[vishy76]

Not surprising. Renault did the same thing to the Kwid as well. Modified the body shell after that tin can scored 0 stars in the Euro NCAP tests. Even post the mods, the car was only able to get away with an appalling 1 star rating.

Fun fact: Renault offers 4 airbags and ABS on the Brazilian spec Kwid.

But, this is an act of utter disgrace.

- Have a car that costs 16 lakhs OTR score 0 stars in crash tests

- Use the same platform to develop another car and rebadge it as a more sophisticated and accomplished one to charge a nice premium

- Brag about crash test ratings and car of the year awards

To be honest, won't be surprised if this is overseen by most Indian Auto magazines. Thats how journalism works here. The next year, we will see an ad about the ICOTY award for this car in the newspapers.

Great Job CrazyDriver sir.

[CliffHanger]

Registered my complaint in Advertising Standards Council of India in the link provided by TheExpertHand. Following is the gist of my complaint:

Renault has launched its new car by the name Captur. The advertisement of this car is filled with false information and several award details of a totally different car which goes by the same name Captur and being sold in Europe and other countries.

Also, Renault has already been in the news for many malpractices and the company is known for producing and selling sub-standard cars which have been rated ZERO stars in standard safety ratings.

Please consider this as a serious scandal, as this could mislead several thousand car buyers in India.

----

There should be no place for cheating MNCs in India who think Indians are fools to believe any aesthetically pleasing garbage they throw at us. And we do not need companies like Renault who treat my fellow countrymen's lives as Zilch selling cars that cost more than a million Rupee, with Zero Star Ratings.

Renault - Please leave my country!

[petroguzzler]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Unfortunately, there is no specific or express provision in the Consumer Protection Act that prevents false and misleading advertisements from being broadcasted in the Country. However, the legal recourse would be to file Consumer Complaints against Renault for unfair trade practices.

Fortunately, legal mandates in advertising offer gazillion loopholes for manufacturers and advertising agencies to exploit whilst meeting basic guidelines set in the fine print. This ad resembles promotion of products like Carlsberg glasses and Kingfisher soda.

[Hells Bells]

I have posted this on my FB page including the youtube ad link. Such utter level of lack of ethics makes me want cars like Nexon succeed even more.

[manas_270]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Renault however - has gone to questionable levels now IMHO - by calling the car an international success - clearly using the fame of the European car to sell it's lookalike counterpart in the Indian market. They have highlighted the recognition received in countries like the UK,

Thank you CD for bringing this to light and the elaborate details Absolutely deplorable from Renault. In this age of social media, can't believe they thought they can pull this off.

Originally Posted by GTO

CrAzY dRiVeR, many thanks for posting this! Am moving it to a new thread so that people don't get fooled. And as theexperthand suggested, register your complaint here - https://ascionline.org/index.php/lod...omplaints.html

Thanks GTO for moving this to a new thread to make sure members don't miss this.

Originally Posted by theexperthand

We can register a complaint here - https://ascionline.org/index.php/lod...omplaints.html

I will be doing it once I reach home, but I would encourage more people to raise a complaint there.

Thank you for this link. I did from my end. Hope others on this Forum do so too. We need to really put our foot down on Manufacturers thinking they can take us for a ride. Waiting to see what the action will be.

[Ascari]

Disgraceful in a way,absolutely but I sort of get what Renault thinks.Nobody cares which platform the car is built on except the enthusiasts. PQ35 or MQB?,you think the average Joe cares? Building a car on a older platform as long as its reasonably competent and cheap is nothing wrong. I am in way suggesting what Renault has done here is right by any stretch of the imagination.Its despicable and not the right thing to do.I do remember the AMG GTR Green Hell being touted as their car in Nissan's social media.All I can say is that a bunch of morons are in charge of Renault Nissan Marketing Department.

However the moot point is that today a car for most people are like Consumer Goods.Just a bit more expensive.How many common people consider the Engine output,the torque curve or suspension or the handling balance? A minuscule minority at best.What does the average consumer seek in a new car? Looks,interiors,Mileage and features.Safety what is that? If we buy cars like this it's what we will get.A safe and solid car like a Volkswagen has no chance in hell against tin can Maruti Suzuki's if we perceive safety as the last priority in our country.

