Keep the 5 ALIVE!

[RussellT]

Fellow members, talking to Bob from CGB yesterday, owners of the Renault 5 are heading for a serious problem. Several significant body parts and spares are no longer available, even second hand.

Without access to spares our beloved 5 is a dead car driving.

We need to get a social media campain going around the world drawing in all the various Renault 5 clubs and reaching out to former owners to encourage Renault to maintain at least a limited supply of spare parts for this iconic model from the Renault range.

This is really serious, cars can be canabalised over night and a trivial accident could take your car off the road for ever.

[R5MJH]

i think we should approach Renault UK direct as there is plenty of money to be made from these parts anyway, theres still a fair few 5s left, not sure what they will say but certainly worth pleading to them them in a email if not Renault france will get a email, im happy to have a try to see what happens, small fish in a massive sea, thought bob/mike could maybe influence them too

[clarkey21]

I see they have a postal address, maybe we should all send them a letter, if they get enough they may reconsider...

[Hoolio]

I actually think this is a good idea. What parts were you thinking of? I think you'd have to have a clear idea on that and trying to get someone at Renault to bat for us I would say was essential.

[GTphil]

Facebook is a great way of connecting with people over seas, I know we have a few foreign members on here but on FB there are many many more people because it's free. The GT Turbo Owners page is consistently very active. Stuff like the cloth that's used for the o.e seats has popped up bran new still on the roll plus many other bits.

Does anyone know if Renault 5's are still produced in any other countries? Like India and the like, I heard a whisper that some things like fuel pressure regs and what not are literally peanuts in India as they are used on other Renault's over there.

You are correct Russell, the fact that rear quarter panels and the like are just non existent any more, makes our cars futures very bleak. Great for a GTT's value but not so great for numbers of cars remaining.

The other option is finding people/company's to reproduce parts but then the quality and price need to be carefully monitored.

Either way it's a tough task, perhaps an online petition of some sorts that can be run and promoted with other European clubs and facebook, might if it's successful give the call for spare parts to be reproduced a bit more clout.

I don't want to be to negative on the subject but it's going to be a very hard task getting Renault to start making old parts again. We were lucky they continued as long as they have done already to be honest.

[Nottswoody]

Which parts did Bob speak of? Same as any old car anything can be fixed plenty of sheet metals out there everything Iv asked for for the 5 Iv had and Iv pretty much rebuilt mine from the ground up so far.

[RussellT]

Bob at CGB can list parts that are commonly requested and no longer available like front bumpers. I expect all the parts were subcontracted we just need Renault to co ordinate and store a basic supply.
Renault are proud of their heritage and do celebrate it with the WSR we just need to demonstrate that there is enough of a world wide passion and following to make the venture comercially viable if only for the reflected glory on the rest of the Renault range rather than monetary gain.

[Nottswoody]

I totally agree with you will be an interesting read that's for sure to see what Renault have to say.

[Matt Cole]

I'm all for looking into the reproduction of parts, I've been bleating on for years to deaf ears! My opinion is we have bob hope and no hope of Renault being remotely interested in keeping the 5gt alive. There is nothing at all for in it for them. Plus all the equipment/lines/ tooling was sold off to other shores for other manufacturers to continue making similar cars under licence. Notwithstanding, i fully support any attempt at contacting them for at least to be bummed off via email.

[Nottswoody]

Perhaps the email would be better simply asking could the club have a breakdown what's available a stock take if you will. And what countries are the items most/least popular in. Worth a shot surely? The question is what department will have the time to answer. We are the few in the grand scale of things really.

[Ian S]

I presume Renault won't be interested. They want to sell new cars.

I doubt if anyone in this or any other UK club, or Facebook, will take such a task upon them selves. Or even think seriously about how to attempt that and present their viable realistic plan and see if RTOC wanted to invest some of it's money to make it happen.

People need to look a the bigger picture.

There's only about 1000 5GTT left in the UK. But probably a more remaining in France, and a lot more 5's in general.

Some individual needs to lead from the top, organise, gather data, collate, communicate, look into re-manufacture, source, buy, store.

And do all that, more or less, for free.

My guess is for that to happen in the UK = not a chance!

Maybe some business in France will have a batch of quarter panels made, etc, if there a profit in it and they don't mind waiting a lot time to recoup their initial investment. Or India?

The best move for the UK owners and the two spares vendors, Mike, CGB, would be to find that person or business abroad. That might mean people and organisations working together and that so far is not something that's really been possible in the UK where everyone has wanted to make their own little profit and few if any think of the community and what's best for everyone. A great example is the other club that are trying to demolish this one, they're not interested in the community or the best result for all owners, just the best result for themselves. Over the years I've tried to work with sellers but they've not really wanted to know as it might mean having to not make a profit on something, again, no community spirit.

Spares sellers will have broken 1000's of 5GTTs for parts and were never invested in keeping the cars going, just making a profit from them.

And within the community of owners there doesn't seem to be people who can, never mind will.

Not being negative, merely realistic.

How much will it cost to get a MOQ (minimum order quantity) of rear quarter panels made? Then what country is going to store an ship bendy easily damaged panels one at a time to the whole world over 10 years?

And just say someone in France did get some made if RTOC agreed to store 50 panels (£100 each? £5000? Just for one part). Where and who can do that? And ship them at maybe one per month in a way that they don't arrive bent. Storage costs would probably be incurred and membership fees might have to supplement that, but with free clubs and Facebook gnawing away and some people slagging us off for charging a fee, that's not sustainable.

