Nick Chandler:
Howdy all, i've just come to a realisation about how cheap renault 19s are...
Models are usually cheap for a reason, usually because of poor perception, probably the Renault 19 case or because they are just bad ie a Lada.
<strong>A) are they any good to drive? (i realise they aint quick but are they fun?)</strong>[/QUOTE]
The 1.7 Series 2 manual I drove many years ago seemed under powered, and I was coming from an R12. Depends on your idea of fun to drive, they are certainly no drivers car, but as an everday sort of car, the purpose for which it was designed, they are fine.
<strong>B) are they reliable? (autos in particular)</strong>[/QUOTE]
There seems to be questions of reliability hanging over the 19, probably associated with poor servicing in the past. I know of a FSH Volvo/Renault serviced 1991 Renault 19 that at five years old was suffering from a silted up radiator. It was found the coolant had never been changed. The auto seems to have its own problems, it seems frequent changing caused by around town driving of dropping into overdrive top then back to 3rd seems to cause wear which leads to failure. It seems a less frequent problem on country driven cars. But the early VL and VN Commodores also suffered from a similar problem. Also I've known of a dropped tooth off the crown wheel or pinion on an auto. Certainly the auto seems to have a lot of reliability problem, and as Bog Master pointed out you need the XR 25 diagnostic box to get the level correct in the trans. Another thing the canmbelt needs changing every 90,000k's.
Overall as reliability goes they are probably no worse than the average car up to 160,000k's
<strong>C) are parts easy to get hold of?</strong>[/QUOTE]
A good selection of fast moving parts seem to be stocked by the current Renault regime, I've even bought 12 parts from the local dealer here. But there are also the specialists like Caravelle and French Connection in Melbourne who stock bits. They aren't at the orphan stage yet.
<strong>D) general opinions on them??</strong>[/QUOTE]
If it was a French wine it would be a vin ordinaire.
Tell us more about your father's first car 8G which you mentioned in a previous post topic, that would be more interesting than discussing 19's!!
Simon