Long-term update: 2009 Renault Safrane V6

Our black Renault Safrane V6, a brand new 2009 leftover model that we purchased last Ramadan, is on its way to completing 5000 km, and is soldiering on just fine. It also has the best fuel economy in our 3-car fleet by far, for obvious reasons.

Largely used on the highway to work and back by my slow-driving father, fuel economy is proving to be a boon. Registering only 8.5 litres/100 km, it is on par with all sorts of smaller 4-cylinder economy cars. The 2.3-litre V6 does around 2500 rpm at 110 kph, so the motor is barely stressed most of the time. And overtaking is achieved easily without having to rev the nuts off it, thanks to its relatively good low-end torque (for its class).

Ride comfort is good, which was pretty much the reason for buying this car, but we have a nagging feeling that road noise and smoothness would likely improve even further if we ditched the stock Hankook tyres. Because those tyres are either starting to get slightly louder or we’re starting to imagine things.

A very minor niggle is that there is a very slight jerk every time we shift into Drive, Neutral or Reverse, ever since we drove the car out of the showroom. New cars aren’t supposed to do that, but we’ll bring this up at the next service. We already know the answer will be “it’s normal, they all do that” but this simply eggs us on to get an extended warranty. So far, Renault hasn’t gotten back to us on our request for a warranty upgrade.

Original Mileage When Bought: 110 km
Latest Mileage To Date: 3,801 km
Latest Average Fuel Economy: 8.5 litres/100 km
Cost of Latest Problems: Dhs 0
Cost of Latest Maintenance: Dhs 0

Total Non-Fuel Running Cost Since Bought: Dhs 0

Read all 2009 Renault Safrane long-term updates