[Ian S]

Changing the subject a bit, we've talked it over a few times, usually deciding that it's best to keep it at £15 or so, but that mention above says it again really, to get all the UK owners in one place (here) and working together, it needs a lower membership fee.

Would Facebook users join up if it was a £5 yearly fee? I expect many would begrudge even that much.

But an advantage would be if they all advertised the one shop, instead of various places. If everyone knew everyone who cared would see their add better here rather than eBay or Facebook, that would self propel the RTOC shop and help the community as a whole.

[Alex]

This has been coming for years. I agree with Ian - someone will have to take this upon themselves and have items remanufactured. The chances of this happening are slim to none I'm sorry to say. Renault won't be interested but feel free to try, you never know I suppose.

The community......... thats a joke in itself! There's RTOC and TR. The people in TR couldn't get control of this club so decided to create their own club and taking a load of members from here with them with the promise of zero membership fees. Then there's the likes of the R5 GTT page on Facebook which is also free. A lot of people won't pay anything if they dont have to. I feel theres next to no community spirit as a whole as we're all segregated.

What do Renault still have available for the R5? Whatever they have the club could potentially buy and stilck it in the shop?

[RussellT]

The World Series of Renault is coming up that could be a good opportunity to sound out the general attitude at Renault to ongoing support of the car.

[Trevhib]

Russell is right, WSR is probably the best option.

Renault could choose to recognise that nearly 25yrs after the last GTT was manufactured there is still a lot more interest in them across Europe than almost any other of their mass produced cars of the same age or more. Being part of the Supercinq story and heritage has its advantages. Still, I don't see Renault doing anything proactive in assisting in the preservation of Renault 5 GT Turbos. I've not seen them do anything in this respect for the Turbo 1/2 and those are arguably a more valued part of Renault's history.

Ideally they would release a central repository of part design and manufacture details to allow people to attempt to reproduce parts in whatever way they could manage. Whether that is even possible (more likely, utterly prohibitive), I don't know.

[RussellT]

I have a patient who is a member of the 2CV club and he told me that you can get anything for a 2CV. Thats most unfair.

Apparently a firm in the South of France bought the tooling and continues to make parts.

[Matt Cole]

The community......... thats a joke in itself! There's RTOC and TR.

I actually think we have the best community spirit. It was also one of the reasons why at the time, I thought moving back to the R5GTT owners club could maybe hold onto what's left. Happy RTOC is still here though

[Matt Cole]

I wonder how many De Loreans are left?

A British bloke bought the rights and blue prints to every component plus all the new old stock. They are actually still producing about 20 cars a year from old stock plus new manufactured parts. Unfortunately they are in America.

With the drawings to hand, anything can be reproduced. Food for thought?

[sean5gtt]

Correct me if am wrong but I think in Iran they still producing mk1 Renault 5s using old shell tools to produce them with modern upgrades such as bumpers, lamps and interiors? I have seen pics on Facebook pages so I am sure somewhere in far away countries still making mk2 R5s?

[Trevhib]

It 'was' called a Pars (or Saipa) Khodro PK and was an R5 body with a mish-mash of Kia underpinnings.





SAIPA and Pars Khodro (both Iranian state-owned car companies) had been producing the Renault 5 under licence since 1976. In 1993 SAIPA obtained a licence from KIA to build the Pride in Iran, so all the R5 production was switched to Pars Khodro in 1994. In 2000 Renault withdrew manufacturing support for the R5, but Pars Khodro realised they could keep on using the Renault 5 body production line they already had by modifying the floorpan to take the running gear from the Pride from their sister company, and adding arch extensions to make up the wider track. The Sepand PK was produced from 2000 until 2005, and was replaced by a facelifted 'New PK' with restyled bumpers, light units and arch extensions. Production of the R5-based models finally ceased in 2008, though SAIPA are still producing numerous models based on the Pride, such as the the 132 and 141.

Source here: http://retrorides.proboards.com/thre...estiva-content

[Trevhib]

More photos from a 2003 here:

http://turbo.az/autos/247354-iran-kh...pand-pk/photos

[B18ftMOJO5]

We could do a demo at a renault stealership and surround the place with 5s.

[Matt Cole]

So who wants to send a letter to Renault? It's got to be a starting point.

[Phoenix Autosport]

sorry to say but i have been through this before with ford and i honestly think you are going to be pissing into the wind, car manufacturers are not interested in models as soon as they are not in production, to the point that in the US goverment had to put in place laws to make car manufacturers provide parts for their cars for at least 10 years.
as time goes on producing parts in ever decreasing quantaties becomes more and more expensive, most companies at about the 8 year point will estimate usage for the next few years and make 1 final order to cover them, those parts sometimes last much longer but are virtually never remade.

a better option is for enthusiasts with facilities or ability to reproduce the parts that they are able to do, this sometimes requires an up front investment, or an initial order quantity to cover the cost of tooling.
this is where the RTOC shop could really come into its own, just take the dial facias as an example.
there also needs to be the recognition that when parts are reproduced in low volume that the cost of doing so for a business is often significantly higher, i have reproduced the door cards in composite and even selling them at £300/pair which doesnt barely cover the cost in time and materials to make a set i have only sold 3 sets in 2 years if i factored in the time making the formers and molds each set would owe me about a months solid work, if i hadnt wanted a set for mine it never would have happened

[Trevhib]

Yep

[Keef layton]

i have 2 MGB's you can get every nut and bolt and panel to shells to engine brand new etc etc etc its great...shame it wasn't the same for the 5s like