What does a Renault 5 cost?

About £23K

But that's one of the brand new, most excellent, electric ones.

I was watching an episode of Flipping Bangers this week.

It's a programme I saw a series of a few years back and quite enjoyed.  I assumed that there was only one series and thought no more about it.

Then they started showing more episodes this year.

Then I saw the two blokes off it at The Classic Motor Show talking about their latest endeavours.  Turns out they've gone onto YouTube.

Anyway, I must have been watching Series 2, Episode 7.

It was an original Mark I Renault 5.

They bought it for £1000 and spent £485 doing it up.

I've just found out they they bought it off Sam Brackley, son of Paul Brackley - the mechanic off Wheeler Dealers in the Edd days.

They didn't do anything about the brown headlining or dodgy dash area above the ashtray.  It had obviously spent a lot of time being smoked in.  They didn't mention a smell though.

It also had some black tape pretending to be trim going between the wheels at the bottom of the doors.  They sort of sorted that.

They did do some actually vital stuff too.

Then they sold it to a dealer for £2600.

This was in 2019.

As soon as I saw the car I thought I recognised it - had I remembered it from seeing the show a few years back?

Nope - it wasn't series two that they broadcast.

Turns out I remembered it from here.

Twincam, another of my favourite Youtubers, has some sort of arrangement with auction house Manor Park Classics.

He reviewed it and they sold it last year.

For £4140.

Somebody somewhere has probably not done very well out of that between 2019 and 2024.

It still had the horrible headlining.

So I'll have one of the new ones please.

12345726

I was going to call this post "The Number's Up!" but I've already used that.

But I missed out the apostrophe which is unlike me and somewhat irritating.

Anyway, that particular post was about 18 months ago and berating the daft naming convention of Polestar.

It still seems to be a problem for them and they are trying to deny it - as reported by drive.co.au here.

And they have changed the rules a bit too.

18 months ago they said that the Polestar 2 would not be replaced by a Polestar 2.  Now they are saying that the Polestar 2 WILL be replaced by a Polestar 2.  Which will probably come after the Polestar 7 and before the Polestar 6.

Confusion reigns supreme.

I feel sorry for the new CEO, Michael Lohscheller, who didn't come up with the idea but seems to be spending lots of time defending it.

He likens it to Apple.  Which is wrong.  He should be likening it to the company I alluded to back in April last year - Renault.

When I also asked the question, "I wonder how many years it will be before they realise the error of this strategy and change to a better system."

Renault gradually and quietly replaced numbers with names and would never speak of them again.

Until they had a big hit with the new 4 and 5.

If they follow the Polestar numbering system, the next retro electric car will be a cute version of the Renault 7:

Oh dear - I think the number's up.

Old Favorits

This year's Festival of the Unexceptional is being held on July 26th.

If it was a bit nearer to me geographically, I'd have quite fancied going along.

But it isn't.

It celebrates cars that used to be all over the place in the '70s, '80s and '90s - not special - just quite common.

They aren't interested in vintage cars either.

So it is cars that people a bit older than me and people a bit younger than me will remember - sometimes fondly.

And Renault in particular have been tapping in to this - and doing a very good job with the new electric Renaults 5 and 4.

Mini have been at it for a quarter of a century now.

So now it looks like Skoda might want a piece of the action.

The story is here of a reimagination of the Favorit:

Only there's no indication that they would actually put this in to production.

So maybe Vauxhall should take note:

The Numbers Up!

No, this isn't a Volkswagen story - it's a Polestar story.

Their boss, Thomas Ingenlath, has been talking about the future.

Drive.com.au are reporting on it here.

When it comes time for a replacement, the Polestar 2...

...is not going to be replaced with another Polestar 2.

It will be replaced with the Polestar n 

where

n =

the next integer not already assigned to a Polestar.

And the rest of the range...

...will follow suit as their lifespans also come to an end.

Apparently this means that they aren't stuck forever with a car called the Polestar 2 never being able to evolve into anything other than an electric SUV that is actually more of a saloon car - which, incidentally is why I like it - it isn't, despite what Polestar tell you, an SUV.

I wonder how many years it will be before they realise the error of this strategy and change to a better system.

In 15 years time, people will be having conversations like...

• "I really fancy a Polestar 17"
• "Really? Why do you want a van?"
• "I don't! The 17 is a two-seater sports car."
• "I thought the sports car was the Polestar 19"

And in 45 years time, people will be having conversations like...

• "I really fancy a Polestar 102"
• "Really? Why do you want a van?"
• "I don't! The 102 is a two-seater sports car."
• "I thought the sports car was the Polestar 114"

Or maybe, just maybe, retro will be back in - and they'll do a cute new Polestar 2.

I wonder where that idea suddenly sprang in to my head from?

Four Play

Autocar are playing with what the new Renault 4 will look like.

I have to say I was quite excited when i saw what the new Renault 5 is looking like - so were Top Gear Magazine - you'll have to buy the February edition to read the article:

Anyway, Renault are planning a retro-style electric vehicle called The Renault 5 which is an obvious nod to the old Renault 5.

They are starting with:

and coming up with:

Which, let's face it, is pretty cool.

There was also speculation that the same thing was going to happen with the Renault 4.

Now, that is a much uglier starting point:

A horrible, utilitarian 2CV rival.

Autocar got confirmation that it is going to happen and decided to produce their own rendering:

I'm afraid I just don't see it.  I could see that as the modern take on a Clio Williams but not a 4.

And let's be honest, we all know that the new 4 will be another bloody SUV.

Which is a shame, because if we are having a 21st Century Renault 4 then it has to be ugly and not an SUV - somebody I've never heard of called David Obendorfer did a perfectly good job of exactly that ten years ago - check out the pictures in this Carscoops story.

Much truer to the original - and hopefully available in brown.