The Safrane.Info Forum!

Hi guys,

A quick intro. I know there isn't many of us around these days. I have had my Safrane for 10 years now. It's a 2.5 exec auto and I had driven an R25 (fab cars) and Laguna before. The Safrane has been wonderful though and as mentioned in another thread, I had it converted to LPG 7 years ago so it even costs buttons to run. Mine hasn't suffered from any real rust although it's just starting to go on the rear wheel arches so I may just get that sorted as the car is completely mint and it would be a shame for that to spoil it. Here's a pic of my cars.

Hi
Welcome to the forum,nice pair of Renaults you have there.
The rear arches seem to be a common place to rust,along with around the rear boot handle on a phase 2,but it looks a nice clean example.
Tell us more about its background and any problems you are having with it.

Hi

Not many of us here eh? There must be a whopping 10 of us by now V6 and I both check in here every day or three but the others aren't quite as regular. Chris H seems to have the most posts whereas I tend not to reply much as I don't like being the 'last poster' in the forum (my username is on all of them as the last poster at the moment). The forum is slowly growing but the number of safranes out there 'in the wild' as chris puts it, is slowly diminishing. I also haven't advertised the site brilliantly (as you can see the whole site is still a work in progress!).

Your safrane looks to be in mint condition - better than mine at the moment which has become a bit battered Wonderful cars for comfort and reliability though! How much did your LPG conversion cost and what is your MPG with it? Any idea where I can find a LPG kit? (I've been looking but for the 5 cylinder engine its hard to find and the volvo uses a different ECU as I understand it).

I really should get out there and sort mine out..

Not many Safranes about now but my next door neighbour used to own one (another R reg) and his son still runs it now. There is also another silver one in my area although the rust has taken hold of that one. I live in Chester by the way.

Anyway, my car only has 76,000 miles on so hasn't had a hard life in terms of mileage. But I have used it everyday (more or less) for 10 years. I've got to say it has been completely reliable in that time and has never missed a beat. I service it regularly and put plenty of polish and wax on which seems to have kept any rust at bay. As mentioned before, the rear arches have just started to go but you wouldn't notice unless you look closely. The car actually looks like it's just come out of the showroom both inside and out.



The gas conversion was done by Hardy's of Pwhelli. They were recommended to me by an LPG fitter who said if you want a proper job done by the best of the best, then these were them! Most people who have seen the work reckon it was done by the manufacturer, it's that good. It cost about £1800 but it's paid for itself a few times over now and you don't notice any difference running on gas in terms of performance. I usually get between 21 and 27 MPG depending on the sort of driving I do. I don't hang around though, I love to listen to that 5 cylinder warble! At 74p/litre, it probably means I get the equivilent of 35-40 mpg which I'm happy with.



http://www.hardysgarage.co.uk/services/mot

What issues have I had? As I say, not much! The heater matrix was done a while back which was dashboard out. The heater fan recently made a strange noise which sounded like something collapsing inside. Now it is very noisy but still works. Not sure what sort of job it is to change the blower? My dad backed the old girl into a wall. It demolished the wall but barely made a mark on the Safrane. Irritating on my part as it didn't have a scratch on it before that but considering how bad the wall was, I was gobsmacked that the car was more or less unscathed. New exhaust and new brakes all round recently. Other than that, it has been a complete dream to own and I absolutely adore it and can't imagine not having it. Everyone who goes in it loves it. It's unpretentious, you can park it anywhere and not worry about anyone nicking it, scratching it etc. Can you tell I love it yet!

Thats lovely,nice writeup and i can tell you like this car a lot.
What are your future plans for it?
Looks great in Silver,nice to know another true Safrane fan has joined!

Yes, I do rather like it! Only paid £3k for it with 29,000 miles on the clock!! I mean, it's silly money for soooo much car. A few more pictures of her below. It is my daily driver, anything it needs, it gets but I don't have any plans. My toy is the Alpine and we also have a Clio 182, Kangoo, Laguna, Volvo S60 and Jag X-type and I have the use of a Lotus Esprit too. Have a nice R19 16v cabrio coming soon too! The Alpine is without doubt a massive passion of mine but the Safrane is such a great car in so many ways.

Your paint work looks stunning and so do the tyres. I'm drooling..

Not so keen on the Alpine (although it does look like a muscle car) but the saff is a definite stunner - ours used to look nice like that once until I had the engine out The other one (mine) is a battered old beast with a rusty petrol flap, etc but its been so reliable I've kept it instead of getting shot of it.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my cars so the Safrane probably doesn't look too different to when it was first driven out of the showroom. I think I will get the rear arches sorted professionally quite soon before they get any worse (paint has flaked but they are still solid so no filler required) and there is a small spot on the rear spoiler that the colour has gone dark (lacquer/paint must have been thin there and I've polished it a bit too much!) The spoiler isn't like some I've seen though which peeled lacquer/paint crazing. It's perfect apart from that small patch. The rear bumper has some small grazes on where the old man demolished a wall so might be worth getting that done too. Some might say it is crazy spending money on a car worth less than the cost of the job but it's a car worth looking after in my eyes. Alloys are still pretty smart and I've never had them refurbished. I did underseal the car last year too but will have to keep on top of that.

On the contrary, I don't think its crazy to spend so much on the car. Ours is worth about £700 (Cat C write off a few years ago) but I spent about £2k on it in parts and tools so far and its still not on the road

Stupid money really but I love the thing to bits so I totally understand where you are coming from! I'll let you into a little secret: We're not the only ones! There are loads of other safrane drivers out there in the UK (and one in Ireland) that are just the same - all love their worthless safranes more than their wallets and all mighty proud to admit it

That reminds me.. I need to put some lacquer on my spoiler - blasted neighbours keep putting things on it when working on their own car and they've scratched it

There are several of us who have spent much more than our cars are worth on them,me included,but if you are really keen on the Safrane and its been a good car to you then why not?
My belief is if you look after it,it will look after you!
Rear spoiler issues seem common on phase 2s(Phase 1 didn,t have a spoiler fitted)