30 July 2025
Alpine and Renault Sport have lots in common and since I own both an Alpine and a Renault Sport product currently, I've been wondering do Alpine and Renault Sport cars have some common features which could be describes as common DNA?
The short version of the common history of Alpine and Renault Sport is that when Renault stopped Alpine production in 1995, Renault Sport continued designing and producing cars utilizing the Alpine plant in Dieppe. When Renault re-introduced Alpine with the new A110 in 2017, it started manufacturing the A110 on the same Dieppe plant. Renault closed Renault Sport operation in 2023 and its operations were merged into Alpine. I have also written a slightly longer version of Alpine history here.
I have an 2022 Alpine A110 and a 2021 Renault Megane RS280 and as far as I understand, some of the people involved in the development of these cars have been the same. Are there therefore some common qualities on these cars which could be called as common DNA for both Alpine and Renault Sport?
Those two cars are naturally fundamentally quite different since the other one is a hot hatch version of a regular front-wheel-drive family hatchback, whereas the other one is a middle-engined aluminium construction sports car.
Lightness has been one of the key guiding principles when the A110 was designed and the effort to save weight can be seen in various parts of the car. The end result is a weight just over 1,100 kg. My Megane RS, on the other hand, weighs around 1,500 kg, which is quite typical for a hot hatch of it size, and it cannot be said that my Megane shows any special effort to minimize weight. Based on this, it could perhaps be said that the pursuit of lightness is not at the core of the common basic idea for both Alpine and Renault Sport.
However, Renault Sport has had several Megane RS model versions, where the additional speed for the car has not been sought primarily through additional power, but specifically through weight reduction. Examples of these have been e.g. the 2009 Renault Megane R26.R, which had the same power as the standard Megane RS of the time, but had saved 123 kg of weight, e.g. by removing the rear seat and soundproofing, and replacing the rear hatch and rear side windows with polycarbonate ones.
Renault Sport also developed a lighter version of the next generation Megane RS, the Megane RS 275 Trophy-R. Weight was saved in this version by, among other things, removing the rear seats and soundproofing. Air conditioning and the audio system were also discarded as unnecessary in that version. The end result was 1,280 kg, a weight saving of 101 kg compared to the standard RS.
There was also a Trophy-R version of the Megane RS of the same generation as my RS. This version followed the same philosophy as the previous lightweight versions of the RS Megane, with a new lightening measure including carbon fiber wheels. This time, the weight savings were 130 kg compared to the Megane RS Trophy version.
Not only is the basic A110 exceptionally light for a modern car, but over the years Alpine has introduced several special versions of the A110 model, in which the aim has also been to make the car lighter. The core of the old Alpine models was also exceptional lightness. In my opinion, the effort to improve drivability and handling through lightness is clearly a trait that can be said to be an essential part of the shared DNA of Alpine and Renault Sport.
Even though my cars are quite different in many ways, what my Alpine and Megane RS have in common is the engine. Both have the same four-cylinder 1.8-liter turbocharged gasoline engine. The Alpine has a slightly lower tuning level (252 hp), while the Megane has 27 horsepower more, or 279 hp.
The engine characteristics are therefore very similar. The soundscape is quite different, however. In the A110, the engine is in the middle, and during heavy acceleration, you can hear a nice swooshing sound behind your ear. In sport mode, when you downshift or ease off the throttle, the exhaust system pops gently. In the Megane, the engine sounds are less perceptible, but when you ease off the throttle in sport mode, the Megane can make loud pop sounds that I find disturbingly loud. The A110 has a clearly more pleasant soundscape - except when talking about the sound quality of the music, where the Megane's Bose audio system beats the A110's Focal audio.
How about the handling, which naturally is quite essential on these type of cars? Are there any common traits related to handling on these cars?
What both cars have in common is that they are both very good and enjoyable to drive. However, the A110 and the Megane RS are quite different in terms of handling/drivability and I cannot identify any single common characteristics related to handling on these cars.
