Hi

[Ian_V]

I am due to pickup a Iconic Esprit Alpine any day now in the matte paint option. Not off to a very good start so far as I was due to collect it today but it has been delayed due to an urgent recall being flagged during final prep. Not been given a new collection date yet but hopefully will be with me soon.

The Austral is a bit of a departure for me as I have spent the last 7 years loving driving a Mk3 Focus RS but decided it was time to act my age (I suspect I won't be taking this one out on the track )

[tmonkeyuk]

Hope they get it sorted quickly and you don't have to wait too long for your collection.

Definitely a bit different from a Focus RS! I'm lucky as I've always been able to let my wife have the sensible car (the Austral is hers) whilst I get to have something a bit more 'fun' - currently a convertible M235i after a couple of V6 SLK's before that.
As a driver that likes to 'push on' my experience so far would be to feed the power in to avoid it hunting gears and it likes to understeer. Probably not even understeer tbh, as it's got reasonable mechanical grip for what it is, but feedback to the wheel is limited and the steering is slow so it will drift a tad wide on exit if you're not forcing it. Problem is that due to the lack of feedback in the wheel you can only really gauge what it's doing by where the nose is pointing so you're always a fraction behind and don't know it's going a bit wide until it's doing it if that makes sense.
That's just me being picky though and overall it's quite nice to drive - a couple of times through some tightening bends it did what I asked of it very well given what it is and the tyres that are factory fitted. I did 12hrs behind the wheel of it the other day and still felt like I could have carried on for a couple more if needed which is pretty commendable for any car. Watching the matrix headlights do there thing at night is pretty good fun as well.

Hopefully you'll still get some fun out of it even if it isn't an RS and you never know, you might want to throw a couple of laps in on a trackday just for the hell of it

[Deleted User 152]

Hi Ian,

Good to see you here.

You mention an urgent recall and I'm wondering if it's the new software update that has affected mine. (Had car one day, had software problems and now back in garage for over a week waiting for Renault France to write new software fix).

Apparently Renault sent a batch of 28 into the country last month all of which have a serious bug in the software system which Renault are trying to sort out.

[Ian_V]

So having spoken to the dealer, they apparently have 3 customer cars that have all been put on hold due to a recall. The Service Manager is waiting for details of what is involved and so as yet haven’t been able to give me details on the recall or how soon they are expecting a fix so don’t know if it is hardware or software involved.

My car was delivered to the dealership a week or two back so could easily be the same batch you mentioned.

[Gaz]

In the same boat, was supposed to collect my austral iconic today but received a call from the dealer that it’s been delayed due to a recall. Not received any update yet from the dealer as to what the issue is or when it will be ready for collection.

[Ian_V]

Seems to be a common theme with lack of info from Renault dealers. Was told on Thursday about the delay and still have not heard what the recall is and anything about when the car is likely to be ready for collection. Not that worried if the call is just a 'we are still waiting on info' but would like to at least be kept in the loop.

Received my V5 yesterday and even had a call from someone at the dealership yesterday doing the customer service bit asking whether I was happy with the handover of my new car. Was quite fun telling them I hadn't got the car yet and had no clue as to when I was going to get it.

[Deleted User 152]

Mines been two weeks waiting for this software update.
Its been agreed that if it is not done/fixed by this Saturday they will deregister it and register a new like for like one they have brought in specially as cover for this eventuality.
So this Saturday I'll finally have an Austral again whether it's the original one which we only drove three hours from brand new or a replacement.
Knowing my luck they will have to give us the replacement only to find that one needs the update too!

[Ian_V]

So just had an email from the dealer confirming the recall is for a software update. They are advising that this should be available within 5 days.

[Deleted User 152]

The car is available within five days or the software.
I only ask as if our original car not updated by this Friday afternoon we will get new replacement car 10 am Sat morning.

[Ian_V]

The email says ‘should be resolved in the next 5 days’. Having said that, it shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours to perform as soon as they dealership has it.