Been lurking the boards for a while and now I am a RSM owner thought I would say Hi!
Originally joined to keep in contact with the Adelaide guys for the Sunday drives, but at the time was working in hospitality so free times on weekends became quite rare!
As from my username always been a Peugeot guy, I have always liked Renaults but never had the urge to own one. Currently have a 205 Gti and a 306 Xsi. Earlier in the year we started looking for a car for the wife as with a kid on the way decided it was time to upgrade her 306 hatch. Driveway was full of Peugeots and the neighbours thought we were French!! I told the wife she can have any car she likes, it does not have to be French, looked at the usual suspects from Ford, Holden and Nissan. Whilst at the Nissan dealership I asked to look at the Koleos, as soon as we sat in it, we both looked at each other and nodded, yup, this is the one. Sooo we ended up with another French-ish car, built by the Koreans so less likely to fall apart.
I was pretty pleased with the Koleos and started looking at Renaults range for myself, the 250 was out of my budget. What about that one with the big butt I thought and started looking around and also searched around a lot on the forum to look for common faults, model differences etc.
I originally looked at BNN's 225, took it for a test drive and I had a stupid grin on my face, yup, I can see my self in one of these, but the stars did not align and I did not proceed any further. Considered keeping my 306 but the list of things to fix kept growing and ploughing large amounts of cash into it did not seem like a great idea.
Many months later and the phones were quiet at work and I decided to look at the Cars for Sale and I saw Brendans blood orange 225..whimper. After a number of PM's, a quick call to PaulV and a chat to Brendan and a deal was struck. Now to truck it back or fly/drive. After cashing in my leave passes for the next 20 years it was fly and drive!!
Brendan was kind enough to collect us from the airport, the car looked awesome in the photos but in the flesh
A quick test drive and lots of chatting, all papers signed, GPS loaded and back to Adelaide we headed. Our route back to Adelaide was a little odd. A mate at work buys car nearly every 6 months from interstate and suggested Sydney to Melbourne, stay overnight and then across to Adelaide as mostly dual motorway so less likely to get caught up behind a truck and better roads. In the first 30 mins of RSM ownership got a wave and a thumbs up from a 250 owner.
Only drama for the trip was heading into Melbourne, the empty fuel light popped up. The fuel sender had been replaced as having issues with the fuel gauge. Mild panic set in, what if this one was no good. What if we got stuck on the side of the highway and got taken hostage...umm....the first exit promising petrol took us a down a dark road and the little town was closed, back onto the highway and with fingers crossed hoped for a petrol station, the next exit greeted us with a large Caltex, according to the dash we had 8 litres left, 52 litres went in, well that has definitely been fixed.
I absolutely love the Meg's, and just want to say a massive thanks to Brendan for all his advice/help for pre-purchase and after sales with litle queries that have come up! Top bloke.
Only mods I have planned is to upgrade the head unit/speakers as they are pretty woeful and fit a 2.75" KTec exhaust.
The car also came with a RS Tuning box and Brendan kept going on about the Stage 2 map and how it will rip my hair out, mm I thought it may have more kick but doubt it will be that much difference. So loaded it up the other night before heading out to pick up some pizza. Dawlding through the side streets out to the main road could not feel any difference. It had started to rain, pulled out onto the main road looked down the road, all clear, all right lets see what happens, booted it..s**t, 2nd gear s***t s**t 3rd gear, lift off brake, laugh like a mad man, ok so thats some aggressive mapping.
Well if you have got this far thanks for reading, I am sure I will have questions queries as I become more acquainted with my RSM.
Cheers
Joel
