does the V50 qualify as an exotic?

davidw · Jan 8, 2023

Yesterday I was loading groceries into my V50 daily driver, when a passerby stopped and said "Is that what I think it is? I read about them, but have never actually seen one" "Yep, a real live V50 T5 AWD with 6speed". his eyes widened a bit, and he said "whoa, cool".

I have been to local car shows where no one has ever heard of, let alone seen one.

Happy New Year everyone.

AutoGeek · Jan 9, 2023

Funny, I had a similar experience at the local YMCA. A lady stopped me because she noticed that mine was a manual. She had lived in England and not seen any manual V50's here in the sates.

Facusan · Jan 9, 2023

Well, I can tell you in the U.S. market, the V50 is the least sold P1 platform vehicle with 10.77% total. Next, with a really close 11.17% is the C30. In 3rd place comes the C70 with 18.53% and with a whopping 59.53% comes the S40, as the most sold P1 vehicle.

Yours being a T5, AWD and 6-speed, is quite rare and it's one of the 4541 sold in 2007. And any V50 T5 AWD M66 R-design is practically a unicorn.

Now in the European market, the V50 is the more common vehicle, with 55.48% of the total sales numbers. Then the S40 with 21.54%, the C30 with 17.28% and finally the C70 being the rarest car there with 5.70% of the total sales there.

Facusan · Jan 9, 2023

AutoGeek said:
Funny, I had a similar experience at the local YMCA. A lady stopped me because she noticed that mine was a manual. She had lived in England and not seen any manual V50's here in the sates.

Yep, wagons are pretty common in Europe and not so much here.....

V50_M66 · Jan 9, 2023

Facusan said:
Well, I can tell you in the U.S. market, the V50 is the least sold P1 platform vehicle with 10.77% total. Next, with a really close 11.17% is the C30. In 3rd place comes the C70 with 18.53% and with a whopping 59.53% comes the S40, as the most sold P1 vehicle.

Yours being a T5, AWD and 6-speed, is quite rare and it's one of the 4541 sold in 2007. And any V50 T5 AWD M66 R-design is practically a unicorn.

Now in the European market, the V50 is the more common vehicle, with 55.48% of the total sales numbers. Then the S40 with 21.54%, the C30 with 17.28% and finally the C70 being the rarest car there with 5.70% of the total sales there.

Where'd you get those sales numbers? Would love to know how rare my V50 is

Facusan · Jan 9, 2023

V50_M66 said:
Where'd you get those sales numbers? Would love to know how rare my V50 is

I got them by combining info from several websites, I can't remember which since i got this info last year.

Facusan said:
Well, A few months ago I was trying to know how "rare" the C70 is and found P1 ~~production~~ sales numbers by year (chassis numbers). And I got surprised by the results:

In other words, in the U.S. the V50 is the rarest P1. And after this we can tell that yours is definitely an UNICORN!

domwild43 · Jan 9, 2023

Here in the UK the V50 is definitely not an exotic lol 🤣🤣🤣

There are lots of V50's / S40's / C30's and the majority of drivers have no idea what all these badges on the back mean anymore apart from the die hards now sadly.

A V50 T5 AWD is always scooped up on the market here (Not many of them), but its purchased more for modders taking them apart doing the AWD conversion, who are running 400bhp + builds to get the power down (This is for the ST225's / RS MK2's & our P1 T5's market)

Definitely worth keeping in good condition as there wont be any left soon (Could be a collectable I have no idea, doubt it really but for Volvo fans possibly). But not many people know about the P1 T5's and the AWD generally as this area was sort of forgotten about, but the engine is known more in the Focus ST225's / RS MK2's where people are starting to restore / collect / enjoy them more with the manual gearbox.

The sort of comments I get, are more "Are you sure you are taking this on track" 🤣

Or before any track day starts, its either completely looked over or laughed at 🤣

LizardOfBodom · Jan 9, 2023

Neighboring UK, in Ireland V50 is also common as muck, but most are 1.6 or 2.0 diesels, maybe some 1.8 petrol. D5 and T5 are extremely rare and something like mine (and OP's) manual AWD is basically a mythological creature.
According to howmanyleft website, there is currently 17 manual AWD's left on UK's roads. Yes - seventeen! No such numbers for Ireland but having 15x lower population and much worse cars, not sure if there is any more left here.
Nobody that I ever spoke to here in Ireland ever heard or seen AWD model, very little even heard of T5 version, enthusiasts usually think its "D5" when I try to explain what engine is in it.
Funnily enough, mentioning "Focus ST 225" and immediately there is nod of acknowledgment.

