Faults:

Transmission leak when purchased.

Battery replaced at116,000km.

CV boots replaced at 125,000km.

Accelerator cable replaced 125,000km.

Front brake rotors and hoses replaced at 132,000km.

Steering rack boots replaced at 138,000km.

Alternator belt replaced at 143,000km.

General Comments:

When new this car cost more than a reasonably priced house here in New Zealand, so it must have been a special car to the doctor who bought it.

Its second owner had to pay $4,000 for a transmission rebuild a month after buying it.

It is my second 25 and they really reflect how well they have been looked after. The first one was a succession of niggly problems with the car never being quite right, but this one has been a joy to own and drive.

The V6 is a wonderfully smooth engine and the 4 speed gearbox a real improvement over the old 3 speed unit, however I often muse over the possibility of converting it to a manual.

I put Bi-Tron in everything 4 years ago and it made the gearbox very smooth and improved the economy which is great for a car of this size. 8.2l/100km on trips is easily attained.

Having the consumption showing on the trip computer certainly changed my driving style.

I hope the next 5 years are as good as the last.

Faults:

Endless electrical faults - mostly minor but frustrating and sometimes expensive due mainly to the complexity of tracing the faults.

Replaced all of the rubber hoses at 98000 miles. There is a rubber hose right in the valley under the fuel injection which joins a metal cooling pipe to the water pump on the V6 engine, and the metal pipe runs right down the valley to be joined at the back of the motor to the rest of the cooling system. The rubber joiner perished and had to be replaced. The whole fuel injection system had to come off to get to it. The cost was $900NZD to fix.

The voice synthesiser kept saying," Warning, Electrical System Faulty, Stop engine immediately." for no apparent reason. When you stopped the engine, it kepts saying,"Check belt immediately, if good, drive to nearest garage." At times, I felt like driving it to the garbage disposal rather than the garage. The Auto Electrician checked it out but found no apparent fault $500 NZD later.

The starter motor spat the dummy after 110,000 miles.

In the end, the Automatic Transmission spat the dummy at 150,000 miles, costing nearly $5,000 NZD to repair. I ended up bailing out of the car once that happened. The mechanic swapped the Renault for a rusty Volvo 360 GLE with a recond motor and good gearbox.

Rust began to appear around the sunroof.

General Comments:

This car would be by far the most comfortable car that I have ever owned. I endorse other peoples comments about it being a poor mans Bentley. However, it was extremely expensive to maintain, and plagued with frustrating little electrical problems. The engine was beautiful, smooth and extremely reliable. However, the transmission (an electronically controlled 3 Stage Automatic) was an absolute dog.

An extremely well finished car, with beautiful big soft leather electric seats. The seat electrics gave no problems. No rust problems, apart from a little bit around the sunroof.

Overall, a very elegant, smooth, comfortable, quiet car, which was an absolute dream to drive on the open road. A 300 km trip was just like sitting in a lounge for 3 hours. At 90 - 100 MPH it felt like it was only doing 50 MPH. A very high tech car for its age.