Renault 19s - esp. phase 1 and TSE

BrianD3 · 18-04-2020 10:50pm

colm_mcm wrote: »

Not these no?

https://www.adverts.ie/car/renault/19/renault-19-baccara-edition/5178074

Not sure now - my initial reaction was that those are not Renault alloys but maybe I'm being fooled by the missing? centre caps and my own fading memories.

colm_mcm · 18-04-2020 10:58pm

BrianD3 wrote: »

Not sure now - my initial reaction was that those are not Renault alloys but maybe I'm being fooled by the missing? centre caps and my own fading memories.

These seem familiar
https://www.adverts.ie/car/renault/19/1994-renault-19/13958622

BrianD3 · 18-04-2020 10:59pm

colm_mcm wrote: »

These seem familiar
https://www.adverts.ie/car/renault/19/1994-renault-19/13958622

Those are phase 2 16v wheels - 15 inch

kev1.3s · 19-04-2020 12:26am

road_high wrote: »

They were very popular in Ireland, they were big enough to offer the same for a family as a Sierra or Vectra class. The spec was decent for the time like electric windows etc
80 bhp in the 1.4l was probably alright for the time too.

This was always the case with Renault back then, I remembered my aunt had a renault 18 and it was the first car I remembered to have central locking and electric windows. I even remember the lock pin was red and popped up and down in a clear plastic dome. Ultimate cool to a 10 or 11 year old me.

Corradobri · 19-04-2020 12:41am

kev1.3s wrote: »

This was always the case with Renault back then, I remembered my aunt had a renault 18 and it was the first car I remembered to have central locking and electric windows. I even remember the lock pin was red and popped up and down in a clear plastic dome. Ultimate cool to a 10 or 11 year old me.

Must have been a R18 GTL or GTS if it had central locking, we had a base TL at home and I remember being jealous of the higher spec 18,s with the fancy central locking with the red pin lol , they also had electric front windows and headlamps wipers !

BrianD3 · 19-04-2020 2:47pm

I was surprised at how much interest there was in this thread, lots of people have good memories of them and they were a pretty popular van and car (while not selling in the number that Corollas did) back in the day.

Extrapolating from Howmanyleft.co.uk, there are probably less than 20 of all versions combined left on the road here. As with many late 80s/90s cars, rust resistance was good up to point but that point was passed a long time ago. The Megane Mk1, in particular the phase 2 is proving to be considerably more rust resistant than the R19 was at the same age. Even these are becoming an uncommon sight on our roads now.

kev1.3s · 19-04-2020 4:10pm

Corradobri wrote: »

Must have been a R18 GTL or GTS if it had central locking, we had a base TL at home and I remember being jealous of the higher spec 18,s with the fancy central locking with the red pin lol , they also had electric front windows and headlamps wipers !

Would have been a high spec model alright, my aunt definitely would have been the hyacinth bouquet of the family

kev1.3s · 19-04-2020 4:17pm

BrianD3 wrote: »

I was surprised at how much interest there was in this thread, lots of people have good memories of them and they were a pretty popular van and car (while not selling in the number that Corollas did) back in the day.

Extrapolating from Howmanyleft.co.uk, there are probably less than 20 of all versions combined left on the road here. As with many late 80s/90s cars, rust resistance was good up to point but that point was passed a long time ago. The Megane Mk1, in particular the phase 2 is proving to be considerably more rust resistant than the R19 was at the same age. Even these are becoming an uncommon sight on our roads now.

The mk1 megane was a horrible looking thing in comparison to the 19.

Oops! · 19-04-2020 4:20pm

kev1.3s wrote: »

The mk1 megane was a horrible looking thing in comparison to the 19.

It was a horrible thing in every way... It was a step backwards from the 19.

RandomViewer · 19-04-2020 7:18pm

BrianD3 wrote: »

Anyone here own a 19 or have a fetish for them. Are they starting to appear at classic car shows - many phase 1s are now old enough for classic status.

The 19 16v "valver" was one of the most well regarded hot hatches of the 90s but I only ever saw a handful on the roads in this country and am not sure if they were ever officially sold here.

The 1.7 8v and 1.8 8v were also not sold here. So here it was basically 1.4s and diesels.

The highest spec phase 1 1.4 was the TSE, I always thought these were very nice especially as a Chamade and in a nice metallic. They had the all important yellow foglights, velour armchairs, electric sunroof, dinky 13 inch Zenith alloys :cool:. I wonder do any survive. Chamades/4 doors were uncommon in the UK due to their preference for hatchbacks. Howmanyleft suggests that 4 door TSE and TXEs (1.7) are virtually extinct in the UK with 5 door cars not far off it.

There was an Irish brochure on ebay recently, pics below.

