I have just traded my Stilo Abarth, 3 door Selespeed in for a Renault Vel Satis 2.0 Turbo 6 speed. I only got £8000 in the end but that is £1000 more than Fiat were offering!

All is not lost however as I am in the process of swapping my Mondeo Ghia Estate, 2.0, 03 plate for my fathers 52 plate Stilo Abarth 5 door with leather, sat nav etc. This is dependent on him finding a Vel Satis himself.

Most people have not even heard of a Renualt Vel Satis and indeed neither had I until I went to buy a paper(in my slippers!). It is rather like the Abarth in that it is rather rare and that appeals to me. On top of that the Renualt dealer treated me with respect(despite the slippers!), knew the in's and out's of the car and made the Fiat dealers that I have dealt with seem rather innefficient to say the least!

I wrote a 3 page letter to Research Fiat in Nuneaton detailing my disgust at the service that I have received since purchasing my Abarth and 2 weeks later have still got no response.

In the end I have come to the conclusion that Fiat have got a cracking car in the Stilo but are let down terribly by their aftersales and really poor depreciation values. So why do I want my fathers Abarth, good question? I love the Abarth and as my father is also being offered next to nothing on a trade in, swapping my Mondeo with him makes sense. I get a top motor, he gets a similiar trade in price and due to the age of his Stilo, I dont expect Fiat to pamper me in the way I did when I had just spent £12,200 on my Abarth. Does any of that make sense?

I will miss the car but hopefully all will go well with my old mans car and I will continue to be part of this great forum.

And please dont come out with any horror stories about the Vel Satis, ignorence is bliss as they say

Swap the alloys over before you trade the 3door in!

It has got the claw alloys on at the moment but the dealer has already seen them! My fathers has also got the claw alloys so i'm not too bothered. By the way I have still got the original Abarth 17'' ones should anyone be intersted.

Why?

Please tell me you didn't buy the Vel Satis new (guessing not) Sky high Depreciation is not the reserve of the Fiat Stilo, the VS is even better at shedding value.

Vel Satis is a gorgeous car but as with all Renault execs, hope you have deep pockets for the depreciation. The 2.0 turbo is a great engine though, think it's 165BHP low pressure in the satis?

No mate I didnt buy it new. The Vel Satis has lost an absolute mint in depreciation already, infact it has lost £12,500 from new and it is absoloutley loaded with extras. The real appeal was that the previous owner had really looked after it, to my standard and as you know that is really rare in the secondhand market. I really stumbled upon it and the car is a real beauty in my opinion. You cant beat a bit of spontinuity can you!?

Yes it is 165 bhp, not in any way as fast as the Abarth but so smooth you really would not believe. By the way my fathers 52 plate Abarth has always felt faster than mine, has anyone else noticed the same?

david palmer said:

Yes it is 165 bhp, not in any way as fast as the Abarth but so smooth you really would not believe. By the way my fathers 52 plate Abarth has always felt faster than mine, has anyone else noticed the same?

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No idea only ever driven my Abarth and the demo one. A guy at work has just bought an Audi A6 2.4 auto and said he couldn't keep up....best bit was that I wasn't even trying

My fathers has done 23,000 miles compared to only 14,000 maybe it takes a while to loosen up? I really hope it comes off, the leather in his as well as the better dash board configuration has always appealed to me. Most of the blokes at work have never even heard of a Vel Satis and when I first got the Abarth they hadnt heard of that either so I am well chuffed to have got something a little unique. According to the dealer, only 100 were sold last year so i am not sure if that is good or bad really but the Stilo was rather rare in my opinion so I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will enjoy driving this as much as the Abarth. A totally different car but you cant beat the "what is that?" look on peoples faces dont you think?

I would have one of these over the Satis and it gets more "what the ****!" moments I am sure:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2002-RENAULT-...oryZ9861QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The Negotiator said:

I would have one of these over the Satis and it gets more "what the ****!" moments I am sure:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2002-RENAULT-...oryZ9861QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

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I was gonna say exactly the same thing. But the Vel Satis sounds like a nice car and it has turbo power

Mate I agree, that is awesome! But the reserve price hasn't even been met yet and it is already £1000 over what I have paid. Top looking car though and I have to admit that I didn't know that it existed!

I can't believe you like it, most don't, I think it's simply awesome, interior, exterior, engine and goodies, of course it failed, but I can't imagine you getting more looks in anything for less than £50k (??).

I did mean to add "if I could have afforded it". The satis and avantime came out at a very similar time, neither were taken to well by the UK public, hence you can pick up a bargain on them now. I didn't mean in anyway to say "you made the wrong chose" so I apologise if i sounded like that.

Better stop before I get told off for liking Renaults

Thanks mate, I am well chuffed that someone else likes it as well. No, I cetainly didnt take offence! I think that anyone reading this thread would realise that we still love the Stilo, but there are other cars out there that interest us. You have messed me up now, showing me that Avantime, especially since I havent picked mine up yet! Still, I only persuaded the missus to swap to the Vel Satis because she is pregnant and it has 5 doors!

The avantime is based on the espace, it's huge, but I think most only have 4 seats, all large seats, so not practical to most. Sorry for messing with your mind lol! The doors are so heavy (allow easy entry and exit to the whole car) they are electrically assisted I think. You either love or hate the styling (most hate) but it gets looks, whole length sunroof out of the way, huge windows down, wow!

There's a few on autotrader right now.

The Negotiator said:

I would have one of these over the Satis and it gets more "what the ****!" moments I am sure:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2002-RENAULT-...oryZ9861QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

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Love the interior, but it's hideous! :yuck: I have worked on a 3.0l diesel vel satis in the past & I have to say I don't like the outside but the interior & build quality are second to none! At the end of the day having something that makes you feel special is what counts! Good luck with it mate.

I think anyone who knows anything about cars will know about the Vel Satis, as its another well publised Renault failure! Mind you i quite liked it myself, until i jumped into the back of one at a motorshow, and thought "ah whats this, a fold down table in the seatback?" I pull it gently, and ripped the back off the leather seat to reveal countless wiggly wires. Presumably for the leccy seats!

Stiloboy, there's a difference between a failure and a bad car, it's a failure since nobody has ever bought French execs, all the way from the R25, 605, safrance and beyond, it just hasn't happened, sometimes the styling, sometimes the fact it's not a German car, irrelevant of this, it means you can get a £21k-£33k for close to £10k after a few years!

I remember Clarkson:

"I want an avantime, they look awesome, I phoned Renault to get one, they said "call us when you want to order, i'll make sure yours is made properly""

It made me laugh

I have sat in a Vel Satis, not driven or been a passenger at all, but loved the comfort level, I just remember everything sort of fitting around you amazingly, trouble is, 2.0 low pressure turbo in a 1650kg car doesn't make it a particularly quick car, but you will have the abarth still for that!

It's definitely a French styled car.

david palmer said:

Still, I only persuaded the missus to swap to the Vel Satis because she is pregnant and it has 5 doors!

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- I just did exactly the same thing regarding my new car. This pregnancy malarky isn't so bad

I think that avantime looks pretty good!! I'd only ever seen them from the outside but now i also like it on the inside. I agree thet it looks little strange but i think it's a "nice strange"!!!!! And with a 220bhp engine...... yes please!!