WORDS: elliott hughes | PHOTOGRAPHY: collecting cars
Renault UK has followed the lead of its Japanese counterpart Mitsubishi in offering 12 cars from its heritage fleet for public auction. While the sale of Mitsubishi’s heritage fleet in March 2021 was the harbinger of the marque’s retreat from the UK market, Renault’s sale seems to herald the French manufacturer’s commitment to an electrified future.
Indeed, the manufacturer had already offloaded much of its heritage fleet before selling the remaining 12 cars to a UK dealer, who then advertised them via Collecting Cars.
While it’s undoubtedly a shame that Renault seems so eager to distance itself from the revered ICE-powered cars in its back catalogue, the Renault Collection presented the rare opportunity to acquire low-mileage and fastidiously maintained examples of the company’s most iconic models.
The three mid-engined V6-powered lots garnered the most attention: a 2005 Renault Clio V6 Phase 2, a 1977 Alpine A110 Berlinette and a 1997 Renault Sport Spider.
The Clio V6, which has been seen driven by the likes of Daniel Ricciardo on YouTube, closed the sale on March 13 with the highest bid at £87,654 ($114,452). The high final bid comes just weeks after a similar Acid Yellow-finished Clio V6 Phase 2 sold on the platform for a record-breaking £90,000 ($117,515).
In second place came the Alpine A110, with a final bid of £81,600 ($106,547), followed by the £45,500 ($59,410) achieved by the rare Renault Sport Spider.
But it was the 2005 Renault Clio 182 Trophy that delivered arguably the most surprising result of the auction, by landing in fourth place at £45,250 ($59,084). This remarkable result is explained by the fact that the example offered is chassis 001 and bears just 16,000 miles on its odometer.
Even so, it’s interesting that the Clio Trophy usurped the 2008 Renault Sport Mégane R26.R in the price hierarchy, as the latter was also denoted as chassis 001 and was offered with an even lower 12,458 miles. The Mégane R26.R sold for £38,750 ($50,597).
The final model offered with a chassis 001 plaque was a 2015 Renault Sport Mégane RS 275 Trophy-R with 13,369 miles. This car represented the newest model of the Collection and crossed the block for £29,750 ($38,845), narrowly beaten by the £33,000 ($43,089) achieved by the other R26.R.
Renault 4 prices have been on the incline in recent years, and this was illustrated by the stunning £18,250 ($23,829) paid for the 1985 Renault 4 GTL – more than double Hagerty’s Price Guide value for a ‘concours’ example.
The Renault 4 GTL was followed by its successor: a 1985 Renault 5 1.4 GTL Supercinq, which sold for a strong £9250 ($12,078). With just 21,717 miles, it is one of the lowest-mileage examples in existence and had just one registered keeper from 1985 to 2009 before being acquired by Renault UK.
Three generations of Clio rounded out the Renault Collection offerings: a 1991 RT-spec 1.4 (£4200/$5484), a 2000 Mk2 1.2 Grande (£2600/$3394) and a 2007 Mk3 1.4 Dynamique (£3100/$4047).
In the end, Collecting Cars’ Renault Collection achieved £407,765 ($532,430) in sales from March 7-13.