Renault has copied the European Captur's looks and interiors.Do you think the average Joe cares that its built on the older Clio platform and not the new one.They just want a car that drives competently,has light controls and has plenty of features for them to post on Instagram.I feel the days of the enthusiast is numbered and with the advent of Electric cars and automation systems the car Industry will go the way consumer electronics are today.


Ascari

[Samurai]

Marketing departments have been getting away with such stunts forever. I guess the Renault marketing team didn't expect they will get caught on social media.

This reminds me of a 20 year old incidence from my professional life. I was working on a new software product. One day I searched for any marketing buzz on this product on the internet. Imagine my surprise when I ran into various customer testimonials of the product I was still developing. So I asked around how this is possible, when I am working on the first version of the product. The answer shocked me. The marketing team had lifted testimonials from an earlier unrelated product, and had reused it. If those old customers had objected, they would tell them this is the newer version of the same product, just renamed.

[Lalvaz]

What is disheartening is the fact even the CEO seems perfectly aligned to the plan. The market will put his new launch in the 8th place in this segment this time.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

I can't find the ad now but I remember Renault India used to have print ads of the F1 cars and then say their road cars get the same technology.

Oh yes. I remember this.

To be honest, I did not know the Captur we are going to get is different to what is sold in developed countries. Looks identical to the one sold in the UK.

They seem to have taken the body off a Captur and fixed it on to a chassis that is outdated.

When has Renault India taken safety seriously in our market? Except for the Fluence, none of their cars meet global standards from a safety stand point. Renault seems to have got away with it quite well too. The two cars that bring in the dough are still doing fairly well even after knowing that they fail miserably in critical safety tests.

I do not understand why Renault India had to pull off something like this. Why can't you give us the real deal? To me, this so called "Captur" has a design that will draw customers to it even if they admit it to being a Duster platform underneath. Other than folks out here, who really cares about the underlying platform it is built on. That is what you can get away with in a developing market.

Not good Reanult. Not good AT ALL.

[Captain Slow]

Here is difference between the 2 cars.



And This is how the engines differ.
We get the same old engines.

[wilful]

This thread brings out the essence of that independent spirit of this wonderful community of car lovers and the real reason why most of us are addicted to Team-Bhp. This is probably the only place where one can find a truly honest discussion on cars in India. Thank you Team-Bhp!
As far as Renault is concerned in this particular issue - it doesn’t really surprise me. A company that specifically targets India with sub standard safety equipment (and no equipment), will have nothing but contemptuous disdain for the car buying public’s knowledge. They would feel they could get away with just about anything.

[kpower11]

At first, it was at least somewhat plausible for manufacturers to launch products 'specifically designed for India' or developing markets in general, because at least these products weren't trying to masquerade as something more robust or sophisticated (eg. Etios, 2nd gen Figo, Brio/Amaze/Mobilio, Sail/Sail U-VA). But now as companies learn that the average Indian consumer is growing more discerning and sophisticated, they are resorting to cheap marketing ploys under the pretext of being internationally acclaimed. While this is a temporary phase and eventually the average Indian consumer will be smart enough to call out such con jobs, it will take time and unless this tactic either results in sales of the Captur falling flat on their face, or strict action being taken against Renault, expect this nonsense to spread further in Indian market.

On a side note, this reminds me of how Hyundai used to stick a sticker describing how the first-gen i20 got 5 stars in Euro NCAP even on the base Era and Magna variants that didn't even come with airbags.

In fact, none of this is really new. The crash test results of the Swift, i10, Grand i10, Celerio, etc. already proved that manufacturers were literally downgrading products for India. Renault has simply taken deceiving customers to a new level by actively claiming accolades of the EU-spec car for the Indian one.

Another example is how Nissan was glorifying the 'Japanese quality' of the Terrano in TV ads last year, but now this is just unacceptable.

