A few people have asked me about different versions of the V6 and seem to be confused as to what was and wasn,t fitted to the cars as standard,so hopefully this write-up might help and give people a bit of info on the V6 Safranes.
The Renault Safrane V6 RXE was first shown at the Birmingham motorshow on the 20th October 1992,on the Renault U.K stand,number 306 in hall 3-3A at 12.15PM,managing director Michel gigou and Frank williams took part in the press launch,a Persian red RXE was on display.
The main launch at Renault dealerships was on Wednesday 11th November 1992,the same day Autocar puplished an 8 page roadtest using V6 RXE K521 NPO,the RXE used in most U.K press features/press photos.
Renault announced U.K prices on the 21st January 1993 with the basic RXE priced at £25,600 with no options.
The national advertising campaign began on the 5th Febuary 1993,this included price lists and sales adverts.
March 1993 saw the launch of the Safrane RT V6 ,a lower spec car with a lot of the toys featured on the RXE missing,this was priced at £20,995 minus options,both RT,and RXE now had glass electric sunroofs fitted as standard.
Late 1994 the V6 RT was dropped due to poor sales its price had risen to £22,100 inc drivers airbag.
Interesting is that the RXE was £25,675 a £25 increase since launch,but the V6 RT had risen by £1700!.
July 1995 saw a strange rebadge from a V6 RXE to a V6i,and in January 1996 the now V6i had risen to £27,970 inc twin airbags.
July 1996 saw the end of the V6,to make way for the Phase 2.
So what was the options?
From launch in 1993 the RXE had 3 options
Leather interior £1000
Ergomatic seats £300
CD player £300
Early 1994 Computer controlled suspension(CCS)became a £1500 option,it was standard fitment until then.
From launch the V6 RT had a larger selection of options
Metallic paint £200
Air conditioning £850
Heated front screen £150
Phillips 80W Hi-Fi £300
CD player £300
Leather interior £1000
The V6 RT was lacking a lot of toys the RXE had as standard,CCS,electric rear seat,electric steering column,rear sunblind,wood trim inserts,air horns etc etc,where all not fitted to a V6 RT,and were not on the options list!
In Late 1994 there was no options listed for a RT V6,only the RXE,prices had increased slightly.
Leather interior £1000
Ergomatic seats £310
CD player £320
CCS £1500
For 1995 the options stayed the same,early 1996 the now V6i had leather interior as standard
Ergomatic seats was £335
CD player £335
CCS £1525
The V6i had also dropped a few RXE toys,no electric rear seats,electric steering column.
At more than one stage the V6 Safrane was Renaults most expensive car for sale and topped the pricelist several times.
So whats the state of the surviving V6 cars,well being honest it very grim.
At there highest point(around 1994-96)there was the following taxed on the road cars
V6 RT 136
V6i 77
V6 RXE 698
As of today with Q3 figures for 2011(Q4 is due in a few days)theres the following
V6 RT 4
V6i 2
V6 RXE 12
A total of 18 cars roadworthy in the U.K,and the number seems to drop slightly every quarter
So there you go,a slightly longer history of the V6,but its an idea of how rare they have now become???.
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Luckily I never needed it but I came close.