Your Questions Answered: Is the Renault R5 Turbo 3E really coming to Australia?

I own a Chery E5 with intermittent ADAS/system behaviour during highway/freeway driving. The technical position remains disputed. I stopped using the vehicle after a February 2026 roadside incident and have continued attempting to resolve the matter through Chery Australia, SG Fleet and consumer/regulatory channels.

On one occasion, while travelling at approximately 90km/h with a truck behind me, the vehicle unexpectedly and rapidly decelerated.

Experiencing a vehicle slow unexpectedly at highway speed with a heavy vehicle behind you was genuinely frightening.

The behaviour was intermittent, which has also made it difficult to reproduce on demand. Following the later February incident, Chery Roadside Assistance/RAA attended the vehicle and the resulting roadside evidence formed part of my subsequent safety complaints. I did not consider it reasonable or safe to continue driving the vehicle while the cause remained unresolved. Chery and the dealer dispute that an unresolved vehicle fault exists. I have requested the relevant diagnostic and technical records and remain willing to engage constructively. – John

Answer: Hi John, autonomous emergency braking activating for no reason is not fun. This is not only a Chery issue, however; phantom braking occurs with many different brands that offer AEB. Apparently, the AEB cameras ‘see’ a shadow as a genuine obstacle and react accordingly, or the software is too sensitive.

I have experienced two test cars in recent times that have phantom-braked at highway speeds, so I don’t doubt you have experienced this. But if Chery can’t find any faults, you would have to agree it is hard for them to know what to repair on the vehicle.

A software update can resolve the problem in some cases. I assume that Chery or its dealer has not suggested an available software update to fix this?

Your Chery may have an adjustment for AEB sensitivity. Look for a menu title such as ‘Driver Assistance’, scroll down to warning sensitivity and adjust it to ‘Late’. That should hopefully resolve the issue. The system might default to the previous, higher setting on restart, though, so check if it stays on the less sensitive setting.

The only other solution I can suggest is that if it happens again, accelerate. I have had to do this on two separate occasions on the highway; flooring the accelerator overrides the emergency braking.

I saw that the Peugeot 2008 is in run-out. I really like the styling and features of the car. But I read that the brand has changed importers. Is it worth taking the risk of buying a new 2008 now? – Janine

Answer: Hey Janine, Peugeot historically was a brand known for its durability in harsh environments like Australia, with a strong following of loyal owners. But times change, and boy have times changed for Peugeot in Australia. It has not been a very popular brand for a while; in 2007, sales almost reached 9000 units. In 2025, the brand sold just 1350, with fewer than 1000 expected to sell by the end of 2026. Inchcape stopped selling sister brand Citroen here in 2024.

The problem is that Inchcape has now relinquished Peugeot distribution rights in Australia, and while Stellantis (Peugeot’s parent company) says the brand will continue to be sold here, that is not written in stone. Given the influx of new cheap Chinese brands and the sales volume decline of some mainstream legacy brands, would resuming sales of a low-volume, non-premium legacy brand like Peugeot make sense? Probably not.

If Stellantis decides Peugeot is not worth selling here after all, getting parts and servicing for a run-out 2008 hybrid may get increasingly difficult. Even though there is a statutory requirement to maintain parts for ‘a reasonable time’, that is clearly open to interpretation. Even with cars that are selling like hotcakes right now, with no hint of leaving Australia, the wait for parts can be months.

Given all the above, there is a high risk that the resale values of your discounted Peugeot 2008 will plummet further.

In short, if you’re willing to take a gamble, go ahead and you may have no problems. But if this is a car you are going to rely on, there are much better options for strong after-sales support.

Is the Renault R5 Turbo 3E really coming to Australia, and if so when and how much is it? – Jack 

Answer: Hi Jack, yes, the wild R5 Turbo 3E is coming, as we’ve detailed before here. An update last week from Renault Australia boss Glen Sealey confirmed that the car is available to us, but by order only. There won’t be any tyre-kicking or haggling at your local Renault dealer.

The price of this 400kW all-electric retro hot hatch is still only an estimate, but given the ex-factory price of 160,000 euros (approximately $261,000), expect the R5 Turbo 3E to cost a cool $300,000-plus landed here in 2027.

Exact timing is still a bit rubbery, as Sealey mentioned that local certification approval work has not been completed yet. While Sealey would not say exactly how many cars will arrive, he did say it would likely be no more than 10 examples of the total 1980 units Renault intends to produce.

He also revealed that it’s not just die-hard Renault fans plonking down a deposit on this hypercar challenger, but also buyers who’ve had nothing to do with the Renault brand before.

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