28th Jan 2007, 08:25

We used to have one back in the 80’s and kept it in our back garden right up till about 00.

My father loved it, he still thinks it’s the best car he ever had. At 1 stage we had three in our back garden. He is a mechanic so that is why he loved it so much as it needed a bit of TLC every now and again.

I can remember it overheating a few times in really hot weather and in heavy traffic. That fan trick works for all Renaults I think! I have fond memory’s of the heater on full blast on the warmest days in summer and turning the windows down.

We used to leave the coolant tank lid off it so it could boil over!

My Da always had a gallon of water in the boot incase we needed a top up.

It was a great family car with buckets of room. I can remember going to a hurling match with the whole team squashed in!

And you would have to keep it topped up in the summer. The 12 had a great set of springs and a solid chassis and handled the road great.

The steering was a bit nasty looking and it was made of that really hard plastic so that when it was cold in the morning, the thing was freezing and you had to pull your sleeves around it.

It never let you down all the same. I think there was about 180K miles on the clock. We kept it for years it was still driving, but the rust got it (it literally collapsed into the ground and almost disappeared) and we had to scrap it a few years ago. Pity it got so bad as I would have liked to have restored it.