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Strong points of the Renault 18
Driving a Renault 18 for well over a decade I think gave me time
enough to experience the strong and less stronger points of this model. You will find the
plusses in this chapter. The minuses are in the next chapters, along with useful tips on
how to overcome them...
 | What I absolutely love about the Renault 18 are it's seats. I have
never driven a car with such superb fauteuils! |
| The driver and passengers not only have great seats, but also a lot
of space. I hate cramped cars where your legs have to be folded under the dashboard. It
beats a lot of it's counterparts, contemporary and from it's own days alike. |
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 The 18
has a reasonable large trunk, with some handy corners to stash away tools and such. (I
miss these corners in my Clio). The designer of the car probably was a beer drinker,
because the size of the trunk is such that you can nicely fit two crates of beer on top of
each other. On the other hand the designer probably didn't have a mom like mine, because
the trunk, although spacious, always seemed to be too small for what she takes on holiday.
On the picture on the right you see how my youngest brother and I try to fit all the
luggage on a family trip in 1989. |
| The interior and instrument panel are sober, functional and well
organised. |
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 The 1647 cc engine that gets my 18 from A to B proves to
be a very reliable power source. So far it has never let me down once. |
| It's suspension is typical French. It's very smooth and comfortable.
The only down side is that you can't drive it too fast trough bends. |
| What I personally like about almost all cars of this era is that they
are very basic. Most things are mechanical which makes them relatively easy to maintain
and repair. Because the Renault 18 is rather basic, it drives in 'what you do is what you
get' mode. The handling is a bit heavy, but because of this it gives you a far better feel
for what the car is doing in for instance curves and on slippery roads (plus it's a great
upper body work out when parking her :-) ). In the first weeks I drove my new Renault Clio
I noticed how used I was to reacting to what I felt a car was doing. My Clio handles so
lightly and comfortable that at first I missed some of the feeling for what the car was
actually doing. |
| One absolutely strong point of my own 18 is that the few times it
broke down, it always did so in front of my house. This is not a joke! The clutch cable
broke three times (see next chapter), two of which while parking the car in front of my
door and one time just a few blocks away. In the summer of 1999 it seemed like I was
stranded due to a defect 'pick-up' from the electronic ignition. A mechanic from the road
service arrived and after I had explained the problem, he asked me to try and start her.
To our amazement she did at the first attempt. She kept running perfectly until...... I
reached my front door! |
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