Reply #1: And it will be worth 1,500 euros

[frazzled]

Sorry, but once burned, twice shy. Back in early 90s we bought a Renault station wagon. It was actually very beautiful, an attractive automobile. And it fit our growing family's needs at the time, with even a back-facing third seat so our kids could take a few friends along. We knew to be leery of Renaults, but it was new on the market, and one of the board members of the museum where mr. frazzled worked (a classy dowager with a very well known family name, of national import) had bought one. We thought, well, if Mrs. P. can drive that around, it must be okay.

Oy vey. What a mechanical mess. Fortunately for us, we went overseas for a month, and let a young lady stay in our house the first few weeks. We said, go ahead and use our (shitty; no we didn't say shitty) car whenever you want. A month later, our neighbor came to pick us all up at the airport and informed us that the young lady had parked the car on the street one evening shortly after we'd let, and a very old man had come along, run into it, and totaled it. They didn't want to ruin our trip by telling us. We were ecstatic!! Finally a solution to the dastardly Renault! The insurance company gave us a check for the totaled value, and we went out and bought a very boring Toyota--which we drove trouble-free for 13 years.

C'est la vie!!