The A110 dances through corners effortlessly - and the dancer in this case is a graceful ballet dancer. The Alpine's suspension is relatively soft, and it leans a fair amount in corners.
The steering of the A110 could also be described as effortless, it is not particularly sensitive, but still on the bends you know exactly how much of the steering wheel you need to turn to get the car exactly where you want it to go.
Megane, on the other hand, is no dancer - or if it is, it is a bodybuilder who crushes others on the night club dance floor in the last few moments before closing time. Compared to the Alpine, the four hundred kilos more weight is felt in the corners, and the Megane has a clearly stiffer chassis than the A110. It handles corners with great efficiency.
Although one might imagine that the A110 being a sports car would be harder and more uncomfortable in daily driving than the family car Megane, it is actually quite the opposite. The lighter Alpine does not need such a stiff suspension, and it is more comfortable in daily driving than the heavier, stiffer Megane.
The Megane's steering is reasonably responsive and precise. However, the steering is somewhat jerky under heavy acceleration - a feature that is absent from the rear-wheel drive Alpine. The Megane's steering is also heavier than the A110. Partly this might be due to to the Megane's wider tires (245/35/19 vs. the Alpine's 205/40/18 front tires).
Common features between Alpine and Renault Sport can be found at least in the focus on lightness over high power and in the fact that a strong focus in the development of these cars has always been on enjoyable driving.
15 May 2025
This spring's European road trip took place at the beginning of May. Like two years ago, the trip would be a combination of holiday, car maintenance trip, and work. The work part would be a two-day conference in Berlin, which would determine the direction of the journey.
In the previous three years, I had taken the ferry to/from Travemünde in northern Germany, but this time I decided to take a slightly different route towards Berlin. The plan was to drive through the Baltic countries and Poland along the Via Baltica route. I had never driven that route before, so it would be a new experience to me.
I had visited several places in the Baltic countries and Poland before, and now I decided to try to at least partially visit places that I had not been to before. For this reason, I decided to skip Riga without stopping. In Poland, the actual Via Baltica, and at the same time the shortest route to Berlin would have taken me via Warsaw and Poznan, but since I had visited both of them in the last couple of years, I decided to look for some alternative routes in Poland.
The alternatives were either driving via Krakow or Gdansk, neither of which I had ever been to before. Both seemed interesting cities, but in the end I decided to head towards Gdansk.
From Gdansk, the route would take me to a Polish city called Szczecin before driving to Berlin. I booked the service appointment for the Alpine at the Alpine Store Berlin. There are no Alpine dealers or authorized service in the Baltic countries, but in Poland Alpine is officially sold, and there would have been an Alpine service near Krakow in Katowice. However, it would be convenient to leave the car for service in Berlin during the work conference.
After work obligations, the itinerary included a short visit to the island of Rügen on the Baltic Sea in Germany. From there, to the familiar Travemünde, from where I would take a ferry back to Finland. The trip would last just under two weeks, and it would include around 2,500 kilometres of driving.
The trip started after a working day with a drive of just over a hundred kilometres from my home in Hollola to the Viking Line port terminal in Katajanokka, Helsinki. There the car was loaded onto the ship, and the ship departed at 20:30.
The actual ferry ride only takes 2.5 hours, but since the ferry would be in Tallinn port late in the evening, Viking Line offers the opportunity to stay overnight on the ship, and I took that opportunity. Staying overnight on the ship was quite affordable, as the ferry trip including cabin cost 80 euros.
I had to leave the ship between 5:30 and 6:00 in the morning, so I would have to wake up early. The good thing about the schedule was that there was no traffic jam in Tallinn at that time of the morning. Starting early was also convenient from the perspective that I would have a long day of driving, about 600 km, across three countries to Kaunas in Lithuania
After about two hours of driving, I made my first stop in Pärnu. It has been a popular beach/spa town for Finns for a long time, but I had never been there before. In Pärnu, I went to have breakfast and visited the beach briefly. The city looked quite nice.
