Legacy car brands must embrace their heritage or die. So where’s our damn Renault 5? | Opinion

I’ve got a blunt message for legacy car makers: The Chinese are kicking your arse.

Localising it, the Chinese have a boot on the Australian car market’s neck, and are squeezing harder.

Times feel unprecedently tough. As ever-more Chinese players launch here, long-established brands will endure sales freefalls and have no alternative but to shutter operations.

I’ve got my bingo card of marques most likely to join Citroen and cease selling in Australia. Fellow Frenchie Renault isn’t top of my list, but nor is it at the bottom.

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From the beleaguered trad brands, I’m seeking a fighter. A risk-taker. A Gladiatorial Maximus. And I want it to be you, Renault Australia.

Here’s the inconvenient truth, Renault et al. You can’t beat the Chinese at their own game. Their cars will remain cheaper and better equipped – CCP state subsidies, cheap labour, unchecked carbon-spewing factories and minimal or no tariffs have you by the balls.

So what have you got? You, my friends, have heritage. You have back catalogues. You have memories and branding and history and design traits and motorsport.

You have – if you’re fortunate – customer goodwill, trust and even love.

But I’m as disappointed as you are that the Australian car buying public, apparently, couldn’t give a rat’s clacker.

Let’s take Zeekr, a Chinese brand whose name is a portmanteau derived from Generation Z and geek. There’s a bit of sick in my mouth just writing that, yet newbie Zeekr’s outselling Renault this year by two-to-one.

Having been in our market for roughly 20 minutes, Zeekr’s also sales-trumping Volvo, Skoda, Jeep and Land Rover in 2026. And it’s doing so mainly with an electric medium SUV – the 7X – costing from $62,500 drive-away.

It’s a good EV, but hardly cheap.

In fact – and here’s where I bring Renault back in – Zeekr’s base RWD 7X is price parity with Renault’s just-launched Scenic Techno Long Range ($63,100 in the traffic) – also a medium SUV EV.

The Zeekr’s a bit faster and better equipped, but the Scenic has a beautiful, feature-packed interior, and offers 625km range to the 7X’s 480km.

The Renault also looks, well, like a Renault. A very stylish one. The Zeekr, meanwhile, won’t burn your eyes, but it’s just so generic of design. Remove its badges and sling on a Leapmotor, XPeng, Geely or BYD logo and I doubt anyone would be the wiser.

Why are so many Australians eschewing the likes of Renault and jumping into bed with brand new and unproven brands, no matter how tech- and luxury packed they are?

I can only put it down to the thrill of the new. Shiny things. The Aussie desire to have a punt. “Give it a crack, how bad can it be?”

The legacy brand fightback? Stop rolling the arm over. Advertising is ludicrously fractured, and by God the recent avalanche of AI-generated video adverts – including from Renault– are mainly lazy, predictable and distinctly unmemorable.

Worst of all, as these ads have been created by keywords and artificial intelligence, there’s an underlying level of fakery.

Renault doesn’t need this. It has very real cars that could do all its promotion, storytelling and advertising for free. The France-built Renault 5, Renault 4 and just-launched Slovenia-built Renault Twingo are darlings of social and print media, because they look fabulous and drive well.

In Australia we receive none of those three cars, and there’s no suggestion we ever will.

But just look at them. I struggle to think of a trio of affordable EVs better suited to social media saturation, retro fandom and people – young and old – opening their wallets to buy.

I’ve written in detail on why a the R5, R4 and Twingo aren’t in Aussie showrooms. In short, Australian Design Rule 34/03 demands a rear centre seat top tether anchor (for child seats), but none of our electric Renaults has them. Because the silly requirement doesn’t exist in the rest of the world.

Renault Australia told us it would cost an estimated $5 million to put right. And who am I to argue? But other cars have fallen foul of this ADR34 rule, including the Tesla Model 3, BYD Atto 3 and Deepal E07. All were sorted, and did it really cost so much?

And this is where the likes of Renault Australia need a bit of fight. Lobby Federal Government to harmonise Australia’s car standards with Europe, USA and UK (no top tether points needed there); make it a massive issue. Don’t give up. You have smart people working for you – find a way.

Renault has a once-in-a-generation chance to bring in cars that will sell not mainly because they’re EVs, but because they’re cars Australians want to own. To be seen in. To love.

And as Aussie interest in all sizes of EVs booms due to the current fuel crisis, there’s a boat right there being very obviously missed.

Aside from its vans, Renault Australia is an SUV brand: the Duster, Arkana, Megane and Scenic. At this month’s Melbourne Motor Show, the stand featured its updated Arkana and the new Symbioz small SUV. “Hey, another SUV! Yay!” Said nobody at the show.

Renault Australia’s Facebook post on the event had the following reader comments: “Is the 5 coming?” “I hope the new Renault 4 will come to Australia.” “We want the 5!” “Just need the 5.” “Waiting for the 5”.

For balance, someone named Jo Jo said: “Ohhhh the Symbioz is super cute!” Jo Jo maybe just hasn’t seen the R5. Or is a bot.

I’ve listened to Renault Australia’s reasons to not import its 5, 4 and Twingo: they obviously want them, but cost is the hurdle. They’d cost more than they are in RHD UK (the Renault 5 is from around $44,000); Australia’s cheapie Chinese competition is too overwhelming, and local buyers mainly want SUVs.

Yeah, yeah. But trends change. Small cars have their place, and if they look fabulous, they sell in strong numbers even when over-priced. Exhibit A: Mini… doing so for 20+ years.

In 2025, Kia sold over 7000 Picantos, MG over 8000 3s, and on the EV front, BYD moved more than 3000 Dolphins. Small cars are not dead.

Renault Australia sold 1677 passenger cars in 2025. Import the R5 and R4, somehow keep them around $50k and surely, surely, that sales number would double. People want a rolling style statement, and the tiny R5 has proven its worth: it’s Europe’s third best-selling EV.

See it as a costly but worthy brand-building exercise. Renault will sell many more of its SUVs on the back of R5 fever, while in this period of mass brand saturation in Australia, will help the French stalwart stand out as a beacon of cool.

Leveraging, exploiting, embracing and shouting from the hilltops about brand heritage is not just commercial common sense. It could be imperative for very survival.