1.7 were badged GTX, they hadthe4 bar rear axel, sold poorly here

RandomViewer · 19-04-2020 7:24pm

road_high wrote: »

They were very popular in Ireland, they were big enough to offer the same for a family as a Sierra or Vectra class. The spec was decent for the time like electric windows etc
80 bhp in the 1.4l was probably alright for the time too.

Didn't really take many buyers from Ford or Opel, 88 to 95 Vectra/Cavalier was a very good car, most buyers came from the R9/11, Peugeot and Fiat, you'd get the odd Japanese owner but they rarely kept them long

RandomViewer · 19-04-2020 7:26pm

Oops! wrote: »

And used to go through wheel bearings as often as a set of plugs!

Doorlocks and anti roll bushes were also issues, Diesels ate front brake pads every 15_20 k

RandomViewer · 19-04-2020 7:28pm

Oops! wrote: »

It was a horrible thing in every way... It was a step backwards from the 19.

Renault big claim at the time was that it had the lowest development budget of any model, the bolted shut doors on the van version were truly tacky

RandomViewer · 19-04-2020 7:28pm

Oops! wrote: »

It was a horrible thing in every way... It was a step backwards from the 19.

Renault big claim at the time was that it had the lowest development budget of any model, the bolted shut doors on the van version were truly tacky

RandomViewer · 19-04-2020 7:33pm

Corradobri wrote: »

Must have been a R18 GTL or GTS if it had central locking, we had a base TL at home and I remember being jealous of the higher spec 18,s with the fancy central locking with the red pin lol , they also had electric front windows and headlamps wipers !

TL was 1340cc , GTL/GTS were 1647cc, different head on GTS, American 2 was the big seller in the mid 80s,, 2 tone paint ,alloys and a decent Blaupunkt stereo.Big with farmers, very few jeeps at the time

Oops! · 19-04-2020 7:58pm

RandomViewer wrote: »

Doorlocks and anti roll bushes were also issues, Diesels ate front brake pads every 15_20 k

Yes, i've fitted some amount of those outer ARB bushes... No amount of grease could stop them knocking. Used to be a lottery to see if the right rear brake shoes was going to turn up for them also.

RandomViewer · 19-04-2020 8:03pm

Oops! wrote: »

Yes, i've fitted some amount of those outer ARB bushes... No amount of grease could stop them knocking. Used to be a lottery to see if the right rear brake shoes was going to turn up for them also.

As far as I remember there were 3 possible types, you didn't know until you took the drums off which it was, Bendix ones used to drop the self adjuster . Open ended bushes off the R5 cured ARBt problem

Oops! · 19-04-2020 8:07pm

RandomViewer wrote: »

As far as I remember there were 3 possible types, you didn't know until you took the drums off which it was, Bendix ones used to drop the self adjuster . Open ended bushes off the R5 cured ARBt problem

Yes correct, you didn't know till the drum was off. There was another bush we used to use aswell, a small bit of a trim with a stanley knife and they did the job, Can't remember what the bush was from, almost 20 year ago now...

kev1.3s · 19-04-2020 8:44pm

RandomViewer wrote: »

Doorlocks and anti roll bushes were also issues, Diesels ate front brake pads every 15_20 k

Door locks were a pain in the ass when they stopped catching, you could slam and slam and they still wouldn't stay shut. I once had to drive back from wicklow town with my passenger holding the door closed.

Rob Thomas · 19-04-2020 8:56pm

I was browsing the classic pages and this photo reminded me of the little cover for the radio - on the passenger seat here

RandomViewer · 19-04-2020 9:39pm

kev1.3s wrote: »

Door locks were a pain in the ass when they stopped catching, you could slam and slam and they still wouldn't stay shut. I once had to drive back from wicklow town with my passenger holding the door closed.

Little spring inside lost tension first frosty night, warranty covered them which was good as they were around £50 at the time (1990)

colm_mcm · 19-04-2020 9:40pm

Rob Thomas wrote: »

I was browsing the classic pages and this photo reminded me of the little cover for the radio - on the passenger seat here

Was that a security feature?

RandomViewer · 19-04-2020 9:43pm

colm_mcm wrote: »

Was that a security feature?

I think the idea was if the theifcouldnt see the radio he wouldn't break in, I can see a major flaw in that he'd probably break in to see if it was worth nicking.

Break80 · 19-04-2020 10:06pm

I started with a new 92 Clio van. 1.9 diesel. It would pull a mountain but you could not park it with no power steering.
Then a new 94 1.4 Rsi 19. Metalic Green Grey interior. I remember it used cut out every morning going down a hill from my house and the boot had a leak from new. When I collected it from the showroom the back lens was cracked and had to be replaced. I convinced myself it was repaired in the back hence the leak.
From there to a new 00 1.6 megane auto. In the meantime my wife had a 95 Clio auto which she started to learn in.
From the megane she went to a new 03 1.8 Leguna auto. Kitted out to the last but very thirsty.
From there we went to a new 06 1.6 megane auto. Metalic gold with black leather. It lasted 18 months before the auto gave up the ghost one night with less than 39k on it. I got it repaired under warrenty but got rid of it as soon as it came back.
There ended my love affair with Renault.
In spite of all these adventures I always had a soft spot for the Renaults of that time.
They were a bit classier than the jap boxes but i suppose I didn,t keep them long enough to give me real grief.

