1987 Renault 21 TS review from UK and Ireland

This car had a certain amount of rust.

Its sills needed work.

Some pipework underneath needed welding.

The seats were coming away.

The fan switch gave up.

The speedometer seized up and sheared the speedo cable.

As you can see, this car suffered a lot of faults, but is that so unusual for an eleven year old vehicle?

The electrics were a little temperamental, which is something I understand Renault sorted out in later models.

Eventually, I had to get rid of it as the garage told me it would probably not pass the MOT the following year, but I still miss it.

The control console was beautiful, a real work of 1980s art, with stepped slopes and sliders.

The interior was incredibly spacious, not so much a cabin as a piece of real estate. Some laughed at the sheer amount of beige, but I found it made the whole thing light and airy.

The engine made an endearing whine when I put my foot down on the accelerator. No other car I've driven has that.

This was a car with spirit, which never actually left me stranded anywhere.

I once backed the car into a Volvo by mistake and the Volvo came off very badly (as did my insurance, rightly) but the Renault just shrugged it off with barely a scratch; that's how solid she was.

The most impressive thing about it was the forward tilting bonnet hinge, which meant that, if you opened the bonnet and stood behind the boot, the open bonnet looked almost impossibly distant.

This car had a sort of stateliness, like a Citroen Xantia in some ways, even if she was a base model, and I can't believe I traded "up" to a Rover 214, even if it did have more gadgets.