Strong demand for low-cost cars in developing countries helped France’s Renault return to sales growth in 2007, the Financial Times reports.

Renault’s no-frills Logan car, which retails for the equivalent of $8,566 to $11,225, was the company’s most popular model. Renault sold more than 360,000 Logans; about 15% of all vehicles sold by the Renault group are Logans.

In Latin America, Asia and Russia, the Logan is sold under the Renault brand. In Europe and North Africa, the Logan is sold under the Dacia brand, the name of Romania’s former national car producer in the Soviet era, which Renault bought in 1999.

The Renault group’s fastest-growing region was eastern Europe, with sales in Russia, Romania and Ukraine all rising more than a third. Russia, Romania and South Korea – where Renault took over Samsung’s car manufacturing operations – are the only countries outside western Europe in which Renault sells more than 100,000 cars a year.

The group has set ambitious targets for the new year to more than quadruple the rate of worldwide sales growth, and return the sluggish western European market to growth. A Renault executive quoted by the Financial Times said the French automaker is forecasting sales increases in every region, for total growth of 10%.

Still Signs of Trouble

Despite its success in some regions and with the wildly popular Logan,  Renault still faces trouble, the Financial Times points out, in particularly in its core Western European market where sales continued to slide.

Total car sales for the Renault group rose 2.2% in 2007 to 2.49 million units. However, within the group’s western European market, where 65% of its products are sold, sales dipped 4%. Still, it was an improvement from 2006, when sales in the region fell nearly 9%.

“The 2007 sales results are in line with our forecasts, down in the first half of the year and back to growth in the second half, driven by new products like the new Twingo and the new Laguna,” said Patrick Blain, executive vice-president for sales and marketing, told the Financial Times.

Source: Renault Revived by Low-Cost Logan

Dan Roth
Aftermarket, Tuners, Etc., Chrysler

Click either image for a gallery of the Chrysler 300C Rodeo Drive Plus 6.

Performance West has rolled out a stretched wheelbase blinged-out 300C with an appropriately protracted name. The W.P. Chrysler Executive Series 300C Rodeo Drive Plus 6 by Performance West pulls together the work and merchandise of several vendors to create a six-inch longer 300C for those executives who find the standard choices too boring. Nobody will be able to ignore the chrome spear down the flanks, and if they do just crank up the stereo. Mechanicals are upgraded with a Corsa cat-back exhaust and a Flex Fuel Smart system adds E85 capability to the Hemi. Coil-overs and thicker swaybars tighten up proceedings underneath, and SSBC's upgraded brakes hide behind 22-inch Sporza wheels. Inside, the seats have been retrimmed in custom leather, there's an audio system to rattle your molars and an integrated computer and communications rig, too. Look up, there's a Glassback installation by Classic Design Concepts, look down, you'll find a Hurst shifter sticking purposefully out of the console. It looks like it'd be a whole lot more fun to shuffle papers around in the rear compartment of the Plus 6 than, say, a Maybach. The whole shebang will be available for an as yet unannounced price at dealers.

Thanks for the tip, David!

[Source: Allpar]

Gallery: 300 Rodeo Drive Plus 6

Source: Roll like Walter P: 300C Rodeo Drive Plus 6 package

Moody’s Investors Service confirms what many observers have thought: India’s Tata, the maker of inexpensive cars, may not a good fit with luxury marques Land Rover and Jaguar being sold by Ford and wanted by Tata.

Moody’s has placed Tata Motors’ current rating on review for a possible downgrade, according to AFX International Focus, a European financial news service. It sees Tata's swallowing up of Jaguar and Land Rover as creating digestive problems.

"Should (Tata Motors) proceed with the transaction and acquire these two businesses, it will face considerable execution and integration challenges," Moody’s said. The rating service noted that though Tata has a strong position in the low-to-medium segments in India, the acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover would expose the company to the luxury product segment in wider global markets, which would increase the material risk to the automaker.

No company knows better that risk than Ford, especially with Jaguar.

Ford put Jaguar and Land Rover on the auction block, not only to end the hemorrhaging caused by Jaguar and to generate much-needed cash but also because Ford executives said the U.S. automaker couldn't afford to fund the brands’ future product requirements.

Ford confirmed last week Tata Motors is its top bidder for Jaguar and Land Rover and will focus negotiations only with Tata. A deal is far from settled.

Source: Jaguar, Land Rover Good Fit for Tata? Moody’s Says Possibly Not