I had a 05 225, not a cup/trophy/f1 etc, but it did have pretty much every non performance enhancing extra (full leather, climate, elbow rest, cd changer
sunroof
etc) and I liked it.
I had the car for 2 1/2 years, 24k miles and only changed it because I needed an estate and wanted a V8 in my life.
I paid £8k or £9k for it about 3 years back for it. I wanted a mk5 golf GTI, but did not want to spend the sort of money that a good one would have cost. So I bought a good Megane rather than a rough Golf. I needed something with more than 2 seats after making the missus pregnant and the 5 star ncap really appealed at that point in my life.
I found the interior nice on my car, lots of people complimented it, especially at night (nice dials and the centre console looked good when lit up), I do believe the sunroof did help the feel of it, but the sunroof did wobble and lift when you slammed the doors (much to the delight of my mates)
Apart from tyres (£120 each or £150 if they have the 235 size) servicing and a cam belt + water pump (£500) it only had one real cost and that was the electric windows, they went wrong on mine 3 times, each time costing me £200, it was quite annoying, renault do help towards the cost when the car is under 60k miles and 7 years (I think), but it would have been £600 each (there are plenty of £60 kits on ebay which may or may not work)....Oh yes, the lights are fun to change, it would take me about 15 mins to change a pair of headlight bulbs, I ended up getting longlife bulbs to avoid the issue.
So you get an idea on service prices
http://www.k-tecracing.com/service_grid.asp?appid=12&model=Petrol models
I have never used their service department, but their parts department is very helpful.
I liked the drive of the car, when I bought it I tried it back to back with a 230 F1 which I found too hard core (I think the recaro seats had a lot to do with that), but the one place the cups etc do have a big advantage is the brake pedal feel, I never had an issue with it, but my missus with her delicate touch did seem to like to drive up to the back of cars before performing emergency stops. The cups etc had a bigger servo to fight that issue.
I never had any complaints about the handling on the road, it was comfortable enough and never attempted a manoeuvre that suspension/handling gave me a shock with. I am sure a cup would be faster on a track, just not sure it would be more enjoyable on the road.
Liked the engine, but the gear stick does feel a little loose on them, you can tighten the wire, but it will loosen off again quite quickly.
It was a good fun car. Comfortable on long journeys, but the boot is small and I used to get 24mpg.
I do actually miss the car, much more fun than my Audi S4.
