"Francois" the Vel Satis 3.5 V6 Privilege Shed
Discussion
As a very long time lurker of Readers' Cars I finally have a car which is interesting enough to share.
So this is thread of my shed. A 2004 Renault Vel Satis with the Nissan 3.5 lump and a myriad of quirks/ faults.
My previous daily was a gen1 Mazda 6 with the 2.0 duratec motor, however many issues cropped up with it and a recent house move meant I had a garage to work on the car at my own pace in relative comfort.
Whilst the Mazda was off the road I needed a stop gap, something big enough for the 2.4 kids, with a high level of safety and possibly something interesting which I wouldn't normally own. As I knew the car was to be a short term ownership I started to browse at wilder and wilder cars until I happened across a Vel Satis which was owner by a chap who had 3 of them and was scaling back his car ownership. A few emails later and 2 hour train journey and it was mine for £850.
After 2 Mazda 6's an RX8 and a 1.6tdci Focus I have never experienced a car quite like it. It doesn't have the sat nav but it still has plenty of toys, I mean who needs an adjustable speed limiter? Really?
It's a very relaxing place to be and the engine is at home in a car like this, It wafts around and driving it at any sort of speed feels insulting. There's a natural hesitation with the auto box but it gives the impression it isn't all that pleased with you demanding excess.
When it finishes huffing at you the acceleration is surprising, probably not on the stop watch but when the car is the size of a modest cathedral it certainly raises the eyebrows!
The missus first impression was that it was a bit "Francey" and she immediately liked it's hideous appearance. Like my other cars she suggested it needed a name so despite my resistance in becoming too attached to it we named him Francois.
The more I drove the car the more I have fallen for it. The multiple moving, heated seats, the coffee cup holders (and coffee courtesy of waitrose) and an increase in my listening of Radio 3 has rapidly aged me from 28 to somewhere in the 60 bracket. God help me.
In my next post i'll discuss some of the "quirks" of this luxo barge. Thank you for reading
So this is thread of my shed. A 2004 Renault Vel Satis with the Nissan 3.5 lump and a myriad of quirks/ faults.
My previous daily was a gen1 Mazda 6 with the 2.0 duratec motor, however many issues cropped up with it and a recent house move meant I had a garage to work on the car at my own pace in relative comfort.
Whilst the Mazda was off the road I needed a stop gap, something big enough for the 2.4 kids, with a high level of safety and possibly something interesting which I wouldn't normally own. As I knew the car was to be a short term ownership I started to browse at wilder and wilder cars until I happened across a Vel Satis which was owner by a chap who had 3 of them and was scaling back his car ownership. A few emails later and 2 hour train journey and it was mine for £850.
After 2 Mazda 6's an RX8 and a 1.6tdci Focus I have never experienced a car quite like it. It doesn't have the sat nav but it still has plenty of toys, I mean who needs an adjustable speed limiter? Really?
It's a very relaxing place to be and the engine is at home in a car like this, It wafts around and driving it at any sort of speed feels insulting. There's a natural hesitation with the auto box but it gives the impression it isn't all that pleased with you demanding excess.
When it finishes huffing at you the acceleration is surprising, probably not on the stop watch but when the car is the size of a modest cathedral it certainly raises the eyebrows!
The missus first impression was that it was a bit "Francey" and she immediately liked it's hideous appearance. Like my other cars she suggested it needed a name so despite my resistance in becoming too attached to it we named him Francois.
The more I drove the car the more I have fallen for it. The multiple moving, heated seats, the coffee cup holders (and coffee courtesy of waitrose) and an increase in my listening of Radio 3 has rapidly aged me from 28 to somewhere in the 60 bracket. God help me.
In my next post i'll discuss some of the "quirks" of this luxo barge. Thank you for reading
God bless You, Francois and the local auto electrician. Stay strong my friend...... http://www.samaritans.org
Freds said:
God bless You, Francois and the local auto electrician. Stay strong my friend...... http://www.samaritans.org
That's mean!
Brilliant car, I love these.
Many Many moons ago (2004-5) I won a lot of business for a company who stored and processed all the Renaults coming into the UK. Basically we had the task of installing the security devices into thousands of brand new cars before they were transported into the Dealership network. The company we were working on behalf of gave us a modern purpose built workshop to complete this in on the same site.
At the time I had 15 lads working for me and we used to be given a job list with the vehicles that required alarms installing and the stock location of said vehicles. Please bear in mind the compound itself held just over 15000 cars so it was massive. Keys were just left in all the vehicles so most mornings I would go and hunt a 'mini bus' vehicle to drive my lads around to collect the vehicles allocated to them to then drive them to the workshop and complete the installation.
Anyway, basically every morning I would hunt out a V6 velsatis to transport them around. They were actually quite rare and hard to find and I didn't always succeed but a lot the time I did and I still remember the lovely rasp of the V6 and the room inside and the heated seats. They were a lovely old barge to pootle about in. Occasionally the car i chose would run out of fuel and we would just leave it and jump in something else to carry on the job with (usually a diesel Megane or Laguna!). So pre PDI and pre dealer delivery your Velsatis may have been one of my mini buses
Many Many moons ago (2004-5) I won a lot of business for a company who stored and processed all the Renaults coming into the UK. Basically we had the task of installing the security devices into thousands of brand new cars before they were transported into the Dealership network. The company we were working on behalf of gave us a modern purpose built workshop to complete this in on the same site.
At the time I had 15 lads working for me and we used to be given a job list with the vehicles that required alarms installing and the stock location of said vehicles. Please bear in mind the compound itself held just over 15000 cars so it was massive. Keys were just left in all the vehicles so most mornings I would go and hunt a 'mini bus' vehicle to drive my lads around to collect the vehicles allocated to them to then drive them to the workshop and complete the installation.
Anyway, basically every morning I would hunt out a V6 velsatis to transport them around. They were actually quite rare and hard to find and I didn't always succeed but a lot the time I did and I still remember the lovely rasp of the V6 and the room inside and the heated seats. They were a lovely old barge to pootle about in. Occasionally the car i chose would run out of fuel and we would just leave it and jump in something else to carry on the job with (usually a diesel Megane or Laguna!). So pre PDI and pre dealer delivery your Velsatis may have been one of my mini buses
Edited by M3333 on Friday 5th August 08:03
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