Rare 2003 white Renault Grand Espace 3.5 V6,
only 60,801 miles, 9 months MOT, spares or repair
Silky
smooth and quiet 3.5 litre V6 petrol engine (from the Nissan 350Z sports car,
detuned from 300 bhp to “only” 240 bhp when Renault offered it as an option in
the top-of-the-range Grand Espace – one of the few good things to come out of
the Renault / Nissan partnership) mated to an Aisan / Borg Warner 5 speed
automatic tiptronic gearbox. This Espace will effortlessly run with cruise
control at 60 mph and 44 mpg, but goes like a scalded cat when you push the
throttle pedal to the floor (and make the traction control work to get the
power down). 
Only 11 right-hand-drive examples of the Renault
Grand Espace 3.5 V6 were built in diamond white, making this car very rare
indeed (you won’t find another Grand Espace 3.5 V6 in any colour for sale in
the UK in this condition with such low mileage). As expected with a low mileage
of only 60,801 miles, the bodywork is in excellent condition for a 17 year old
car, with only one small scratch on the nearside rear corner and a shopping
trolley dent on the offside rear passenger door. The interior is also in
excellent condition, all 7 seats are finished in alcantara and are in good
condition, and any of the rear 5 seats can easily be refitted facing backwards,
folded up or removed completely in a matter of seconds.
The
car has a towbar with twin electrics, we have used it a few times to
effortlessly tow our classic (Triumph TR7V8) and vintage (Jowett Kingfisher)
car, the power and torque from the engine ensure that you hardly notice the
load behind.
There
are two key cards with the car (that also operate the remote central locking).
All electrics (front and rear windows, front door mirrors, central locking,
Xenon auto-adjusting headlamps, electronic handbrake, cruise control, etc.)
work perfectly and there are no warning lights on the dashboard. Fitted options
include privacy glass, Alpine multi-disc CD changer, alloy wheels, trip
computer, multiple 12V power points, roof rails. There is also a Renault remote
control for the radio / CD player, the four-digit security code is also
available.
We
have two roof rack bars from another Espace that will be supplied with this
car, but they are in silver instead of white (so could easily be resprayed in
white, if this bothers you – but we have never used them).
The
car was first registered on 24/12/2003, its next MOT is due on 24/08/2021 (in 9
months time), the road tax costs £28.43 per month, but the car is SORNed since
01/11/20.
We
have owned the car since February 2019, and have driven 4,450 miles at an
average of 24 mpg. The car has been regularly maintained regardless of what
needed doing, recent work includes new front shock absorbers (£100), front
springs (£75) and front upper suspension mounts (£110), Youso 85Ah battery
(£110) plus auxiliary belt and tensioning pulley (£200 including fitting).
Other work during our ownership includes both front suspension lower ball
joints and offside track rod end (£95), nearside front inner and outer
driveshaft gaiters (£50) plus two new front tyres (£150), and so the car needs
nothing further (although both rear tyres will probably need to be replaced for
its next MOT in 9 months time). The car is HPI clear and accident free.
Now the bad points. This car is too good to break for spares, although the
Nissan 350Z engine alone is worth well over £700, plus £300 for the 7 seats and
£200 for the Xenon headlamps.
1)
The
car is driveable, but has an intermittently faulty gearbox multifunction switch (Renault
part
number [hidden information], cost £346.43 plus VAT). It is about 3 hours work to
replace this switch, which sits on top of the gearbox (but underneath
the
battery, battery tray, engine ECU and gearbox ECU, all of which have to
be
removed to access the multifunction switch). The car shows P when in
park, so
can be started, and although reverse and drive can be selected
correctly, so the car can be driven, the
faulty multifunction switch sometimes brings up a gearbox error on the dashboard
and
shows as faulty on a diagnostic terminal. I removed the gearbox
multifunction
switch last month, cleaned up the contacts in the connecting plug and
socket
and refitted it, after which the car worked perfectly for a month, but
the
fault has reappeared now - so the switch itself is at fault (which is what both the Renault main dealer and Specialist
Transmission Services in Southampton told me), although I had hoped that it was only dirty
connectors.
2) the
air-conditioning doesn't work – the heater works perfectly, but the air-con
doesn’t cool at all, it probably only needs regassing. It was like that when we
bought the car, but because we have a convertible car to use on the few hot
days in summer, we never bothered getting the air-con regassed.
The
private registration (F10 TOG) is not included with the car, it will revert to
its original registration (HT53 RYX) prior to sale. The V5 document is in my
name and address and shows 7 former keepers, and we received some service
history (stamped service history book, some MOT certificates and all user
handbooks) from the last owner.
Reason
for sale – I was terminated from my job in July 2020 (for health reasons) and
am finding it very difficult to get a new job, so I no longer require and am
not using the Espace, it has become a garden ornament.
The
car is located in Colden Common (SO21 1SB), half way between Southampton and
Winchester.
Viewing
prior to bidding / end of auction is welcomed and preferred (I am unemployed,
so am at home most days), please contact me via eBay message to arrange a
suitable time and date. Equally, if you are successful and win the auction, the
collection time and date is also flexible, but please within 14 days of the
auction finishing (we need the space on our driveway for our visitors over
Christmas – lockdown permitting).


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