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-   -   The Renault Captur's new ad is ethically wrong & deceiving! Blatantly fooling the Indian customer (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/190937-renault-capturs-new-ad-ethically-wrong-deceiving-blatantly-fooling-indian-customer.html)

Mod Note: Our Captur Report has been taken live at this link. Please continue the discussion over on the new thread. Thanks!

Why did Renault rebrand the Duster-based Kaptur to Captur to mimic their Clio-based European car?

To mislead people into believing this - :Frustrati


They call it an international success! (EDIT on 4th October: Renault has taken the video down after this thread went up. You can view the deceitful video ad at this link or this link).

https://youtu.be/xwzbheIgq-w

However, as BHPians are aware - the car we are getting in the Indian market is entirely different & has been developed recently for the Russian market, and then targeted for developing markets like Brazil and India. It is based on the Dacia B0 platform - same as the Duster and is even different in dimensions as compared to the European car. The similarity mostly ends with the looks and the name, whereas both of these are different vehicles underneath.

The European car is smaller, but a more premium package, built on the Clio platform. More than anything - it comes with a host of safety features that earned it a 5 star safety rating. The car was deemed expensive for emerging markets like ours and hence the Duster's basic underpinnings were used to develop a look-alike for such markets. The Duster has already received slack for its compromised safety, including the usage of small airbags for the Indian market.

To confuse matters more, the 'Kaptur' was renamed to 'Captur' for the Indian market causing much confusion even among learned enthusiasts about the origins of the vehicle. Some related posts here.

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, where it's clearly a different car and a different platform that is being sold - with only the same name.

To take an example - It's like Apple deciding that the 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.

Absolute con job! Cannot see any other reason for them to play around with the name (Kaptur as Captur).
They are selling a Dacia and something lower with Renault branding, and now taking it to the next level with this misleading advt.

^ The above is a very very misleading ad. This is the reason I asked on the same thread if what Renault is doing is ethically correct or not. One member jumped in and said that there is nothing wrong in it and we do not have to worry about ethics. There is no way I will be touching a Renault/Nissan/Dacia car in my life!

Even in the talk between the Renault chief and Ranbir Kapoor, the Renault person was repeating the same things mentioned in the above about how its an international success.
I suspect they will be using the same language in their ads in India. That would be really bad.

Why am I not surprised?? A company which shamelessly provides substandard airbags and plays with people's lives, this is just child's play. Thanks Renault for reinforcing my belief that you should never be trusted.

This is absolutely ridiculous and pathetic.

If Renault thinks they can con the enthusiasts by their "switch-up" job between K & C and bring out such a cheating advertisement to mislead the masses, they better think twice. Not everyone is a sucker for your eye-rolling marketing tactics, specially not the well-informed ones.

The brand has already lost some credibility with their Zero-star "Indianised" Kwid, and such stunts will only result in dragging them down even more.

I really hope someone files an RTI against this and sucker punches these guys all over the social media platforms.

A CEO would star in an ad ONLY if there was something substantial to mention. Not for every launch and certainly not when they're selling old wine in a new bottle.

And the statements he makes to try and indicate that he isn't selling old wine in a new bottle makes you squirm. The ad clearly shows that they have a very low opinion of the intelligence levels of the Indian customer.

Renault India dropped several notches lower than they already were after seeing the ad.

It's going to take a lot to remove the image of that non-articulate CEO making idiotic statements in a launch ad.

Hadn't gone through this video till now. Did so after reading your comments.

Noticed another interesting aspect - comments are disabled for both of these videos, whereas all of their other recent videos are open for comment. That's another low! :eek:

Guess they don't know that social media firestorms usually start with some restrictive behavior to cover up something dumb. Just link the video to their FB / other social media presence and # all their accounts. :)

Disabling comments is not in good taste, this is a new video, look at the claims of longest and widest SUV in its category and then later saying C-SUV. Renault still believes that there is no competition to Captur as it is fully loaded and a global winner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWsV_6Qatb0
I don't how many of you have seen this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qBCHxarzfQ

I am sorry that I didn't understand much of the outcry above. please: So it means "C"aptur is based on clio and "K"aptur is derived from Duster platform? And clio being a hatchback is made on a weak platform compared to Duster?

So it means that "C"aptur cannot be priced more than Duster?

Or I understood it wrongly?

The Captur in the EU/UK is based on the Clio, it is a small vehicle (around 4 meters).

The 'Captur' we are going to get here in India, is the renamed 'Kaptur' from Russia (which is based on the Duster platform).

This classic (and hugely deplorable) "bait and switch" technique employed by Renault needs to be nipped in the bud, and I encourage everyone to share their views on the Forum and elsewhere. The reach must be widespread and should catch the attention of everyone in Renault India's ivory tower.

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.

However the car shown in the video is KAPTUR, not the European Captur. Actually now it is very confusing :Frustrati The car in the video is KAPTUR with Captur written on it. But the actual European Captur looks a bit different (Fog lamps and grill section) than the Captur (KAPTUR) from the video

Fooling Indians about the product name is not a nice thing to do. I hope more people come to know about the deceit.

Other than that, I wonder why anyone who values his/her money would spend more than 10 lakhs on a car with Kwid quality interiors, only 5 seats, no SUV characteristics. The S-Cross looks like a great value for money product now! In marketing, they teach you to charge customers according to their ability to pay. What they ignore telling you is that customers are usually literate, smart and well informed people who do not buy products because an attractive actor advertises it. Remember Sachin Tendulkar's endorsement of the Palio? Even he could not make it sell. After a string of failures (Koleos, Lodgy, Scala, Pulse), I thought Renault would be smart enough to innovate in the segment that it excels in- cars below 5 Lakhs. Thankfully, the K(C)aptur would make more people realize how good the Tata and Maruti products are.