I had never driven the Via Baltica before, so it was a bit of a mystery what kind of condition the roads would be in these days, and what kind of driving culture I would encounter in the Baltic countries and Poland.
In Estonia and Latvia, the condition of the roads was quite good. I would even say that the Via Baltica roads in those countries were in better condition than the average Finnish main road which can have lot of potholes and multiple patches.
Otherwise, I drove along the main Via Baltica route during the day, but in the southern part of Estonia, I drove for a while on the smaller 331 road, which also crossed the Estonian-Latvian border. Shortly after the border crossing, I was back on the official Via Baltica route. I passed Riga smoothly - I had been there about a year ago, and this time I didn't go there at all. I stopped for lunch at some point after Riga somewhere in Latvia.
The Via Baltica roads between Estonia and Kaunas were really boring to drive on. There were practically no motorways in that section, the speed limits were a maximum of 90 km/h, with very few exceptions, the roads had lots of long straights, few elevation changes, and lots of traffic - especially trucks.
The local kamikaze over takers, who were especially eager in Latvia, and to some extent also in Lithuania, brought some excitement to otherwise very boring drive. Luckily, on the Lithuanian side, the most enthusiastic over takers were restrained by the average speed cameras there.
I arrived in Kaunas around four o'clock in the afternoon after about a 10-hour driving day. I had also been to Kaunas few years ago, but since it was conveniently along the way and it is quite a nice city, I had chosen it as my first place to stay.
During the drive, the weather had been mostly cloudy with some rain. Fortunately, the weather in Kaunas was sunny, and the temperature was still almost 20 degrees in the evening, so it felt almost like summer.
In the evening, I had plenty of time to walk along the city's pleasant pedestrian street, and see the sights.
The second actual driving day of the trip was also quite long, as there was a nearly 600 km journey from Kaunas to Gdansk on the Baltic Sea coast. Fortunately, this driving day was not as boring as the Tallinn - Kaunas drive.
A good motorway began immediately after Kaunas, and I made much faster progress than the previous day. One oddity on Lithuanian motorways was that speed limit signs had apparently been found to be a useless, since there were none at all along the motorway - strange! I had researched beforehand that the speed limit on Lithuanian motorways would be either 110 km/h or 130 km/h. Since there were no speed limit signs, I had to determine my own speed somehow. Google Maps and Waze sometimes showed the same speed limit, sometimes their information differed from each other. Google Maps even showed sometimes a speed limit of 50 km/h on the motorway. I suspect that was because the motorway looked like brand new, and perhaps Maps speed limit data was based on a time when there was still a road construction there.
I did come across a road construction near the Polish border, and the last few kilometres to the border were driven on the temporary detours. Luckily, after crossing the Polish border there was again a brand-new motorway of which there seemed to be a lot in Poland in contrast to Baltic countries. Polish motorways also had the same problem as in Lithuania, namely that no one bothered to tell people about speed limits on the road. I guess they assume that you just know them.
My advance information about the speed limits on Polish motorways was that the limits were either 120 km/h or 140 km/h, depending on the road. Navigation software showed a maximum of 120 km/h limit, so I judged my own driving speed accordingly. The locals had clearly a different understanding of speed limits - or the importance of following them - and during the day I saw a large number of local drivers driving very fast. Also, the prevailing driving style seemed pretty aggressive, and drivers seemed to be taking lots of risks.
Fortunately, it was not all motorways along the way. There were also some nice twisty road where it was enjoyable to drive without needing to drive excessive speeds. Outside the built-up areas the speed limit was mainly 90 km/h, the asphalt was in good condition, and the bends were often tight. Good fun!
This driving day was May Day, which seemed to be a holiday in Poland (as in Finland too), which is why there was sometimes a lot of traffic, but fortunately at other times you could enjoy the drive in peace.
Before Gdansk I stopped at Malbork Castle, which is a massive medieval castle. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the inside of the castle, as the ticket quota for the day was sold out when I got to the castle about four hours before it closed. Well, the castle looked pretty even from the outside.
