Alexander Kukalev works as an SMM specialist in a large Russian IT company. He bought his car when he was 18, saving part of the money and having the rest added by his parents. In 2008, the family skipped classifieds and visited a used-car market on the outskirts of Chelyabinsk instead.
Then one car caught his eye. First and foremost, the car’s beauty drew him in. Renault Symbol looks unusual in 2022, yet that odd charm still holds a certain fascination, Kukalev recalls.
At purchase time, the Renault Symbol was only six months old, with just 4,000 kilometers on the odometer and no accidents. It turned out later that the seller happened to be a classmate of Alexander’s father, adding a touch of fate to the story. Although the price was 350,000 rubles, a discount of 50,000 rubles was possible.
They registered the car in the name of a retired father to save on shipping tax. According to 2008 standards, it felt like a fortunate break. The car started easily, everything needed was there. It drove well and looked good, letting the new owner feel satisfied with his first car in Chelyabinsk.
Renault Symbol came with a 1.4-liter engine producing 74 horsepower. Alexander notes that this was enough to outpace a 1.6-liter Ford Focus in a straight line.
The equipment included air conditioning and a pair of speakers, with the radio from the seller. Windows and mirror adjustments were manual, and a heated seat cushion helped in the cold winters.
problems
Initially, there were no major problems. Routine maintenance was inexpensive, but keeping up later required more savings. When the warranty expired, the owner stopped making regular MOT visits. Oil and filters were changed only twice in ten years.
In street racing, the clutch wore out, causing the car to stick during hot months. The factory discs and pads lasted exactly five years, and the owner notes that the Symbol felt more Turkish in origin than Russian in assembly.
Alexander discovered a persistent metallic noise that wouldn’t disappear after a month of driving. He replaced discs and pads, drove another year, and then repeated the process. He grew to appreciate the reliability of factory components.
A bent central trunk lock cable required a one-thousand-ruble service visit. Two months later the issue reappeared, but he opted to solve it himself with a local garden service for just 130 rubles. The lock then functioned for another six years with no broken wires.
The alarm proved the biggest headaches. It could not be started manually or automatically, and the dash warned that the alarm blocked the engine. Many hours of studying reset instructions followed, and at one point the problem forced a tow truck call to take the car to a workshop.
A technician finally traced wires and everything worked again. After that, Alexander learned to reset the system himself, giving the car a hardware tap and a shake to restart. Prices and waiting times for others’ work deterred him, so he kept the fixes in-house for years.
In ten years of ownership, there has not been a serious malfunction. If the car had received proper care, experts suggested, it could still be running like new at least on the engine end.
By 2018, the Symbol had exceeded 100,000 kilometers. It spent less time on the track and more on city errands. It acted as a dependable workhorse for trips to the harvest, mushroom gathering with family, school runs, and helping friends move items.
“I used the car as it was meant to be used, and it never let me down,” the owner says with pride. There were a few winters when the battery needed replacement after extreme cold, but everything recovered quickly after a swap. The car ran on AI-92 fuel most of the time, though 95 was used occasionally, with real-world fuel consumption around 7 to 8 liters per 100 kilometers in urban driving.
The Symbol earned the nickname “suffering” due to a handful of minor accidents. “The first incident was almost comical. I backed up to show off and didn’t notice another car. I bumped into it, a soft bumper dent appeared, and then it vanished and reappeared. I waited with the traffic cops for several hours,” he recalls with a smile.
In 2018, Kukalev handed Renault Symbol to his sister and bought a Kia Optima. The Kia impressed him with a broader range of comfort and safety features, like heated seats, blind-spot sensors, and adaptive cruise control. Leaving the Symbol behind was bittersweet, but Alexander believes it could still serve as a son’s reliable first car, a testament to its reputed durability.