Hope the backlash on against Renault is strong enough to prevent Nissan from trying such tricks on its upcoming Kicks SUV, or better yet, prevent them from launching it on the Dacia platform altogether (even the Brazilian-spec Kicks comes based on the Micra's V platform).

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by vishnurp99

To be fair to Renault, this "conjob" (if that is what it is) is not exclusive to India.

It’s still a con job. Their CEO says this car is a global winner, and in the interview he as asking Ranbir about spotting the car a lot in Europe – that’s really blowing the bluff trumpet!

Originally Posted by Ascari

Disgraceful in a way,absolutely but I sort of get what Renault thinks. Nobody cares which platform the car is built on except the enthusiasts. PQ35 or MQB?,you think the average Joe cares? Building a car on a older platform as long as its reasonably competent and cheap is nothing wrong. I am in way suggesting what Renault has done here is right by any stretch of the imagination.Its despicable and not the right thing to do.I do remember the AMG GTR Green Hell being touted as their car in Nissan's social media.All I can say is that a bunch of morons are in charge of Renault Nissan Marketing Department.

IMO, this is not just the marketing department – the CEO himself endorses this story. Whether the consumer/common man understands or not, it’s unethical to sell a product based on false claims. Whether tin can or not, I have not seen Maruti saying that the Brezza is global success based on the accolades received by the Suzuki Vitara.

Folks at Renault can easily say this is a much modern take on Duster with so and so positives, which will be taken as a positive by the consumer (because Duster once was a competent and successful product). But riding on Captur’s European credentials is akin to selling counterfeit products.

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

I do not understand why Renault India had to pull off something like this. Why can't you give us the real deal? To me, this so called "Captur" has a design that will draw customers to it even if they admit it to being a Duster platform underneath. Other than folks out here, who really cares about the underlying platform it is built on. That is what you can get away with in a developing market.

On that note, I believe the most honest product/brand from Renault in India is the Datsun. At least they are not marketing it as a premium product

[kiku007]

Sick.

Not a single non petrolhead is going to have a problem with this. I won’t be surprised, if they flaunt the award stickers in their cars.

A VW dealer in South TN, used to stick, “World Car of the Year” stickers on 3 pot Polos. It surprised me then, but Renault’s act is like none other.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Thanks to the guys who have appreciated the post. However - what we really need to appreciate here is the spirit of Team - Bhp. I don't think any other automotive mediahouse in the country will have the courage to post about this, let alone have such a bold title as the one GTO has given to it!

Originally Posted by novicefreak

Thanks to CrAzY dRiVeR for very informative post. had to read post again and again to understand, still its confusing!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday I was explaining to wife about this, where she noticed the thread and simply couldn't understand a thing!

Take an example of the Swatch group that makes watches. They have the likes of Rado and Omega, as well as the likes of Swatch and CK under the brand umbrella. Suppose Rado sells a watch in European countries, and it could be very expensive if introduced in the Indian market - so they decided to make a look-alike product for India with the mechanicals and quality used in the CK range. Fair enough at this point, as they are copying from their own brand. However, what if the CK product is positioned as a premium product near the range of what the Rado would have cost? Still could be fair - as its a free market and they are free to price their product.

But what if Rado advertises the watch as a genuine international watch that they sell across multiple countries and received multiple awards in those countries, even though the mechanicals of the watch are different for our market? Thats the question.

To take another example - Its like Apple deciding that iPhone X is too costly for India, so they decide to make the iPhone 7 look like the X. But then, they price it as a premium product and advertise it as an iPhone X itself, showing the glowing reviews it has got internationally.

Hope the point is clearer now.

Originally Posted by vishnurp99

To be fair to Renault, this "conjob" (if that is what it is) is not exclusive to India.

Now in Russia, the alphabet 'c' sounds like "s" in sam. This is from the Russian tutorial given below. The alphabet 'K' in russian sounds like 'c' in Cat. That is the reason it's spelled as 'Kaptur'

Good point. However - Does that make our version a global car? Thats the question.

They have clearly highlighted the awards received in UK, Germany, France etc where the Clio based Captur is sold. Whereas only the Russian one is based on ours.