Renault’s UK dealers are being urged to get “proactive” to help ensure the brand’s new large SUV coupe is a sales success.
After order books opened in May the Rafale reaches UK showrooms this month, backed by a comprehensive launch marketing campaign, but the brand seems acutely aware that this new D-segment car will be outside some sales executives’ comfort zone.
“What I would ask our UK dealers – because it is a partnership – is to make sure that within their community they support Renault’s move to the D-segment because we mainly sell B- and C-segment cars,” Guillaume Sicard, chief executive of Renault Group UK, told AM at the Renault Rafale’s international launch in Spain where we reviewed the car.
“It will require an effort from our dealers who should be proactive and tell those customers who may own a second D-segment car that, while they are having their Clio or Captur being serviced, to have the Rafale for a day or two.”
Sicard, who is due to swap his UK role for a new posting in France in September – just as Rafale sales get under way – said he is acutely aware of the challenge for the car brand and for its 140-strong dealership network in re-entering the D-segment.
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