This is my current car:
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Not very exciting, I know, but it’s got four wheels and an engine (plus a boatload of electrical gizmos to break) It’s only a 1.8 16v, surprinsingly non-economical (with me driving, anyway) with un-necessarily large wheels (which makes the tyres expensive) but I think it looks pretty ‘cool’ for a family estate (not that I have a family, just loads of stuff to cart around.)
Of course, I’d love a diesel but I suspect the cost of replacing turbos on a Renault 1.9 dCi would probably outweigh any economy advantage, plus I don’t think a Renault gearbox would stand up to the kind of tuning I’d feel obliged to do if I had a modern turbodiesel engine (at least a big turbo and a corresponding remap.) The ridiculous key-card is a talking point (especially when I have to break out the emergency key and enter via the passenger door (the only one with a lock barrel - it’s the driver’s door in France and they were genuinely that lazy) and on the subject of talking, it likes telling me my tyres are flat. Or that a wheel doesn’t exist. Very bossy Also, the electrics are very reliable - so much so that owning the dealer-only ‘CLIP’ diagnostic/programming tool is pretty much obligatory when you drive an early 2000s Renault.
My previous 2 cars:
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(Why yes, that is gearbox oil all over the ground - it all came from the car on the right, which we managed to pull the driveshaft out of the gearbox on whilst trying to change a wishbone.)
And finally the one before that:
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As you can see, I’ve done my best to add some variety to my vehicle ownership by buying a Renault Laguna, followed by a Renault Laguna, then a Renault Laguna (just to shake things up a bit) and finally, a Renault Laguna. I wonder what my next car will be? Yep, it’s a bit sadistic, but I think Mondeos ride rather uncomfortably, Vectras are dull as dishwater and drive like a boat, and I haven’t thus-far really been able to afford a German or Japanese equivalent.