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Quest for my new R4

John Doe

Enthusiast
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802
Today I went to see this car, it sounded very nice over the telephone but when I got there... Bad paint job, bad chassis patching, exhaust is gone, rear wheels look like this / \, lot of details missing. The car is 1989 GTL and it has covered something around 140000km. This price is 150 euros but I don't think I'll buy it.

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On my way back I saw this car and left my phone number, it looks very good, ok the paintwork isn't that good but there are only few rust spots on the body. Chassis looks very nice. When I got home I was contacted by the owner, the car is for sale, it's a GTL that is I belive past 1990, it has covered around 150000. The initial price is 1100 euros. I'll think about this one.

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never seen a black R4 before
 
Was the black one a re-spray? Was is black originally?

The second one looks smart in its glossy paint.
 
I don'y think Renault offered any R4 in black, except the Parisienne.

By the way, 150 euros is very good price if the car is going to be used for parts supply...it looks complete.
 
I said that the second one isn't black, well it is :D Today I went to buy it, the guy wanted 1100 euros and as soon as I arrived he said that he is reluctant to sell it but he will do it. We couldn't agree on the price, I would go as much as 1000 euros but he just turned and walked away when I said 950. I had a better look at the car, the chassis is very nice with only two minor rust spots. Door seals are in a bad condition and the boot seal is missing. The speedometer pointer is pale as it was exposed to the sun all the time. The steering wheel looks worn. The are few rust spots on the body, on the bonnet under the grill, left rear wing... The paint job is a mess but that isn't the problem as I would respray it again. All the gray plastic bits are resprayed in silver.

As much as I can see both cars were not originally black, they were resprayed. Damn I was so exited about it!
 
It's been a while since I saw a car that isn't leaning on one side or a car that has such nice wheel alignment. As soon as you see a car sitting like this you can tell it's the right one.
 
From the photos the paint job looks fairly nice, though.

What are the typical R4 prices in your country John Doe?
 
He may have more than Ian I reckon, but probably less than Malcolm!
 
Shall we have a vote on it and the winner gets a bag of tomatoes and some pumpkins?

BTW Ian, the pumpkin seeds you gave me have grown enormous. I only planted a few and we need a bigger garden already.
 
As you can see now I have 3 and one in parts. I've paid 1100 euros, perhaps a bit expensive but I am not complaining.

This is a post 1990 GTL (I'll explain some other time way I can't tell exact year), funny enough the blue one on the picture is also 1991 GTL and they both drive somewhat different from a red 1988 GTL. Both of them sit lower (as did my firends 1991 GTL) and they are stiffer than the red one. I don't know when it happened but later GTL are different, at least over here. Also they have 25 kW rather then 24 as other GTL's.
 
It looks good to me!

It is very interesting that the post 1990 GTLs were different. Do you know exactly when the changes occurred?. We have a 1990 Slovenian GTL. I presume that the R4s you have were made in Slovenia too?

P.S. If you have one spare hard headrest you don't need, I'd be interested in buying it!
 
All my cars were made in Slovenia. I do not know when the change occurred or what was changed, perhaps the torsion bars are different but the fact is that the car rides differently compared to my 1988 GTL, it doesn't lean as much when you corner which makes me very sad :(

I do have a spare headrest, what would be a best way to send it to you?

P.S. Funny enough it seems that my black car was same color as yours, I'll paint it next summer and I'll think about your color ;)
 
It does seem strange that Renault would change the R4 in its final years. Perhaps they ran out of parts and used things from other Renaults?

I am really interested in buying your spare headrest. Just to double-check that it is a 'hard' one with the hole in the middle and has 'legs' of about 38mm so that it will fit my car?

How much do you want for it? Have you got a picture?

I'm afraid that I don't know how best to send it - I've never posted anything abroad before. Perhaps your Postal service would be able to help?

I think that lots of the later GTLs were Ozone Blue (468). I like it :)
 
10 euros sounds very good to me. It is very kind of you to go to all the effort for me. I'm very grateful. It certainly looks the same as the one I already have. The measurement is the same too.

I look forward to hearing from you when you have found out how much it will cost to ship it to UK.

I am in no hurry, so don't worry if you can't do it soon.

Many thanks, Jonathan
 
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