Renault 5 - Reliability & safety

Standard active safety equipment on the R5 includes automatic emergency braking in reverse, front sensors with emergency lane keeping, rear sensors with emergency lane keeping, and rear occupant safe exit alert. In the event of a crash, the doors will automatically unlock, and the hazard lights will activate. 

Modern legislated safety features, such as active speed-sign recognition and lane-keep assist are also included, but Renault has integrated a clever single-button switch to overcome the issue of needing to dig into menus to turn off whatever you wish to deactivate. This is in the form of a small physical button which, when pressed twice, activates a ‘personal’ mode for the safety alert systems. This allows drivers to pick and choose to switch off as many or as few of the individual systems as they like.

Renault doesn’t have a great reputation for overall reliability, and this shows in its standing in the Auto Express Driver Power owner satisfaction survey. The brand’s best category score was 12th for running costs, with cheap servicing in ninth, followed by 16th for tax and insurance, and 18th for economy. 

Owners rate their car exteriors 16th, safety features 28th, and the infotainment systems 21st. The interiors don’t rank highly either, with front-seat comfort in 29th and visibility from the driver’s seat last, in 50th. Powertrains also don’t fare well, with scores for acceleration and smoothness near the bottom of the table. These ratings are relevant to the existing Renault range of cars, however, not the latest models such as the R5.

Warranty

Renault offers a three-year warranty on all its electric cars, with unlimited mileage over the first two years, and then up to 100,000 miles for the remaining third year, depending on which comes first.