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How Old is this car and what do you think its worth

nicky4tl

Enthusiast
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190
Hi all,
I just saw an interesting Renault 4. It was imported from france. The tax book says its a 1982 845cc but its an 1100cc. Its got the rearview mirror sticking out of the dash and the hinges for the doors are on the outside. Its also an older dash board than my 1983 tl. The levers for the lights and stuff are chrome and theres a switch on the left for the wipers.
It also has nice chrome bumpers but a weird "non-renault" i think, front grill with foglights in it. It also has alloy wheels but the spare is a standard r4 with three holes in it.
Im in a bit of a dilemma as to how much its worth. The chassis and body all seems really good. It drives fine. Theres 157000 km on the clock. but the front left wing is really dented in and the inner wing on the right is rusted badly at the front. Also the front right door is badly dented and broken off its bottom hinge. Also the steering wheel can be wobbled from left to right. It hasnt been registered here so i guess ill have to pay import duty or VRT and it has no NCT.
Its got bigger seats with headrests from another car too. Hmm pros and cons and etc....
Any suggestions as to what this thing could be valued at roughly? Im only interested cause the chassis seems in such good nic and i have a gtl with a dud chassis to use for parts. anyone? Thanks
 
Hmmm - it does sound like a pre-1978 car, but I'm not familiar with the spec of cars they sold abroad. Does it have the umbrella handbrake under the dash? I prefer the earlier style of car and dash, but the front wheel handbrake is really bad for handbrake turns.

The dents will certainly devalue the car, but are only a cosmetic problem. It's difficult to value a car without seeing it, but I'd guess £100 to £300. Sounds like it's had a hard life, but if you are prepared to put some time into it maybe it could be nice.

There are some links to do with importing older cars on
http://www.renault4.co.uk/forum/about38.html
:D
 
the handbrake is an umbrella thingy under the steering comumn. The asking was 900 euros which i now think must be a bit too high. It seemed to me it with the front grill and alloys that maybe it had had a bit of a boy racer owner at one stage. Another funny thing was it has aluminium floor pans in the front on top of the original renault floor!Thanks for the price guide though.
 
Aluminum floor thingy's................ ???????????

Wrong seats and grill etc etc

Sounds like a complete dog

Bide your time and buy a good one - this one is for spares only.

Steve
 
nicky4tl Is this the R4 from the buy & sell? Where abouts is it?

If it has good non-standard parts, it may be worth something. But I'd be worried about paying the VRT and back-payment of tax. When was it last taxed in France?
 
richard. It is indeed the one in the buy and sell. Not sure when it was last taxed. I think it was driven over here a couple of years ago. And then just parked up. Very nice folks selling it. Its in galway city and there looking for 1000 euro really.
 
It could be a 1982 car. My first R4 was an '82 GTL (first registered in January '82, so presumably built in late '81), and that had the old type dashboard and external door hinges - all R4s had these up until the 1983 model year, which was also when disc brakes were introduced. It also (obviously) had the umbrella handle handbrake, although being a GTL this was different to the one on the TL (bigger handle, and mounted a bit lower down at a slightly different angle) because the handbrake on GTLs always operated the back brakes rather than the fronts on the TL. For the real anoraks out there I can reveal that it was also about this time when window frames changed from rust-prone metal to plastic: my car (registration UJT 252 X) had plastic window frames, whereas a guy around the corner had another GTL of almost exactly the same age (registration UJT 256 X) which had metal frames. This presumably means that although mine was registered a day or two before his, mine was actually the newer of the two. Oh yes, mine had plastic door mirrors too, whereas his had metal ones... Yawn... Sorry, I could bore you all for hours about detail changes to R4s over the years, but in my defence I used to be the head of research at a motor museum, and so can't really help it...................

La Poste

PS Road tax was abolished in France years ago. :lol:
 
I wasn't aware of 1100cc cars with the umbrella handbrake operating the rear wheels. This might just be what I need for my ultimate 1400cc Renault 4 with disc front brakes and bench front seat.

Does anyone have one of these early GTLs with an umbrella handbrake - and would they be prepared to part with the complete handbrake mechanism?

:clementi:
 
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