In October The Renault Used…

I can see this new regular feature of my blog quickly becoming known as “What That F***ing Renault Vel Satis Did To Me This Month!”; if only it didn’t make the title line so long, I’d probably do it.

It’s been a pretty traumatic month with the Renault, with it deciding that it’s enduring pain-in-the-arse personality would show up again, this time by breaking down on my mother’s driveway one Friday night when I needed to get back to the pub, having just dropped the children off in the hopes of having a relatively quiet, stress-free weekend.

It got worse when the breakdown guy turned up, announced it was the starter motor and that, at 9pm on a Friday night, there was nothing he could do to help me.  He couldn’t even get me home as, it turns out, my breakdown cover via Churchill Insurance doesn’t include home recovery.

The following morning the car was taken to a local garage who confirmed that, indeed, it was the starter motor – and that, for this particular model, no third-party manufacturer part could be sourced.  Nor could a refurbished part be found.  And it couldn’t simply be fixed, either.

I would have to wait until Monday morning, when I could speak with the garage I purchased it from as, after all, the damned thing is still under warranty.  Except that, when I eventually got hold of my garage, it turns out I was lied to, and no warranty was ever provided as part of the car sale.

That will be a whole different blog, at a whole different time, once the discussions between myself and the garage I bought the Renault Vel Satis from have completed.  In the meantime, suffice it to say, I ended up getting the garage in Buckingham to repair the car, at a whopping price of £428.81 including VAT.  (To be fair £7.92 of that was for a new hazard switch, having discovered – when it broke down – that the one in the dashboard didn’t work.)

Still, it kept the fuel and mileage figures down for this month as it took me a week to get it back.  And on Wednesday the electric windows stopped working…

Renault Vel Satis 3.5V6 Performance Log:

It should come as no surprise that the miles per gallon figure for this month is quite low.  Aside from the one slightly-extended round trip to Buckingham, the car hasn’t been used much this month and most of the journeys it has done were short hop trips of less than four miles.  That’s not really when this engine shines.  Still, it’s returning an average of eight miles per gallon more than the old Jeep ever did, so let’s not think it’s too bad, eh?

• Fuel Used: 23.4 gallons (down from 37.3)
• Economy: 22.4 miles per gallon (down from 22.9)
• Distance: 521.7 miles travelled (down from 853)
• Average Speed: 28.5 miles per hour (down from 37.9)
• Service due in: 14’597 miles
• Odometer reading: 64’353 miles

Ironically, in my last blog on this car’s performance I mentioned that there weren’t any notable incidents during September, save for the one occasion when it refused to start when I pushed the button.  Turns out that was a portent of doom, didn’t it?