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Safrane, so good? Now needs new home for £250 shiter price


bramz7

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So, this was unexpected. As the for sale thread mentioned, I got bored of my ZX. It's great at what it does but I was driving the same car just after i passed my test, and 15 cars later it just wasn't what I wanted.

So I dropped that off at Downham Market this morning, meeting Beige1100 of this very forum in the process, who very kindly took me to the station after in his oddly crusty (but weirdly alluring) 405 NA Diesel estate.

 

I then ended up in Luton somehow.

 

I was picked up from the station by someone driving a Saab 9-3 2.8T Cabriolet...which was incredibly nice dare I say.

 

Then, words were spoken, drives were tested, money was exchanged, y'know, the usual.

 

So I then got back to Reading. And this was parked outside?!

 

37282451844_5479b06d7b_k.jpgfullsizeoutput_125e by Sam Osbon, on Flickr

 

37282447434_42739b0a56_k.jpgfullsizeoutput_1261 by Sam Osbon, on Flickr

 

Yeah, it's the Safrane RN which was on eBay forever. It had slowly been dropping in price and was at a very tempting £400 a week or so back. I messaged the seller, we spoke on the phone and a plan was hatched. I was expecting it to have issues but actually, the drive back down the M1, M25 and M4 was smooth. Very smooth. And ridiculously quiet. And the fuel gauge barely moved. I suppose that might be because the tank capacity is 80 litres...

 

So what do you get with an RN Safrane? Not a whole load as it turns out. No double din stereo. No fancy heating controls. Manual rear windows. Steel wheels. No AC, no ABS (I think), and slightly less plush seats.

 

But who cares. It looks sweet, the paint is all the same shade, there is barely any dings, it came with some useful spares, it had the tensioner and cambelt done 12k ago, and supposedly, only broke down once on the previous and longterm owner.

 

Driving a car this big is weird. Also I reversed into a hedge when I took it for a spin.

 

Best of all, the insurance for a 2.2VI Safrane was the same as the ZX. Gotta love weird insurance, I guess there's next to no ref data for a car like this with my age group.

 

 

I will update this thread with some driving thoughts soon...

 

 

26215600129_14259b7e53_k.jpgfullsizeoutput_1262 by Sam Osbon, on Flickr

 

37282450084_d2e16ff29d_k.jpgfullsizeoutput_125f by Sam Osbon, on Flickr

 

37282448824_824e86c208_k.jpgfullsizeoutput_1260 by Sam Osbon, on Flickr

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Good lord...that is a seriously nice old French barge.

 

Where did that 2.2 come from? Was it a Renault-own unit or did it start out elsewhere? I knew the facelifted Safrane came with that powerplant but not the earlier models.

4 pots were theirs, 5 pots were Volvo's Audi engine, and the V6 was the PRV one.

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Oh my that's lovely.

How many Safrane's are on this site now?

I think there are six on here at the moment, but reckon there could be a few more lurking around the place.

 

Well bought anyway. I have seen that on eBay for a while and thought it was quite nice, especially for that price. Hopefully it should serve you well.

 

Does it have the on board computer that talks to you? That really put a smile on my face when I first heard it.

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Good man,well bought,i have seen this for ages on ebay and thought surely it will be snapped up soon,looks really nice,same colour as mine aswell,Persian red(777)if it was first launch(Feb,March 93)it would of had the 8V engine not the J7T 2.2.

Think there are 3 V6s,one V6 RT,one V6i and one V6 RXE,which is interesting as its every version of V6,plus this RN and the silver RT.

Phase 1 is a pretty car in my opinion that's why I,ve owned several over the years,well done and give me a shout if you need anything.

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That's really lovely. I've liked Safranes ever since I got to sit in a metallic grey high-spec one at the 1992 Motor Show, which incidentally is reputedly still on the road  :)

Tell me more....

I have pics of that in my Safrane collection it was a Tungsten Grey V6 RXE,they had a Tungsten grey RT(which Frank Williams had) and a Persian red V6 RXE aswell at the show at the NEC in 92.

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Tell me more....

I have pics of that in my Safrane collection it was a Tungsten Grey V6 RXE,they had a Tungsten grey RT(which Frank Williams had) and a Persian red V6 RXE aswell at the show at the NEC in 92.

 

I recall reading on a forum (possibly the blue one) a couple of years ago that the car was still in existence.

 

My over-riding memory of the car was the flap that concealed the stereo system and the fact that I heard a fellow show attendee refer to it as a SafRAIN  :mrgreen:

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I was meaning the engines Volvo bought from VAG which became the silver block B5/B6 engines. B5254 was the one in the Safrane iirc, Renault badged it '20v'.

That's a bit of a hole in my knowledge, the VAG to Volvo engine thing. I'd always imagined the Volvoid lumps were pure Swede, but never having taken one apart I'm not really in any position to say.

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Renaults practice is to self register a large amount of a certain model,i think at least 3 Safranes I have owned have been registered with Southampton plates,my current car is aswell.I always felt that Renault made a mistake in the launch of the Safrane as they only released 2 versions,so you could buy a 2.0 8V RT or a 3.0 V6 RXE,that was it with a 10k difference,its strange the RN didn,t get released straight away as it would be RN,RT,RXE.Renault invested a fortune in the Safrane and of course got it wrong,the Phase 1 never sold well in the UK and there fancy ideas of fitted toys like electric memory steering columns,electric rear seats,computer controlled suspension etc with its own ECU all backfired(note the word ELECTRIC)so customers would be bringing them back with problem after problem,they became bad news for Renault and they quickly dropped or option listed the more complicated toys and put a high price on them HOPING no-one would tick that option box!Even in complete standard form an early RXE had all the above toys as standard but still had options to be had,leather trim,CD player(double DIN)and the inflatable front seats with sections that would inflate using buttons built into the seat,very cool............. 

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That's really lovely. I've liked Safranes ever since I got to sit in a metallic grey high-spec one at the 1992 Motor Show, which incidentally is reputedly still on the road  :)

 

I went to the '92 Motor Show too. The last one I went to. I couldn't remember the Safrane but I remember the Toyota Camry estate with it's twin rear wipers. :oops:

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