10 years Vel Satis... and Espace

The Vel Satis looks as fresh as it did 10 years ago. Yes, Renault presented the car in 2000 and began to sell it in 2001. In fact most Vel Satis currently for sale date back to 2001 and 2002, the first years of production. Then Renault probably tried to push sales again after the facelift in 2005 and 2006. Dealers were likely "seduced" to buy a few as demonstrators. It didn't work out as we know. The Vel Satis went out of production in 2009, quietly, without a direct successor.



Although I recommended my parents to buy the 3.5 Initiale a couple of years ago, I lost a bit interest in the VS myself. I would still have mentioned the Vel Satis to friends looking for a bargain limo, but I wouldn't have considered one as my own car. Mostly because the handling is a bit un-involving.

On holiday at my parents place this summer, I decided to do something against the awful automatic gearchange. The "hump" when launching the car had worsened. Ttime for a software upgrade - or so I thought. When researching that problem I stumbled upon vel-satis.org, a relatively new UK site for Vel Satis enthousiasts vel-satis.org and therefore one of the few...
information resources entirely devoted to the Vel Satis. And bingo - the problem is known among owners. Better still, the site has devoted an entire page on how to "reset" the automatic gear box.

Yes, I discovered that the automatic is "learning", ie adapting shifting patterns to the driver. And of course,  everyone drives a little different and a number of people have driven the car since 2001. Time for the box to "unlearn" and set everything back to factory settings. Amazingly the first try to reset the gearbox worked. Just shift 5 times back and forth between N and D with the engine started, wait 5 seconds in-between the 10 shifts. (Who on earth had the idea to use 10 shift motions for a reset, why not. say 3?)

There still is a little hump, when the box is uncertain whetheer to engage in first or second gear, but normal drivers and passengers won't notice that. And the car has become far more responsive and enjoyable to drive. No more erratic shifting, no more annoying time lags. Unbelievable.

Back at home in Berlin, I couldn't get the Vel Satis out of my mind. The car has become even cheaper, the problems are known and can be dealt with. And there is really no other car which delivers so much more bang for the buck than this one. A luxury cruiser, ample space for everyone on board with a great 3.5 V6.

If Renault had invested a little more time and money, they could have build not just a very good car, but a great one. The engine and the automatic gear box still feel as if the engineers were forced to stop their efforts to improve the refinement. If I ever owned one, I would love to take the car to Nissan specialists. You see, Nissan has used this engine in sport cars, big limos and SUVs. And nearly always was the engine management applied for more power. The Renault config uses 241HP, Nissan usually produced this engine with a bit more than 270HP going up to about 300HP. Clearly the engine is capable of that, so why did Renault restrict the engine far below it's potential? Ride comfort for french limo style driving? Or because 241HP is politically more correct in France?

And what if a Vel Satis owner asked a Nissan specialist to upgrade the engine with Nissan software mapping? Are some mechanical parts Renault only? And if so, what if they could be swapped to Nissan specs? Or even better, what if they could be tuned to sporty applications used for the Nissan 350Z for example?

I love the sound of the Vel Satis 3.5 and I believe it could sound even better. There are no after market tuning specialists for the Vel Satis - well there are, Elia for example. But they must sell so few parts, that every item is a bit of a one-off customisatione. But a Nissan air intake for sporty versions could work, couldn't it?

How about the steering column? The Vel Satis steering is a bit too light for my taste. Is the steering technology also sourced from Nissan? Could the steering be improved with more feel and be a little firmer by swapping a few parts?


Basically, how about improving the Vel Satis with Nissan and Infiniti goodies and a better and more prominent sound? Maybe my next car will be (should be) a Vel Satis after all, preferably a facelifted post 2005 with a sun roof, thank you. And then I should try to make it a Nissan Infinity improvement project, see what works and what not... Mmmmhh sonds like a good plan.

But then there is the Espace... Same wheelbase (Grand Espace), same chassis components, same engines - yes, including the V6. And it gets better. The normal Espace is about 20cm shorter. Nimbler and dare I state, more comfy. It has got more room, a French-Scandinavian modern interior, a classy panoramic glass roof, up to 7 seats, a better seating position (at least for tall guys like myself)... The Espaces are just a little bit more expensive as a used car, and as V6, they are a mighty good deal...

I want one. A short Espace V6, that is.