7:25 am, May 13, 2010
I HAVE never heard the words ‘Audi TT’ bounded around so much as at the Peugeot RCZ launch on Wednesday.
Okay, so it is the obvious rival to the new coupe, but, honestly does every little detail have to be compared to the German offering?
‘Oh yes, it’s a bit wider than the TT’ and ‘Oh, it has a spoiler that comes up… just like a TT’.
This went on ALL day from the other journalists, I mean, really, this car will have such a hard time if we all compare it to the mighty TT in every sentence! Or will it?
If you actually compare it to the TT (oh damn it, I’m doing it now) it stacks up pretty well.
Most importantly though on price.
It starts at £20,450 and rises to £25,050, where as buyers won’t be able to drive off with an Audi without shelling out a minimum of £26,000! That’s a huge win for the RCZ as well as loads of other areas that it really excels in – more on that in my full road test in next month’s magazine.
Active selling
Peugeot has been busy ramping up demand for the RCZ at dealers too. It invited prospective and existing customers to dealerships to view the car over the last three weeks, and what a good step that’s been.
Peugeot told me they sold on average three vehicles per event! That’s active selling at its best. The maker has now sold more than 30 per cent of the RCZ production run for 2010 and it won’t even be in dealerships until next month.
So far, the sales are split 50/50 between diesel and petrol models which has surprised the marque. Maybe customers are even more in tune with their money saving budgets these days?
But will it hold its own against the TT and Scirocco? Will badge snobbery hold the Peugeot back? Only time will tell…
Duncan
