RE: Shed Of The Week: Renault Vel Satis
Discussion
Spacious, luxurious and not ugly enough to make babies cry!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIfAbnanNeE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIfAbnanNeE
They're actually rather nice places to sit - probably the last French wafter (this or the C6) and they're somewhat more reliable than those...
The problem is body parts - they cost FORTUNES - hence the few I still see are sporting damage (one has what looks like a cannon-shell-sized hole in the door!)
The Avantime remains a car I'd love to own but values are firmly on the rise and have been for a year-or-2 now - this lacks the desirability but they are cheap and they do waft and if you're a proper shedder (as so few in this thread seem to be) they make an excellent choice IMO
Just be prepared to drive it long after 4" holes in the door have been there for months if not years ;0
The problem is body parts - they cost FORTUNES - hence the few I still see are sporting damage (one has what looks like a cannon-shell-sized hole in the door!)
The Avantime remains a car I'd love to own but values are firmly on the rise and have been for a year-or-2 now - this lacks the desirability but they are cheap and they do waft and if you're a proper shedder (as so few in this thread seem to be) they make an excellent choice IMO
Just be prepared to drive it long after 4" holes in the door have been there for months if not years ;0
Edited by 405dogvan on Saturday 21st November 15:29
Lester H said:
May be better bet would be Peugeot 405 Executive 2.2 HDI, it's cousin.
607 surely? The 405 died long before they ruined their cars with HDI engines and was a Mondeo (technically Sierra) competitorGL finding a 607 - they seem to have vanished - HML lists only a few hundred of the most popular models left with rarer models in single figures (tho in fairness, some only SOLD in single figures!!)
Edited by 405dogvan on Saturday 21st November 15:28
Had a petrol V6 a few years back which was ok in my tenure, went very well and interior was lovely. I know a few people with older ones and the electrics are truly shocking. The voice warning on one I know literally takes several minutes to cycle through all the faults everytime its started up. I christened them Vel Sadness some time back.
Limpet said:
A borked common rail diesel engine, particularly in something wearing a Renault badge, needs to be assumed to be requiring a million pounds spending on it. Joking aside, it really wouldn't take much for the repair cost to comfortably exceed the value of a running car, and you'd have all the grief of getting it sorted to boot. And it would need professional expertise which won't work cheap.
It might be an injector, but it might not. And to even find out with any degree of certainty is going to cost you few quid.
It might be an injector, but it might not. And to even find out with any degree of certainty is going to cost you few quid.
405dogvan said:
The problem is body parts - they cost FORTUNES - hence the few I still see are sporting damage (one has what looks like a cannon-shell-sized hole in the door!)
These two are spot on IMHO.The diesel engine is an Isuzu unit as mentioned in the writeup. It is complex, and a tight fit in the engine bay, meaning that many jobs are engine-out. For example, replacing the fuel pump is 18 hours of workshop time, and that's assuming nothing goes wrong. And most garages won't want to do it, because the risk of further borkage is so high. Which means you need to either go to a Renault dealer, who probably won't want to know either, or you need to be very, very good at DIY, or you have to just live with it.
In this case I would assume that the fix is not simple, because if it was the seller would have done it by now. I doubt that a bottle of Redex and an Italian tune up is going to sort it.
Parts wise, in many cases you can't get them any more or they are very expensive. Some of them are common with the Espace mk4, but that is also out of production now. I knew someone who waited 6 months for a replacement front wing for a Vel Satis. In the end he gave up and traded in the car for peanuts. Expect little or no help from Renault UK.
These are the real issues with buying this shed. For future SOTW writeups I would like to see this type of issue covered. What typically goes wrong? What do parts cost? What is availability like? Do the common jobs need a specialist or can they be DIY'd? Is there an owners' club? I think that this type of information would be really useful to those who are actually considering the car in question, or something like it.
It's a shame, because I have a real soft spot for these cars. They seem to mark the end of the era when the French manufacturers made these wonderful cars which placed a strong emphasis on design, which weren't afraid to polarise opinion, and which tried to challenge people rather than pander to the lowest common denominator. It was a time when they took design risks rather than playing it safe. Today I think only the Citroen Cactus and DS5 still do this, although Toyota/Lexus seem to have become much more assertive of late.
I don't doubt you but in the years of ownership, nothing I required was unavailable from my local Renault dealer (albeit after a few days wait) and even a rear window was rustled up in a couple of days by Autoglass or somesuch when it decided to blow out. These cars were built and sold long after they gave up with the UK so parts are still about.
Not that I'm moving from my original position that these cars are now for Renault fetishists only at this stage.
Not that I'm moving from my original position that these cars are now for Renault fetishists only at this stage.
Interesting swisstoni. I had the same engine in a Renault Espace and had great difficulty getting hold of a fuel pump and bottom hose set. Renault UK said - sorry, not currently available, and no ETA. Maybe I got them on a bad day 
I got there eventually, but it was not very easy. Maybe they have got better since then.
I got there eventually, but it was not very easy. Maybe they have got better since then.
swisstoni said:
I don't doubt you but in the years of ownership, nothing I required was unavailable from my local Renault dealer (albeit after a few days wait) and even a rear window was rustled up in a couple of days by Autoglass or somesuch when it decided to blow out. These cars were built and sold long after they gave up with the UK so parts are still about.
Not that I'm moving from my original position that these cars are now for Renault fetishists only at this stage.
It seems a terrible missed opportunity; had they got halfway decent engines and the kind of squishy long-travel yet comfortable handling/suspension typified by the Renault 20/30 it probably would have sold well to francophiles, of which there are a reasonable supply in the UK.Not that I'm moving from my original position that these cars are now for Renault fetishists only at this stage.
The best thing about this car ,like all French cruisers, was that it didn't have the down the road graphic (as I think it is called ) of the usual premium brands. Every BMW, Audi, Mercedes and Jaguar (as well as weird things like Chrysler 300CC (were they? )) are styled with this gratuitously aggressive 'face' , as are all premium SUVs.Since adopting the deep grille Audis look ridiculous and BMWs become ever more parodic with that trademark pumped up steroid look. If I was looking for a big car I'd have a Citroen C6 - a car which doesn't drip testosterone from every angle.
This would have been a pain when it was a new and current car I imagine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84BB394HXWw
I imagine that chime sound would give you a nervous twitch nowadays...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84BB394HXWw
I imagine that chime sound would give you a nervous twitch nowadays...
beko1987 said:
This would have been a pain when it was a new and current car I imagine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84BB394HXWw
I imagine that chime sound would give you a nervous twitch nowadays...
The chime only happens when its got a fault to tell you about. In his case it was more of a PowerPoint presentation! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84BB394HXWw
I imagine that chime sound would give you a nervous twitch nowadays...
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