A beautiful blue Renault Safrane on black license plates, seen in east Beijing. The good Renault was dirty and dusty and appeared to be abandoned. But it wasn’t lost, with some love and maintenance it could be back on the road in no time.
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The first generation Renault Safrane was manufactured from 1992 until 2000, with a facelift in 1996. Our blue car, which looks dark green from some angles, is a facelifted example.
At the time, the Safrane was the most luxurious Renault money could buy, set to compete with cars such as the Audi A6, BMW 5-Series, Mercedes E-Class, and Volvo 900-series. Sadly, almost nobody bought it, as always with these large French limousines.
The Renault Safrane was available with various petrol and diesel engines. The most interesting engine was a 2.5 liter five-cylinder petrol that was sourced from Volvo, which used it in the 850 and the S70/V70. In the Safrane, the engine was rated at 163 hp and 220 Nm. It was mated to a 4-speed auto, sending horses to the front wheels.
Here things get very wuzzy. Note the sticker on the driver’s window from Philips Car Systems, which is the old name of the car stereo division of Philips Electronics. It warns the bad guys that the stereo has a security code, so stealing is useless.
But this sticker sits on the left-rear passenger window. Blaupunkt is another car stereo maker. The sticker warns the bad guys that the stereo has a detachable front, which renders the stereo useless, if the owner does indeed take it off when he exits the car.
So what is all this about? Does it have a Philips or a Blaupunkt..?! Thorough investigative research learned that the Safrane was available with either an expensive Philips unit or a smaller, and cheaper, Blaupunkt unit.
But it can’t have both! Which one is it? Time to have a look inside and find out:
But we can’t. Because in the Safrane the stereo is hidden behind a panel in the center stack.
Behind this panel here, with the Chinese Michelin sticker on it. We will thus never know what stereo it has. Perhaps a Renault factory worker responsible for the stereo stickers was too tired to check things out, and just slapped both stickers on.
Notchback design was typical for Renault. The Safrane’s predecessors, the Renault 25 and before that the Renault 20/30, all had a similar design.
Black license plates were issued to foreign owned companies from the 1980’s to the early 00’s. These companies could buy a car locally, and they were also allowed to import their own cars.
In the old days black-plated cars had some privileges comparable to diplomatic cars; no police officer would dare to stop them and they could basically park wherever they wanted without fear of a fine.
Nowadays, a black-plated car is counted just like all the others. The government does not issue new black plates anymore but those who have one can keep it until eternity.
The Renault has a very special A·16116 sequence.
The Safrane badge in a very modern (for the day) handwriting.
The first generation Renault Safrane was never officially marketed in China, and this is the first example I have ever seen. I have since been back to the area a couple of times, and she is still standing there.