Renault 5 - long-term review

Crumbs! No, nothing has gone wrong with our long-term Renault 5, but there are now actual breadcrumbs all over the recycled denim interior.

I’ve been doing some extremely important consumer testing this month and have got my hands on the viral baguette holder accessory for the R5. It has just become available for order in the UK as a £120 option and comes boxed as a set which includes a tall woven wicker basket, a fabric inner lining that can be removed and washed, and a small plastic bracket that hooks onto the ‘transmission tunnel’ to ensure the French bread remains upright.

Is it just a gimmick? Yes, of course it is, especially in the UK where we don’t tend to visit a boulangerie every morning. More fool us. It has increased the sales of elongated bread sticks in my local supermarket though, and even our chunkier British baguettes still fit with no issues. It also allows for brilliantly French roadside crusty bread-plus-cheese picnics, and is an excellent talking point when picking up hungry passengers. I love it. It makes the R5 feel even more fun than it was before. 

Unfortunately, the holder is so accessible from the driver’s seat that I can’t seem to get a baguette home without breaking the top off for a quick snack. Hence the serious crumbage that now coats the floor and seats of our gloriously yellow little hatch.

But it’s not just wicker that Renault is making accessories from. There’s also several 3D printed plastic bits on offer, including a little 1972-branded tray that sits in the centre console and brightens up that small part of the interior somewhat. I can’t see why you’d have it though, because it covers up the only two cupholders in the car. Strange. Still, it’s only £20 for the box and an extra £39 for the cover. These are hardly Porsche prices.

There's also a similar graphic available as a sticker for your drive selector stalk. See below. Renault calls this the 'e-pop shifter' and it's only an extra £30. A bargain considering how much it lifts your mood every time you switch between Drive, Neutral and Reverse. Although actually, there are four further options and I think I'd go for the French Tricolore for the full caricature effect.  

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the strange getup, the overalls were the outfit of choice for Renault employees at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this summer as the R4 and R5 made quite a splash with punters. I wasn’t sure if Renault UK would have any further use for them after their appearance at the Duke’s garden party, so put in a request with the PR team for a set that matched our long-term test car.

As I've already found, the R5 is a properly sorted little car to drive, but it also has a sense of humour and doesn’t take itself too seriously, hence the bright paint colours and the patriotic Gallic options…