo
* Toyota Yaris
* Bugatti Veyron
Soon there may be a Ram one.
Kudos to the people who know these 3 or 4 cars :)
Yaris? Holy crap…
Yes, at some stage the Yen got so strong, that it became cheaper for Toyota to import cars from France. France labor costs aren’t really cheap, and the Euro is quite strong too (vs the USD), so that means a lot about the Japanese export costs.