1986 Renault 25 GTX from UK and Ireland - Comments

Down pipe disintegrated near manifold.

Manifold gasket blew.

Front wheel bearings gave up.

Gearbox constantly dripping oil.

Slow oil leak from engine.

New coil.

Engine would die for no apparent reason.

Front and rear struts replaced.

Electrics...Arghhhhhhhh!!!

ECU problems.

Misfiring regardless of how much I tried to keep it in tune.

Injectors replaced.

Interior god awful build quality.

What a heap, I often wonder if people who give these cars smiley faces have ever driven another car... try it! you'll realise what a heap of crap you've been driving all these years.

Driving along the road the oil pressure gauge dropped, the engine died and the stupid incredibly annoying talking computer says DANGER, DANGER, PULL OVER AND TAKE TO NEAREST GARAGE. I jump out thinking it was about to explode... and nothing, just the usual diabolical French electronics playing up.

The French know nothing about quality engineering.. absolutely nothing.

God help anyone who buys a new Laguna, with all those millions of pointless gadgets just itching to go wrong.

I've got a R25GXT with 330000 Km and sounds, moves and

becomes like the first day in 1986. How many serial cars

can achieve this?

All of these malfunctions are just normal for a 1986 car! 17 years old car needs some of repairs to be done. By the way, my 1985. R-25 2.2 GTX injection is still running very well after 525.000 kilometers passed. I have just sold it, now I have 1989. R-25 V6! Best car ever made!

All those faults occurred within a 5 month period in 1992, the year I purchased the car, and I put that in the review as first year of ownership, so that only made it 6 years old, and it only had approx 40,000 miles on the clock.

To me pleasure and reliability in a car does not mean how many miles it can clock up, but how it gets there and how it behaves on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.

My current car has done 60,000 miles in 3 years without a single electrical or mechanical malfunction, it is a Japanese car and I do not believe you can say the same about Renault's.

Hi: I live in Finland, where Volvo dealerships also sell Renault. This is the reason why so few R 25's are in Finland

(or Scandinavia, for that matter) I bought my first R25 V6 in 1988, a 2 year old car (1986 model) that had been driven by a guy who did not care for servicing, just driving. Luckily I know several Renault mechanics, who helped me fix the car (specially the dashboard electronics). Now (2003)

I have 560.000 kilometers on it with very little work, only major work was one valve replaced as the Mechanical fuel injection was tuned too lean for maximum mileage. I like the R 25 so much that I have bought another 25 V6 with only 260.000 kilometres on, with automatic transmission. I like to cruise in city with the automatic and use the older manual R 25 for longer trips. As value of money, looks and driving comfort, I don't think there is anything near R 25, especially now, when really good (newer) R 25's are available in Germany for 1000- 1500 euros !

R 25 V6 forever!!! Jukka Vatanen

You just felt on the one car that failing so much

my R25 Gts 2.0l stil ride without problems.

I have owned a 1988 25 gtx which I bought at 210,000 km and sold at 320,000 km. The only thing's that were replaced were the alternator and standard service items, it never let me down. I currently own a 1989 25 gtx in which I've done 190,000 km and I have replaced the front shocks and service items. brilliant cars and very comfortable. the thing to remember is that they were built for long distances (i do over 1000 km a week). when I first got these cars they had a few electrical problems, to fix them I took 1 day taking all electrical connections apart and cleaning them with a good contact spray, which also stopped the voice computer giving false warnings (voice computer is located above the glove box in rhd cars).

Hello, I am from Chile and I have a 1988 25 GTS. In my country Renault has a strong presence, but principally with small/medium cars like Clio and Megane and here the 25 is a very extrange car, is very difficult to find one. Mi 25 has 165.000 kms, and is still riding like new. I also had Japanese cars (Honda and Mitsubishi) and if I have to make a judge, I give the advantage in electronics to the Japanese, but in mechanics to the French's.

But in style and elegance... French's, by far.

I had a '86 Renault GTX it was a hunk of junk, the Alternater died, the Starter motor then died and I needed a new Muffler, not to mention it STALLS :/

And you expect a 20 year old car to be perfect?!

My R25 did nearly 200,000 miles before before someone crashed it. It had the odd problem, but I will always look back at it as my favourite car of all time.

I think you always will find happy owners, no matter how bad a car is. There will always be some cars with few or no problems, no matter how bad the overall quality of the particular model is. In fact renault's are among the worst cars in just about every good survey. Now, the general quality has improved over the years, but considering how bad it was, it couldn't really get much worse. Renault 20/30 is a good example, one of the most unreliable piece of crap ever made. It's hard to argue with statistics in this case, as that is the only real way to judge these things. A lot of people have problems with these cars, get over it, and stop complaining about it because you are happy with your own cars. It's a car manufacturer, not worth getting defensive over.

Renault 25 GTX is a good car, but in our country it is really hard to buy spare parts so we are in a big mess my friends. I really am disapointed of the poor service of renault. Please help me to find spares for my car if possible.

I can see where you both are coming from I had a R25 Monaco 20i 8v.

Best car I ever had, no problems at all.

Lovely car.

I had it for 5 years.

I sold the Monaco with 16000 on it.

Then I brougt a R25 TXE and that one was a totally diffrent car altogether.

The monaco was faster then the TXE.

The TXE handing was rubbish. I knottiest it had smiler wheels and tyres then the Monaco.

The TXE stared over heating found out the head gasket had gone.

Gear box bracket (snap ed, was not cheap to replace it was made out of alley. had to go to the main dealer.

The computer started telling lies saying doors open when it was not.

Then the TXE started leaking oil that was it I know I brought a lemon.

The TXE had 79000 when I got it.

I had the TXE for 1 year then sold it.

So all I can say you get good ones and bad ones.