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Réparateur d'automobiles

Just Registered........ Hello

AndrewPole

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Hello All,
I have registered today because I know nothing about Renault 4s BUT my wife would love to have one. We currently have a four year old Mistubishi (to be honest neither of us like new cars!!) which she would sell and replace it with a Renault 4.
I would be gratefull for any opinions as this would be a daily used car.
How much would we have to pay for a good one?
Is there anywhere near us (Cardiff) that could service the car?

I'm basically asking if it would be a foolish move to have a Renault 4 as a daily runner.

thanks all in advance :)
 
Welcome to the forum Andrew,

I've been using Renault 4s as daily runners for the last 13 years. I'm not a fan of modern cars either, but most of all I like the low cost motoring that the little Renaults deliver.

They aren't really ideal for long distance motorway trips, but for bumbling around they are perfectly OK.

Mechanically there is little to go wrong. There is no performance and hence no strain on any of the mechanical bits. It's the chassis that tends to cause problems - particularly rust around the rear suspension mountings which is expensive to fix.

With that in mind it's worth waiting until a really good one turns up. The really good ones don't necessarily have to be expensive - cost depends on how shiney the car is.
 
thanks for the reply Clementine :)

Having bought a 'good' one, could I pop along to my local garage if 'she' started playing up ??
Is regular servicing easy to do or get done ??

thanks again.............
 
Hoping someone else can answer this one as I do my own servicing.

The R4 isn't exactly complicated, so any local garage should be able to do the work. I've heard some garages get a little stuffy about servicing cars that they can't plug their Bosch diagnistics into.
 
I get the impression that many of us work on our own cars but we need to think of those who have no mechanical knowledge.

Although it means paying through the nose, the local Renault garage may be the best bet especially if they have time served 50 year olds who know the 4. Before buying one it may be worth sussing out your local Renault agent to see if they are interested in working on a 4.

Steve
 
For years I used to take my R4 to the local dealer for servicing, and frankly they were crap! Expensive, and not really interested (even though it was only a few years after they stopped importing R4s to the UK). I then decided to buy a Haynes manual for the routine stuff, and found a friendly independant garage for the stuff I didn't fancy doing myself, which seemed to work well enough. As a result I'm now a fairly reasonable mechanic myself, so don't really need garages any more (which I'm more than happy about). The good thing about doing your own maintenance (even if it's only the simple stuff) is that you get to understand how the car works, why it sometimes doesn't work, etc, and it means you don't have to risk letting some idiot bugger up your pride and joy! I'd always recommend being on intimate terms with the greasy bits of any older car (it's really not difficult), but if you do go the garage route Steve H is right about grey-haired mechanics - they're far more likely to understand an R4 than a younger mechanic who's never seen one before, let alone tried working on one, or fathoming out the extremely complicated gearstick!
 
Hi there - I'm new to all this, but used to own a wonderful renault 4 called 'the floating meek' (long story...) I used mine on a daily basis for approx 4 years when the chassis finally rotted through and gave way - it was 18 years old and I didn't check it out properly when I bought it - We live and learn -

I probably covered about 50,000 miles in mine during the 4 years - I used it daily & went all over the country in it - it was a super car for every day use... it was cheap to run, nippy, when I lifted the bonnet I knew what was what - it was simple and I loved it - in fact I clearly remember sobbing when it was carted off for spare parts by a bloke for £40! On the down side it leaked like hell and everytime it rained I ended up with a mini tidalwave as I pulled off! I must admit it was my first car and I probably gave it the briefest of checks when I bought it!

Your wife obviously has exceptional taste - just make sure you check what ever you buy over very well - you can't help but enjoy a renault 4
 
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