I bought this 5 in the summer after my previous one - a 1981 automatic - died from crap-Renault-automatic-gearbox syndrome. I've been using this one more or less daily and it has been great - starts every time and does 40mpg. With the onset of winter though, which brings with it both increased traffic and trouble with my left knee, which flares up in the cold and damp and makes it difficult to operate a clutch in heavy traffic, I've bought myself a small automatic (non-Renault) to run to work in through the winter, so unfortunately the 5 has got to go to make room.
It's one of the last of the original shape 5s, and as such has a 5-speed box, which is rather overgeared for the 1108cc engine but does help keep the fuel consumption down. Before I bought it it had belonged to an elderly couple for many years, and they spared no expense keeping it on the road - the last service, in January this year, cost £565.07. It's currently MoT'd until July 18th next year and taxed till the end of February. It's done around 45,000 miles from new - it doesn't have a full history but it has enough old MoT's to suggest that this is genuine, and the condition of the interior tallies with this sort of mileage too.
Bodily it's in pretty good shape for a 5 - it had some welding to one of the rear trailing arm mounts for its last MoT, and it's got a bit of surface rust round one of the rear arches under the plastic trim, and there's also a small dent on the offside rear corner below the light, but other than that it's pretty good. Mechanically it seems fine, as you would expect with such a low mileage. The only issues I've found are that the radiator fan doesn't kick in (although I'm going to fit a bypass switch to it as soon as I get a minute which will cure that problem) and it appears to be running a bit lean at the moment as it seems to pull better with a little bit of choke, although it runs quite happily without it. All the other electrics work, including the original radio/cassette. The only other thing is that the speedo cable snapped a little while ago - new cables come up regularly on eBay but I've not bought one as I don't tend to drive the car fast enough to worry about getting caught speeding.
If there's anything else you would like to know please ask. I'd like payment within a week of the auction ending, and ideally collection within the same time frame, although this is more flexible as the car is still taxed so can sit on the road somewhere until it's collected if need be. Thanks for looking and good luck.