From Malbork, it was still an hour's drive to the day's destination, Gdansk, where I arrived around six in the evening. It was a long day of driving, but I would have three nights in Gdansk ahead of me, so the next few days would be spent relaxing.
I had booked accommodation in a brand-new apartment, located in a very large building on the riverbank, a short walk from the city's busiest areas.
The day was sunny and warm, at best the temperature was +24 C. So, a good day to go to the beach! Therefore, I decided to jump on a boat, which would take me from the centre of Gdansk to the neighbouring coastal town of Sopot.
The boat conveniently left next to the Olowianka Island, a 15-minute walk from my accommodation - as long as I scheduled the walk at a time when the pedestrian drawbridge across the river was open. That drawbridge was always up for half an hour at a time, and then down again for half an hour. If the drawbridge was up, the walk to the other side of the river was much longer.
The route of the boat first went along the river towards the sea, and along the way, it was nice to see Gdansk port area. Shortly before entering the sea it was possible to see the Westerplatte World War II memorial at the end of the peninsula.
For the rest of the journey the ship sailed near the coast, and after about an hour of travel we arrived at the long pier in Sopot.
Sopot is a popular beach resort, and it was quite busy even in the beginning of May. There were quite a lot of people on the beach, but at the beginning of May the water didn't seem to be inviting for swimming yet, as there were no people in the water at all.
It is easy get back to the centre of Gdansk from Sopot by local train, and that's how I travelled back to Gdansk.
The rest of the day was spent not only resting, but also walking around the city - and of course, not forgetting good food. There is a lively restaurant area on the riverbank with lots of good restaurants, where there were a lot of people walking around.
A day of two museum visits. First, the World War II Museum, which was almost new, and the building it was in was a nice modern building. The exhibition was well designed, and the automatic audio guide worked great.
Then the Maritime Museum, where unfortunately the signage was only in Polish, which made it challenging to understand what was being said. The museum complex also included a former merchant ship called Soldek, which was the most interesting part of the museum.
The weather was nice also that day, about 20 degrees.
Gdansk was a quite interesting city; it was a lively and beautiful. There was a lively restaurant scene along the river, and since also the weather was nice during my stay in the city, the experience was very positive.
Next day was another day of driving, a trip to a city called Szczecin. I had planned the day's route so that it mainly included smaller roads and the driving day turned out to be really fun. Polish winding asphalt roads are pleasant to drive, and as today was a weekday, there was significantly less traffic than when driving between Kaunas and Gdansk on May Day. The condition of the roads varied quite a bit, sometimes there were Finnish-style potholes or uneven sections, sometimes the road surface was in really good condition.
There were plenty of bends, and since the speed limits outside of built-up areas were again generally 90 km/h, you could have fun even within the speed limits.
The route took me through the Kashubian Protected Landscape Area to a town called Lebork, where I had lunch. From there, the journey continued north, to the Slowinski National Park on the Baltic Sea. There I took a short walk to the Czolpino lighthouse and the seashore. This day was significantly cooler than the previous ones, during the walk the temperature was 9 degrees, it drizzled, and there was quite a breeze by the sea. An interesting trip nonetheless.
After leaving the national park, there were long stretches of nice winding roads ahead, until the last two and a half hours which I drove along the motorway. Of that time, half an hour extra went near Szczecin in a traffic jam caused by an accident
I arrived in Szczecin a little before seven in the evening after a journey of about 10 hours. I drove approx. 400 km during the day.
In Szczecin, I had time to visit some local attractions, and it turned out that Gdansk was a much more interesting city than Szczecin.
From Szczecin, the journey continued towards Berlin early in the morning. For this day too, I had planned a scenic route, which again took me mostly outside the motorways. However, the initial part went along the motorways first on the Polish side, and then a little bit on the German autobahn, where I also got to enjoy the unrestricted speed limits for a while. It was not a very long way from Szczecin to the German border.
