1991 Renault 25 TXE from UK and Ireland - Comments

31st Jan 2002, 08:54

"Fast, comfortable motoring at an affordable price"

What things have gone wrong with the car?

Temperature sensor and front brake hoses on the TXE (my last 25).

Crank, idle control valve and hose on TXI (previous 25).

Fuel sender and hose on the GTX (my first 25).

General comments?

I have owned 3 Renault 25s.

The first was a 1985 Phase 1 GTX. This car was superb. The fuel gauge only worked once due to a sticky float, but that didn't matter because the trip computer compensated (although I did miscalculate and ran out of fuel about three times!).

At the time, because of my job, I was driving around 1500 miles a week. I thrashed the car relentlessly and it never let me down.

In the end though it needed a more money spending on it than it was worth to keep it in tip top shape so I traded it in (I now regret this decision).

My next 25 was a TXI bought about 2 years later. I wasn't interested in the multi valve engine, only the V6 looks without the V6 running costs. I bought this car with my heart and not my head and I paid the price.

I had noticed the oil level was low and pointed this out to the garage prior to purchase. Unfortunately, they didn't top up the oil and I didn't recheck it!

The day after collection, I went out for a high speed blast and it blew the crank.

I returned the car to the garage and they replaced the crank, but the car never quite ran properly after that. After all, the car had covered 144,000 miles when I purchased it and just replacing the crank with well bedded in parts is not a recipe for success. Various things needed replacing and they were always very expensive, much more so than on the eight valve models. In addition, the parts were never in stock and always had to be ordered specially from France.

As I mentioned, I only bought the TXI model because it had the V6 front end. I expected it to have similar running costs/reliability to the standard 8 valve models, how wrong I was to be proved! In addition, the fuel economy was inferior to the 8 valver.

However, the improvement in performance was definitely noticeable, but I think this owes more to the shorter gearing compared with the 8 valver.

In the end I got fed up with the running costs so I sold it.

My last Renault 25 was a 1991 TXE model. This had covered 95,000 miles when I took delivery (although spookily enough I nearly bought this exact car a couple of years earlier with only 27,000 miles on the clock). My wife works for a car dealer and the car came in as a part exchange. She recognised the number plate (she has a good memory for these sort of things!) and phoned me at work. She looked over the car, told me it was in mint condition, so I bought the car over the phone for only £1000 (what the garage had paid for it).

I only had two faults with the car, a faulty temperature sensor (about £5) and the front brake hoses fouled the front wheels and needed to be replaced for the MOT. Other than that it was a gem of a car.

Both the TXI and TXE had all the toys, including that monster stereo! but I have to say that my favourite was my original Phase 1 GTX. The simple reason for this is my height! I am about 6ft 4 and had no problems fitting in the GTX. However, in the TXI and TXE, the electric sunroof robs masses of head room and the electric seats are mounted too high. I found myself sitting in a rather uncomfortable position which aggravated my bad back.

I love the R25, always have and always will. However, my main priority now is overall running costs. Thus I now drive a brand new Clio Dynamique. This is stylish, well equipped, very economical (50 mpg average), and quick (I've had 110mph downhill, which is fantastic for a 1.2!!) and is cheap to insure (only group 3!), the handling is also excellent. This now covers everything that I require. However, secretly, I still want another R25 (but don't tell my wife!).

I wholeheartedly recommend the R25 however, I feel you should take the following into account when looking for an R25 model :-

i) The 8 valve manual models are the only ones to go for. Mechanically they are pretty unburstable.

ii) The TXI is very costly to service.

iii) The V6s are best avoided, they are great until they go wrong. The V6 Turbo is a real wallet worrier!

iv) Avoid automatics like the plague. Renault have never made decent automatics, and in fact they still don't! They are VERY unreliable and aren't very good anyway even when they work. If you want an auto buy another marque!

V) R25s shouldn't burn oil, but generally leak it once you get to about 100K, this is fine, if it's the other way round, walk away!

Vi) There are only two kinds of R25. A good one and a bad one. A good one is fantastic, a bad one will always be a nail. As an example, my friend bought a 1990 TXE with 90,000 on the clock. He ran it for another 120,000 HARD miles over 3+ years and the only things that needed replacing were standard service items, tyres, exhaust, clutches etc.

My TXI never, ever, quite ran right no matter how many things I replaced!

After the barren Safrane years, the Vel Satis looks like Renault are returning to the R25 glory years with a car that is stylish, comfortable and well equipped.