RandomViewer · 20-04-2020 4:16pm

Break80 wrote: »

I started with a new 92 Clio van. 1.9 diesel. It would pull a mountain but you could not park it with no power steering.
Then a new 94 1.4 Rsi 19. Metalic Green Grey interior. I remember it used cut out every morning going down a hill from my house and the boot had a leak from new. When I collected it from the showroom the back lens was cracked and had to be replaced. I convinced myself it was repaired in the back hence the leak.
From there to a new 00 1.6 megane auto. In the meantime my wife had a 95 Clio auto which she started to learn in.
From the megane she went to a new 03 1.8 Leguna auto. Kitted out to the last but very thirsty.
From there we went to a new 06 1.6 megane auto. Metalic gold with black leather. It lasted 18 months before the auto gave up the ghost one night with less than 39k on it. I got it repaired under warrenty but got rid of it as soon as it came back.
There ended my love affair with Renault.
In spite of all these adventures I always had a soft spot for the Renaults of that time.
They were a bit classier than the jap boxes but i suppose I didn,t keep them long enough to give me real grief.

Renault had power steering as an option rather than standard for a long time, don't think the Clio got it as standard till mid 90 s,

BrianD3 · 20-04-2020 5:40pm

RandomViewer wrote: »

1.7 were badged GTX, they hadthe4 bar rear axel, sold poorly here

Did you sell them, work in a dealership? I never saw a GTX or TXE here and never saw them mentioned in any brochure. E.g. no mention in the 1990 brochure in my first post in this thread.

I was rooting through some old newspapers trying to find ads especially any from 1995 or 1996 for the RTI or Baccara. Didn't find any. I seem to recall seeing ads in 1996 for the 19 1.4 which had standard ABS and rear disc brakes- a last gasp upgrade just before the Megane (with rear drums) came in? Have you any info on that?

I'll post some non 19 related stuff from my newspaper hoard in a while which may be of interest.

RandomViewer · 20-04-2020 5:53pm

BrianD3 wrote: »

Did you sell them, work in a dealership? I never saw a GTX or TXE here and never saw them mentioned in any brochure. E.g. no mention in the 1990 brochure in my first post in this thread.

I was rooting through some old newspapers trying to find ads especially any from 1995 or 1996 for the RTI or Baccara. Didn't find any. I seem to recall seeing ads in 1996 for the 19 1.4 which had standard ABS and rear disc brakes- a last gasp upgrade just before the Megane (with rear drums) came in? Have you any info on that?

I'll post some non 19 related stuff from my newspaper hoard in a while which may be of interest.

Worked in a dealership , we sold two 1.7 s in 1991, both saloons, both Caspian blue which is a green colour bizarrely, we never sold a second gen 1.7 or a 16 v of either series, 1.4 sold well diesels not so much, lots of overheating/ cracked heads, 1.9 diesel wasn't half the engine of the 1.6 d. The last model with the disk brakes and leather interior was called a Biarritz from memory, 1995 sales dried up as the megane came out the next year. There were UK versions that used the old 8 valve engine ,

BrianD3 · 20-04-2020 6:01pm

Non 19 stuff

Renault scrappage ad January 1996

New car prices 15th Feb 1989

mfceiling · 20-04-2020 6:50pm

Good thread lads.

Always had a soft spot for renaults.
First car was a 1.1 clio with a 4 speed gearbox!!
Sold it for a citroen ax gt which I kept for a month and needed the head gasket done so I got that done and lost all heart in it.

Went off and bought another clio. This time a mighty 1.2. They were a great little car. A miser on fuel and parts were cheap as chips.

When I came home from Australia in 2001 I bought a 96 megane. This time I moved up to a mighty 1.4!! To this day the father said he never sat in a car with more comfortable seats than that yoke. I drove it for ages and put serious miles on it and bar a battery and regularly servicing it never gave an ounce of trouble.

The young one will be learning to drive in a couple of years and I'd have no bother getting her a clio as a starter car.

RandomViewer · 20-04-2020 8:26pm

BrianD3 wrote: »

Non 19 stuff

Renault scrappage ad January 1996

New car prices 15th Feb 1989

R5 Campus was brought back for the scrappage scheme, absolute poverty spec with no resale value.

Renault 19s - esp. phase 1 and TSE

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