The scenic route section in Germany went through the Biosphärenreservat Schorfheide-Chorin, and that section had nice forest landscapes. The trees were much bigger than in Finland.
In Germany, the speed limit on main roads outside of built-up areas was mostly 100 km/h, and the roads were generally in excellent condition. The first stretch of road through the Biosphere Reserve was quite twisty, so it was fun to drive there. The later section was more of a straight road, and for some reason the speed limit lots of the bends was 70 km/h, although before and after that the limit was 100 km/h. So apparently enjoying the bends was not advisable on that stretch.
The total drive of the day was 140 km, and I was at the Alpine Store Berlin in the early afternoon. I left the car for the service there. The following days, Tuesday and Wednesday, I had a work-related conference, and I was planning to pick up the car from service on Thursday morning, but there were some small challenges related to this. I had asked in advance whether it would be okay if I picked up the car on Thursday, but my question had not been answered. When I dropped off the car for service, it turned out that Thursday would be some kind of public holiday in Berlin, and pretty much the entire city would be closed and the Alpine dealership would not be open either.
Because of this, I had to agree that I would pick up the car keys and pay the for the service on Wednesday before the dealership closed, and then pick up the car on Thursday when I was leaving town. The challenge was that the dealership would be open until 7 pm (fortunately), and the conference would last until 6 pm.
The conference would be held at our company's Berlin office next to the main train station, from where it would be a 45-minute tram ride to the Alpine dealership. A bit tight schedule then!
The Alpine Store had a couple of A110 models on display, and interestingly a couple of the new electric A290 hot hatches also. Renault 5/Alpine A290 are the first electric cars that really interest me. Renault Group is on a roll at the moment.
There wasn't an A110 R or any other special versions on display in the store, but an A110 R was just coming out of the maintenance garage when I walked by it. Great looking car, and it made great sound.
During the rest of the day, there was still plenty of time to explore the sights of Berlin. Berlin is a fairly familiar city to me, and I had last been there six months earlier, so there was no pressing need to see any particular sights. During the evening, I walked to the Reichstag Building (Reichstagsgebäude), Brandenburg Gate, and Potsdamer Platz. I also visited the Rausch Schokoladenhaus store, a regular stop on my Berlin trips.
Tuesday and Wednesday were work related conference days.
On Wednesday, after the conference, I rushed to the Alpine dealership, where the Alpine was parked outside the dealership gates. The service was really expensive, even though the actual service was a very basic oil and filter change and a brake fluid change. The cost of the service was 1,278 euros. The actual service including the brake fluid change was 950 euros, but there were a couple of other things that I had asked them to look into.
First of all, there was a small mark on the driver's window, which had appeared when the window was lowered and raised. I asked the service to check if there was anything inside the door that was scratching the window. They promised to open the door and find out if there was something which was causing the scratches to the window. They had cleaned things inside the door and managed to get rid of the marks on the window also. The additional cost for this work was 208 euros.
Another thing I had asked to investigate was that at the beginning of this trip, when I did a kick-down, after a short delay the gearbox shifted down several gears, and the instrument display very quickly showed a message stating that the gearbox was overheating. I also remembered that the same message appeared very quickly once last autumn.
I tested the issue by displaying the transmission temperatures on the Alpine telemetry display, and did a new kick-down. At that point, the temperature of the clutch started to rise quickly from about a hundred degrees all the way up to about 250 degrees. The temperature fell back very quickly when I eased off the gas pedal.
The car's three-year warranty had expired a few days before I took it in for service, and the service guy said that if there was something wrong with it, they weren't sure if they could fix it under warranty. The end result was that no other fault codes or other faults with the gearbox were found, according to the service. For the investigation into the matter, they charged 138 euros.
Really expensive service!
In the morning, I took the tram again to pick up the Alpine from the dealer, and then I was on my way again. Today's destination was the island of Rügen on the Baltic Sea. I had set the Google Maps to avoid main roads, so the drive went smoothly, passing through small towns/villages north of Berlin. There were also some sections of main roads, and I also ended up driving a few kilometres along the autobahn.
