The Safrane.Info Forum!

A few people have asked me about different versions of the V6 and seem to be confused as to what was and wasn,t fitted to the cars as standard,so hopefully this write-up might help and give people a bit of info on the V6 Safranes.
The Renault Safrane V6 RXE was first shown at the Birmingham motorshow on the 20th October 1992,on the Renault U.K stand,number 306 in hall 3-3A at 12.15PM,managing director Michel gigou and Frank williams took part in the press launch,a Persian red RXE was on display.
The main launch at Renault dealerships was on Wednesday 11th November 1992,the same day Autocar puplished an 8 page roadtest using V6 RXE K521 NPO,the RXE used in most U.K press features/press photos.
Renault announced U.K prices on the 21st January 1993 with the basic RXE priced at £25,600 with no options.
The national advertising campaign began on the 5th Febuary 1993,this included price lists and sales adverts.
March 1993 saw the launch of the Safrane RT V6 ,a lower spec car with a lot of the toys featured on the RXE missing,this was priced at £20,995 minus options,both RT,and RXE now had glass electric sunroofs fitted as standard.
Late 1994 the V6 RT was dropped due to poor sales its price had risen to £22,100 inc drivers airbag.
Interesting is that the RXE was £25,675 a £25 increase since launch,but the V6 RT had risen by £1700!.
July 1995 saw a strange rebadge from a V6 RXE to a V6i,and in January 1996 the now V6i had risen to £27,970 inc twin airbags.
July 1996 saw the end of the V6,to make way for the Phase 2.
So what was the options?
From launch in 1993 the RXE had 3 options
Leather interior £1000
Ergomatic seats £300
CD player £300
Early 1994 Computer controlled suspension(CCS)became a £1500 option,it was standard fitment until then.
From launch the V6 RT had a larger selection of options
Metallic paint £200
Air conditioning £850
Heated front screen £150
Phillips 80W Hi-Fi £300
CD player £300
Leather interior £1000
The V6 RT was lacking a lot of toys the RXE had as standard,CCS,electric rear seat,electric steering column,rear sunblind,wood trim inserts,air horns etc etc,where all not fitted to a V6 RT,and were not on the options list!
In Late 1994 there was no options listed for a RT V6,only the RXE,prices had increased slightly.
Leather interior £1000
Ergomatic seats £310
CD player £320
CCS £1500
For 1995 the options stayed the same,early 1996 the now V6i had leather interior as standard
Ergomatic seats was £335
CD player £335
CCS £1525
The V6i had also dropped a few RXE toys,no electric rear seats,electric steering column.
At more than one stage the V6 Safrane was Renaults most expensive car for sale and topped the pricelist several times.
So whats the state of the surviving V6 cars,well being honest it very grim.
At there highest point(around 1994-96)there was the following taxed on the road cars
V6 RT 136
V6i 77
V6 RXE 698
As of today with Q3 figures for 2011(Q4 is due in a few days)theres the following
V6 RT 4
V6i 2
V6 RXE 12
A total of 18 cars roadworthy in the U.K,and the number seems to drop slightly every quarter
So there you go,a slightly longer history of the V6,but its an idea of how rare they have now become???.

Its strange how Renault done their options.

Also 1k for leather, thats not bad, it was £850 on the 19 and theres a lot less seat in a 19.

Its funny on the old 19's and clios etc, remote central locking and electric windows but no door spealker, or electric tilt and slide sunroof but manual windows etc.

How much were the ph2's? I know the v6 was dropped (why didn't they use the 24v as found in the Laguna and Espace) money I presume.

My ph2 seems an oddball to me in regards to spec.

2l Auto Executive

Climate Control
Cruise Control
Electric front windows
Full leather
Rear sun blind

But no trip computer and manual rear windows, no lights in the doors (and no wiring for them)

Anywhere from £22k up to £28.5k (Questor price). A lot of money really but still a lot of car for the money back in those days. A couple of people from the local dealers have said to me that they rarely see them in their workshops and at the time the car was a lot of kit for the price. The volvo engines can't of been cheap either.

the Lagunas used the 4 pot Volvo engines so they were probably pretty cheap or just spare laguna units that were kicking about.

The prices are crazy when you think about it.

I had an E plate Saab 9000 a few years back it was 18,995 with the options it had in 1988! That woudl have bought a house.

Then the 19 16V.s they went for 15k ish again 1992.

Crazy money for the time.

The volvo lumps were fitted for two or three reasons that I've found out:

• Renault were about to buy Volvo (until the share holders in Volvo pulled the plug)
• Renault had no suitable engine for the ph2 safrane and found that the volvo units suited the application
• Renault and Volvo had been swapping a lot of engines in the years before the deal - you'll find some Volvos have Renault engines in them (and weirdly they're still reliable - how does that work?)

There are also 2L engines fitted in some Espaces too! They're even rarer than rocking horse teeth! While the engines were probably cost price between the two companies (or minimal profit) I suspect they valued them at a hefty amount and charged accordingly - thats what I meant to get across in my last post. I did enquire with Renault a few years back about a replacement engine - £3k for the basic block and that was a reconditioned engine Luckily I never needed it but I came close.

Crazy money eh? You might of thought it back then but look at house prices now!!!

thats mental, 1.2 16V engine for a clio is £450 last time I got one. That even came with oil filter and plugs and belt from Renault on a pallet.

One of the boys I know that has a 21 turbo got a new engine £1200 from Renault then 2k to fit, this was before he knew me of course.

Name a bog standard saloon that costs as much as a house nowadays though! By rights cars should cost about 100k for a small hatch if it was to keep in line.

Never seen an N series in an Espace, always diesels, or v6's. Old shapes were always the J series 2l 8v's or diesels.