Peugeot 4008 to broaden brand reach

Peugeot is not one bit worried about market perceptions of its new compact SUV as a Mitsubishi ASX in Calvin Klein jeans. The company sees it as an important way to introduce new buyers to the brand.

Peugeot has long been perceived as a brand of choice for middle-aged scientific types with progressive sensibilities but conservative tastes in cars. They’re reasonably moneyed and they’re loyal. The brand also has a dedicated following in the bush, something that can be traced back to rallying successes decades ago in events like the Redex Trial and the East African Safari.

The problem for the company’s local arm is that there aren’t enough such people. Hence the task it has set itself, of keeping those brand loyalists happy while expanding its appeal, especially an age bracket or two downwards.

That’s the job facing the 4008. And it’s in that pursuit of broader mainstream sales that the company is making no secret of the new SUV’s roots with Mitsubishi, a brand perceived as more mainstream than itself.

The local operation commissioned market researcher Roy Morgan to delve into the sensibilities of SUV buyers using focus groups. The result was a buyer profile suggesting a plentiful supply of affluent youngish families looking for something small but tall, easy to identify with, yet imbued with an aesthetic alluding to something a little special, a little above the ordinary. Read: long on Gallic badge appeal, short on Gallic eccentricity. As Bill Gillespie, importer Syme Darby’s local general manager for Peugeot concurred, it’s about giving prospective buyers ‘a taste’ of the brand.

The result is more than a Mitsubishi ASX in hair and makeup, but it’s hard to tell that looking at the basic spec sheets. It shares the Japanese car’s chassis and the only powertrain available in it combines a single Mitsubishi petrol engine with a choice of two Mitsubishi transmissions and the option of a switchable 2WD/AWD transaxle with diff locking, all straight from the ASX.

The engine numbers are identical: four cylinders, 2.0 litres, 100kW@6000rm and 197Nm@4200rpm. The fuel consumption’s the same: 7.7 and 7.9L/100km for the 2WD manual and CVT respectively; 9.9 and 10.9 for AWD. And so are the 0-100km/h acceleration figures: 9.3 and 10.2 for 2WD manual and CVT; 9.9 and 10.9 for AWD.

Although it looks nothing like its Japanese sibling, closer inspection will reveal the two even share their doors and roof panels, showing how the two companies took this exercise in rationalisation as far as they possibly could. The pair developed the platform jointly with that in mind; the Peugeot is even built in Mitsubishi’s Okazaki plant in Japan.

That visual differentiation is no mistake. In fact it hails from one of the most important lessons they learnt from another joint venture platform they’ve worked on: the Outlander/4007. Namely, the degree to which product differentiation relies on visual differentiation.

Peugeot’s local marketing chief, Richard Grant, told motoring.com.au the company concedes the 4007’s sales potential was cruelled by bodywork declaring Outlander-with-nose-job loud and clear. “Funny thing was, the 4007’s much more uniquely Peugeot under the skin than the 4008, particularly in that it uses our own running gear.”

This time round, the pair have put plenty of work into reconciling two conflicting priorities: keeping as much as they can in common while differentiating the 4008 and the ASX as far as possible to make their respective versions their own.

While deep Peugeotness is not that important with the 4008, the French maker has put in enough work to justify the $3K premium the base 4008 commands over the base ASX. There are differences of substance alongside the similarities. The French maker has widened the front and rear tracks by 10mm (that doesn’t sound much, but it’s surprising how much difference those millimetres can make in situations like this), stiffening the springs and damping rates to firm up and ‘Europeanise’ the ride.

They’ve recalibrated the rack-and-pinion steering to give it a bit of extra weight as it gathers pace, and they’ve tweaked the braking and stability electronics to accommodate a little more of that ‘spirited driving’ Euro car makers love to talk about so much.

Indoors, they’ve put a fair bit into giving it a bit of extra class, with soft-touch ‘bituminised’ plastics on the upper stretches of its dash and the doors and smatterings of chrome and that new black in car décor, piano black. They’ve added some extra soundproofing and weighted the doors to turn clangs into reassuring clunks.

And they’ve equipped it to the hilt, particularly at the all-important sub-$30K Active spec end. On top of the usual gear, everyone gets climate control, a reversing camera, an electrochromatic rear-view mirror, rear parking beepers, a six-cone audio package, rain-sensing wipers, auto headlights along with foglights and LED daytime runners (on the latter, we benefit from European legislation, which makes DRLs compulsory). You even get paddles with the CVT. It doesn’t leave you hankering for important stuff with an eye to ushering you up the spec scale. The Allure spec is skewed towards indulgence rather than added practicality.

They’ve even addressed that favourite gouging point among car makers, satellite navigation, adding $1495 for something often commanding two and three times that.

The only gaping hole in the spec list is in the shape of a diesel drivetrain – odd for a marque so closely aligned with oilers. But they have a good explanation for that. “Our research and experience suggests about 80 per cent of the 4008s we sell will be automatics. It’s going to market with a diesel option in Europe, but it’s only available with a six-speed manual, at least for the time being. Obviously if an auto comes on stream with the diesel we’ll be keen to look at it.”

In the meantime, if you really want a diesel, Mitsubishi offers one in the ASX. And if you really want a high-riding Peugeot diesel, look to the 4007 and the properly-French 3008.

Lastly comes the least fascinating element of the company’s mass-appeal strategy for the 4008. Sales and service are less fascinating on paper, but every bit as important as glamour product in getting punters through the dealership doors. That’s why Peugeot’s strategy extends beyond the car itself to take in the complete ownership experience.

That means dealer incentives to maintain the brand demeanour at street level. More importantly, the company is out to change public perceptions of Euro brands as merciless on the hip-pocket come service time. The AfterCare ‘assured service plan’ puts a cap of $330 a year for the first three years of ownership, covering service intervals of 12 months or 20K kilometres with intermediate inspections.

The result, they hope, is something that dramatically changes buyer perceptions of what to expect for less than $30K.

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