UK Insurer Parts the Most Unreliable and Costly Car to Fix

In an article on a BMW-faced Honda Accord we found for sale on Craigslist back in 2008, we wrote that in a perfect world, our ultimate car would be “designed by Italians, engineered by Germans, built by Japanese and marketed by Americans”.

So, what’s the worst car one could imagine? Well, if we played around with the above statements, we’d say one designed by Japanese, engineered by Americans, built by Italians and marketed by Germans.

But UK insurance firm Warranty Direct had something a little bit different in mind. Instead of playing the origin card, the company decided to check out its database of 50,000 live policies on cars aged five years on average to part the UK’s most unreliable vehicle that would break down every other month and cost an average of £2,050 (equal to US$3,270 - €2,330) to fix each year.

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VIDEO: Renault Megane RS Trophy’s Record Run at the ‘Ring

Last week, Renault upped the ante for front-wheel drive models by setting a new lap record at the Nurburgring Nordschleife with its more powerful Mégane Renaultsport Trophy.

The 265-horsepower strong special edition posted a lap time of 8 minutes and 7.97 seconds in the hands of Renault test driver Laurent Hurgon, smashing the previous record for a front-wheel drive model held by the older generation Mégane RS R26.R by nine seconds. Buckle up, sit tight and enjoy the record run in the video after the break.

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Renault Sets New Nürburgring Lap Record for a Front-Wheel Drive Car with Megane RS Trophy

Renault has slashed its own longstanding lap record for a front-wheel drive production car at the Nordschleife, which the company held since June 23, 2008, with its new Megane RenaultSport (RS) Trophy special.

The 265-horsepower version of the Megane RS completed a full lap around the Nürburgring racetrack in 8 minutes and 7.97 seconds beating the time of the previous generation Mégane Renaultsport R26.R by 9 seconds. In comparison, the now obsolete 305HP Ford Focus RS posted a lap time of 8 minutes and 26 seconds in the summer of 2009.

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2009 Renault Megane Trophy Race Car

Renault has spawned the 2009 Renault Megane Trophy from the new Renault Megane Coupe Trophy and has been unveiled at the 2008 Paris Auto Show. The 2009 Renault Megane Trophy will be sold exclusively as an affordable race car for the 2009 World Series by Renault and will go sale at the end of the year.

The 2009 Renault Megane Trophy is powered by the Renault-Nissan Alliance’s mid-rear 3.5-liter 24 valve V6 engine produces 360 hp and 390 Nm of torque! A six-speed semi-automatic sequential gearbox steering column-mounted paddle shifts and a limited slip differential transfers the power to the track.

According to Renault, the 2009 Renault Megane Trophy is able to produce similar lap times to those of a Porsche GT3! The 360 hp engine is part of the explanation for the lap times as it is aided by some aerodynamic tweaks that includes a front splitter that channels air flow to the extractors, a rear diffuser and a rear wing that generates 20 % more downforce while reducing drag by 15 % over the previous Megane Trophy.