Island_V70 · Jan 9, 2023

In car slang, exotic and rare are not quite the same thing. There were only ever 1,000 BMW 323 wagons ever sold in the USA, so my car was rare, but I never thought of it as exotic.

Facusan · Jan 9, 2023

LizardOfBodom said:
Funnily enough, mentioning "Focus ST 225" and immediately there is nod of acknowledgment.

Something similar happened to me a few times with my old S40. I had few people telling me "The good thing about your car is that has a good reliable engine, the one out of the RENAULT LAGUNA".
The first time it happened, my reaction was: WTF? Hey! don't insult my car like that! First of all, this one is turbo. And the Renault Laguna N7Q engine, is non turbo and its a VOLVO engine FFS!

And yes, I hate Renaults with a passion.

avenger09123 · Jan 10, 2023

Now all you need to do is find that aqua blue see through plastic trim for your waterfall and doors and you will officially have the rarest of rares.

V50_M66 · Jan 10, 2023

avenger09123 said:
Now all you need to do is find that aqua blue see through plastic trim for your waterfall and doors and you will officially have the rarest of rares.

That was a thing!?!?! I need to find this

LizardOfBodom · Jan 10, 2023

Facusan said:
...

And yes, I hate Renaults with a passion.

Frankly I am surprised that you being an American know such brand, let alone what "Laguna" is

Im guessing apart from "Le Car" there were not many Renaults in your country so fair play to you :}

Facusan · Jan 10, 2023

V50_M66 said:
That was a thing!?!?! I need to find this

Yep, I saw online pictures of a see thru waterfall console some time ago. Can’t remember how i came across them, but tried searching and can’t find them. Whoever finds them post them here please!

LizardOfBodom · Jan 10, 2023

Facusan said:
Yep, I saw online pictures of a see thru waterfall console some time ago. Can’t remember how i came across them, but tried searching and can’t find them. Whoever finds them post them here please!

To be honest not something I would go for, but indeed thats the rarest of them all.
edit - it was called "Iced Aqua", maybe thats why search resulted nothing.

Facusan · Jan 10, 2023

LizardOfBodom said:
Frankly I am surprised that you being an American know such brand, let alone what "Laguna" is Im guessing apart from "Le Car" there were not many Renaults in your country so fair play to you :}

Thank you, but don’t be too surprised, because I haven’t always lived here in the U.S.. That was how I got to know a few other brands and models that didn’t sell here.

I’ve never seen a Le Car, but I’ve seen an American Peugeot 505 a few years ago. That definitely was a rare sight.

I have to admit that I got to know about the Volvo engine in the Renault, because a relative told me to buy a Laguna head gasket set instead of the Volvo branded one. Saved a good money with that advice!

DFrantz · Jan 10, 2023

They're rare for sure. Not quite exotic by most terms. One of those things, like just about any rare Volvo, folks who know know, and get excited to see them. I tried getting my 06 C70 on classic car insurance and had a heck of a time finding a company to cover it as such. It's old, first year for the hardtop, has classic tags, and used just for nice days. Eventually got it.

Johnny Tsunami · Jan 10, 2023

First time I've seen a sales chart breaking out V50s in the US. Thanks for sharing! Looks like my V50 is significantly more rare than my S2000. That's pretty cool. 😎

Facusan · Jan 10, 2023

Out of the V50’s I saw here (3 were driving and one at the junkyard), only one was a T5. It would be interesting to find out what's the engine percentages by each production year.

J5T · Jan 10, 2023

I have worked a few Renault vehicles in USA. Including the Le Junk. Not good vehicles. The French abandoned the USA decades ago. Even the 2 series Volvo with the PRV v6 was 2/3 french and was an awful engine. Never own any french vehicles. Once I owned a Fiat back in the 70s. This was one too many. I will admit that some of the best food I’ve eaten has been in France! Great food not the cars.

does the V50 qualify as an exotic?

davidw

AutoGeek

Facusan

Facusan

V50_M66

Facusan

domwild43

LizardOfBodom

Island_V70

Facusan

avenger09123

V50_M66

LizardOfBodom

Facusan

LizardOfBodom

Facusan

DFrantz

Johnny Tsunami

Facusan

J5T

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