crazy American with R4 questions

[Ben Boyle]

Hello!
I'm an American who has been pondering getting a Renault 4. Before you tell me that I'm too naive to handle it I also own a Citroen 2CV so I am aware of some of the peculiarities of owning strange cars on this side of the pond.

My biggest concern if I were to try to obtain one is parts. Are there any reliable vendors in Europe that speak English that maintain a decent stock for them? This is a pretty big deal because I'm not likely to find any parts cars in the junkyard here in Michigan!

Also, what is a decent 4 going to cost in the UK? By decent I mean without debilitating rust and complete?

Thanks for answering my questions. Any of you members of the 2CVGB by chance? Admittedly, not a Renault but it is a French car!

 

[malcolm]

Welcome to the forum Ben,

The biggest challenge is finding a good rust free car in the UK. They do exist, but it's difficult to tell the difference between a good one and a bad one from photographs on places like eBay. Might make sense contacting a dealer such as renospeed in the UK or Wind Classics in the Netherlands.

Whitehouse Renault (a UK Renault dealer) will probably be willing to post parts abroad (It's worth emailing them to check). Renault still support the cars well. OItherwise there are a few more places you could try for new and secondhand bits on http://www.renault4.co.uk/forum/about290.html

 

[Enrique]

Here in Colombia (South America) R4 is very popular and it's still possible to find one in very good shape. What year are you looking for?
Will be glad to help you find one.

 

[Pieter]

Ben,
as far as parts are concenred there are some excellent people as Clementine said, on the web and taking part in this forum. In addition if you are talking about a post-83 model car many parts like panels, wear parts, etc can be ordered from Renault factory dealers even if the Renault 4 was not brought into that country. The 4 is still supported by the current Renault Dialogys computer parts system, so a useful trick would be to find the nearest English speaking or bilingual location with a Renault dealer network, and to get a set of recent parts manuals or Renault Dialogys parts system disks.


I've heard there a a few good recent R4s in Japan and you may be able to organise importation with a grey market Japanese importer if there are many of them in the US.
Good luck!

 

[Ben Boyle]

As it stands right now, a '83 is illegal here. The car has to be 25 years old for importation and that leaves '81 and down right now. Also, there are no Renault dealer in the United Statets. I believe they may be operating in Mexico but by the time I tried to deal with that I'd rather just deal with somebody in Europe. I get 2CV parts fairly often from Europe so I'm not afraid to do so with a R4.
Thanks for the offers for help so far. This is something I don't plan on doing immediately but I want to have a bit of a clue about them before I proceed.

Ben,
as far as parts are concenred there are some excellent people as Clementine said, on the web and taking part in this forum. In addition if you are talking about a post-83 model car many parts like panels, wear parts, etc can be ordered from Renault factory dealers even if the Renault 4 was not brought into that country. The 4 is still supported by the current Renault Dialogys computer parts system, so a useful trick would be to find the nearest English speaking or bilingual location with a Renault dealer network, and to get a set of recent parts manuals or Renault Dialogys parts system disks.


I've heard there a a few good recent R4s in Japan and you may be able to organise importation with a grey market Japanese importer if there are many of them in the US.
Good luck!

 

[Pieter]

Ben,
pre 81 are in dialogys as well, under the superseded model list, and any dealer you can communicate with should be able to find part numbers, availability and any supersessions provided they know the body number and model (Oval plate) number.

 

[Enrique]

Just guessing here, but wasn't Renault's operation in the US taken over by Chrysler? I remember something about them working together in the 80's.....

 

[malcolm]

There is some information about Renault and the USA on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault It's an interesting article. I thought Renault were still state owned, but it seems they were privatised in 1996.

Renault did have a controling stake in AMC in the '70s, but ended up selling that to Chrysler.