Guilty pleasure: Renault Safrane

90s cars Renault

This feels like speed dating. I’ve got your attention for a couple of minutes, during which time you’ll develop an impression of me based on my irrational love of the Renault Safrane. I could have picked anything from a long list of dubious motors, but I’ve gone all in by making the unloved French hatchback my first guilty pleasure. Feel free to make your excuses and leave the table; I hear the chap next door has a thing for the Ford Probe.

The Safrane has become a running joke at Classic.Retro.Modern. towers. Somebody will make a wisecrack about the car at every… single… editorial… meeting. A French stick to beat me with. It’s why I made it my duty to ensure the French barge secured a berth in the first issue of the magazine. Its appearance might even treble the Safrane’s value to, ooh, about £900. Enough to save the Safrane from inevitable extinction? Probably not, but it will always have a place in my heart.

I’m not entirely sure why. Many would argue that the Safrane represents a glitch in the big Renault matrix, sandwiched between two large cars that are easier to justify. The 25 has Robert Opron’s sublime exterior styling and Marcello Gandini’s delightful interior to earn it a place in the big book of Renault classics. Meanwhile, the Vel Satis offers the kind of head-scratching weirdness we’d expect from Renault’s mad moment around the turn of the millennium. The Renault Safrane is neither striking nor weird. It’s what happens when a French company tries to inject a little German flavour into its cars. Aside from the full-width rear light cluster, the Safrane has few styling goodies of note, and this was removed as part of the facelift. The bold nose job, slightly awkward rear lights and new Volvo engines did little to halt the Safrane’s spiral into the abyss. Just 349 cars found a UK home in 1999, the Safrane’s last full year on sale. Today, there are just 36 taxed and tested examples in the UK, including the 1998 2.0 Executive I found for £200. That’s the thing about big French car depreciation curves: there’s no bottom.

Is it as terrible as popular opinion would suggest? I’d argue that the understated styling is a welcome tonic to the over-styled cars of today, the dashboard design is a successful evolution of classic Renault 25 design and the hatchback makes the Safrane far more practical than the majority of its contemporary rivals. Then there’s the ride quality and seats, which combine to make the Safrane one of the most comfortable cars I’ve ever owned. The prospect of a Probe might be a more successful chat up line at a speed dating table, but slow and steady wins the race. Doesn’t it? Hello? Is there anybody there?

This article first appeared in issue 1 of Classic.Retro.Modern. magazine.