Renault St Michel

[lunnie]

Hi,

Does anyone have any info or comments on the S t Michel there is one for sale on ebay, and it looks just the ticket for myself, not sure about petrol engine, use to diesel, no nothing about the pro and cons of the Renault Traffic.

I did have the Renault monaco petrol did 50mpg and was up to 212k miles before it was binned.

Any advice would be most welcomed.

Joan

[niloc]

I believe the St Michel was designed by Barry Stimpson and Romahome transformed it into the Dimension. It was a radical move to use so much GRP for the fittings and the design ideas were a leap forward for panel vans, but I think it needed a company with bigger production and marketing muscle to take it forward. And Romahome have done just that with the ever improving Dimension.

[sid b]

Hi Joan, very intriguing, I think there must be very few of them about!
There is a picture of one, but nothing else, on the Roma Club's website (www.romaclub.org.uk/)
Let us know if you buy it, I'd love to know more about it.

[ant]

Aug 26, 2008 21:59:57 GMT niloc said:

I believe the St Michel was designed by Barry Stimpson and Romahome transformed it into the Dimension. It was a radical move to use so much GRP for the fittings and the design ideas were a leap forward for panel vans, but I think it needed a company with bigger production and marketing muscle to take it forward. And Romahome have done just that with the ever improving Dimension.

Barry stimson indeed designed the first St Michel but it was called the Renault Alpine, The St michel was the Romahome version. The Dimension was previously called the mediterranee by Stimson.
What useless information my brain holds!
Ant

[mike and heather]

Yes, we had a Mediterannee on order from Barry Stimpson and went to see his own demo model in Feb 2002.

As it was a special order (we ordered the 2.2 litre Peugeot engine) it was still on order when the Dimension was announced in about November 2002. Barry let us cancel the order and instead we ordered the Romahome Dimension (in 2003) from Ant, starting up a great relationship!

Below is us inspecting Barry's personal model. He used Fiats and Peugeots but not Citroens. He refused to use Heki rooflights and as there were top side windows there were fewer lockers, but the basic brilliant design was there.

......

More pretty useless info my brain holds!

Mike

[lunnie]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for that info. I do like the St Michel's layout, with the loo and shower, but I did realise that there was no luton for storage and it has got me thinking about the amount of items I do have.
The reason we brought a c15 was due to there being a place for everything.

I will have a look at it, and see if it feels good or not. plus I think 12.5K for 97 is a little high.

Would love a bigger vehicle, but if the last 2 years are to go by, I cannot justify, as camping just hasnt happened this year.

Also I think that it is brilliant that your brain holds so much 'useless' information, as it has been useful to me. Thx u

Joan

[lunnie]

Hi,

I went to see the St Michel and was very surprised at the amount of storage! and the bathroom as just absolutely brilliant, no wonder it won prizes ;D

I would really to buy this vehicle, but need to sell Freda first, any offers??

If my hubby and I had seen the St Michel 7yrs ago we most certainly would have chose it over the C15.


I have my thinking cap on now ;D ;D

Joan

[marc4242]

What is Freda?

But I would need to sell Snowdrop ... :}

[lunnie]

Freda is a 1999 Bon Voyage C15, with 3 way fridge, hot air heating, pas, reversing sensors, immobiliser(Thatcham) and window blinds & fly screens.

[joeinpoole]

Hi Lunnie,

I've owned a St Michel for 4 years and I would highly recommend them.

I've been using it for photography trips in the UK and Europe however for commercial reasons I'm moving away from travel and landscape photography (I mainly do food photography nowadays) and am therefore now considering selling it.

It's 1995 motorhome with 36K on the clock and was the actual van featured in MMM's report in July 95 on the model. The original magazine comes with it and it is the main image on the front cover. The editor and his wife spent a couple of weeks driving down to the south of France in it. Very good and comprehensive report.

It's had a couple of minor modifications from original. The bathroom now has a pull-down blind rather than having the reflective film on the rear windows. The bathroom is enclosed by a sliding door rather than a swing-door which I believe was originally fitted. I've had a refillable gas (LPG) cylinder fitted too which is much cheaper to fill and lasts far longer than the original 907 cylinders that came with it. NB: The LPG is just for cooking, fridge, hot water and space heating __ not the engine!

It's the 2.2 petrol version and returns about 28mpg. There were two diesel engine options for the model but I'm told they were somewhat underpowered for the van.

As it happens I am travelling from Poole for a few days in North Yorkshire and Manchester for the next few days. If you live anywhere enroute you might be interested in viewing it. I'm in no hurry to sell so if you still have another van to sell that wouldn't be a problem.

You can call me on 07973 500294 if you would be interested in seeing it or indeed have any questions on the motorhome itself or the model generally.

Kind regards,

Joe