This week motorsport suffered a blow as Peugeot announced that they were pulling the plug on all their involvement in sports car racing. They’ve had some brilliant success at Le Mans and in the related endurance series over recent years, however, due to financial difficulties, they’ve had to remove themselves from future events.
The most notable successes for Peugeot came in 2009 when they were victorious in the Le Mans 24 Hours race and in 2011 when they triumphed in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup series.
Shock Announcement
The announcement from Peugeot was therefore, in the light of their brilliant success in recent years, a bit of a shock to all in the world of motorsport, however, it is a necessary action they just had to take at such a difficult time as the French manufacturer said in a statement: “This decision has been taken in the context of a difficult economic environment in Europe. Peugeot has chosen to concentrate resources on its sales performance in 2012.”
Peugeot’s car sales have been steadily declining over recent times, and so it is indeed understandable that they are now turning their attention to solely boosting sales through increased marketing efforts and through, of course, producing excellent road cars that will pull in more and more customers. At least that is the plan!
Value for Money?
Recent Peugeot’s have been impressive, the RCZ for example is a cracking looking car and I’ve seen a number of them on the road. They look like a supercar and are priced like a normal family saloon, and so they do offer good value for money.
It’s likely also that you will be able to acquire cheap car insurance on such a model as they only have relatively small engines. A 2.0 litre HDI is the top of the range, which will mean the RCZ will also be economical, which is of course very important and attractive to car owners these days. More of the same this year please Peugeot, and maybe they will indeed see sales increase.
What are your views on Peugeot pulling out of the endurance series, do you care? Or are you not too bothered?