Many Talk About Having One But No Action To Own At All
When TC Euro Cars, the official distributor of Renault vehicles in Malaysia, announced the arrival of the latest 2019 MEGANE R.S. 280 Cup last year there were many car enthusiasts who remarked how much they wanted to own this hot hatch that had conquered the Nordschleife at the Nürburgring, which is a world-renowned race track and proving ground for performance cars.
This new MEGANE R.S. had covered the 20.6km race track in just 07’40’’100. It had set a new record and had beaten the Honda Civic Type R’s time of 7:43.8 seconds on the 20.6km track by good 3.8 seconds.
The product planning people at TC Euro Cars looked at the overall sales of manual driven cars in the country against automatic cars for this segment and saw little take up for manual cars.
However, ‘real’ drivers were excited about it on social media and this spurred TC Euro Cars product planners and management to look at importing this quick hot hatch in two variants. A 6-speed manual driven version for real drivers and also the dual clutch automatic version for daily inner city office commuters.
On sale in Malaysia at the time was the Volkswagen Golf R which arrived in 2018 at a price of RM296,000, the latest 2020 Mercedes-Benz AMG 45 which was priced at RM459,888, the recently launch Hyundai i30 N at RM298,000 and of course the Honda Civic Type R which arrived in July 2017 at a price of RM320,000 to compete with this new French hot hatch.
At its launch in 2019 the Renault MEGANE R.S. 280 Cup was priced at RM279,888 for the 6-speed manual version (making it the best priced in the segment) and RM299,888 for the dual clutch automatic version (sitting almost side by side with the Hyundai i30N).
Now, prior to its launch there was a lot of online buzz from Malaysian car enthusiasts about the performance of this hot hatch and capabilities and the need to have the version with a slick shifting manual gearbox available for sale as the only two manual version hot hatches on sale were the Civic Type R and the recent Hyundai i30 N.
Even with a lot of interest there were less than startling purchases made.
So, due to the lackluster demand and slowing sales, TC Euro Cars decided to work a subscription plan for this hot hatch.
With a ‘Fixed Plan’ in place available for short periods of one, two or three years, with a monthly usage rate that covers road tax, insurance and regular servicing costs they announced a Subscription plan for the MEGANE R.S. starting from only RM3,999.
So, will this offer attract the enthusiasts to drive this MEGANE R.S.?
Customers who opt for the Switch Plan will be given access to the full Renault family line-up with no change to the previously announced rates. The Switch Plan offers the Captur with the option of utilising both the Koleos and Megane R.S. within the subscription period.
The Switch Plan comes with no mileage caps, no cancellation penalties and fees are inclusive of insurance, road tax and regular servicing costs. Wear and tear for the Captur is also included under this plan.