The day's drive to the Hotel Deutsche Flagge in Binz was about three hundred kilometres. Before driving to Binz, however, I took a short detour to the southeast corner of the island to the small towns of Sellin and Göhren.
After checking into my hotel room, I immediately headed towards the Jasmund National Park bit further north. There, I parked the Alpine in the national park's parking area, and went for a short walk in the park.
The goal of the walk was to see the white cliffs of the national park's seaside. Another thing about the national park were the beech forests. The walk was 8.4 km long and took about an hour and 35 minutes. The first three kilometres / half an hour of the route was along a dirt road through the forests until it reached the park's visitor centre, after which the route ran near the sea in the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The promised white cliffs descending to the sea began to appear, and they looked impressive. Once I had seen those, I followed the same route back to the car.
In the evening, I did a little more walking on the Binz village. A nice little seaside resort with a very long wooden pier and a long sandy beach with very fine sand.
The last day before the ferry trip from Travemünde to Helsinki. The ferry would leave Travemünde on Saturday at 2:30 in the morning, and loading of cars into the boat would begin at around 11 pm so there would be plenty of time to see the sights on Friday.
Therefore, I had planned a tour that was not very direct route from Rügen to Travemünde, and the route would avoid autobahns completely.
First, the program included a brief stop in Prora, a huge building that the Nazis originally built as a holiday resort during World War II. The building is no less than 4.5 kilometres long. Its construction was left unfinished by the Nazis after the end of the war, and the building fell into disrepair. Since the GDR era, some of the building has been renovated into apartments, but some is in pretty bad condition.
From Prora, I headed towards the northern parts of the island of Rügen. The first stretch of the route led through the same Jasmund National Park that I had visited the day before. The park is not very big, so driving through it didn't take long time. There was a nice winding road section in the beech forest in the park.
The northern part of the island of Rügen seemed quieter than the southern parts of the island, and it was nice to drive on nice roads in nice landscapes.
At the very northern tip of the island is Kap Arkona, but it was not possible to drive there by car. Instead, you had to leave your car two kilometres away from Kap Arkona in a paid parking lot in the village of Putgarten, from where you had the option of walking or taking a bus-train-type vehicle. I chose walking, which meant walking through the village of Putgarden, and then following an asphalt road through the fields.
There is a lighthouse at Kap Arkona - or actually two. It would've been possible to climb up to both, but I skipped it. Instead, I walked to the northernmost corner of the island, which was about half a kilometre from the lighthouses.
From Kap Arkona, the journey continued towards a village called Wiek, and little bit south of the village you could take a short ferry ride (Wittover Fähre) across the strait. Then again small, nice twisty roads - but sometimes also long straights - towards the beautiful high bridge leading away from the island.
To the south of the island, on the mainland side, is the city of Stralsund, and I drove through the city centre, marvelling at the old buildings. A nice-looking city too.
After Stralsund, my route took an additional loop to the Nationalpark Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft, which seemed to be mostly some kind of wasteland.
After the national park, the journey continued, avoiding highways through Rostock. I had never been to Rostock before, and looking out of the car window the city seemed quite big. There seemed to be old brick buildings there too.
I had dinner at the small village of Bad Doberan.
I arrived in Travemünde after a short ferry ride. It was the same ferry (Priwallfähre) from Priwall that I had used also on last year's car trip. I was in Travemünde around 9 pm, which meant that I had been on the trip for 11 hours during the day. I drove about 350 km during the day.
Before driving to the harbour, I had some hot chocolate in the centre of Travemünde. I was in the harbour around 10 pm, where after a good hour of waiting I got on the ferry, and then quickly fell asleep at the cabin.
A day at sea on board the ferry. Most of the time the phone/internet was down, so there was plenty of time to be on your own on the ship.
The ferry arrived at Vuosaari port in Helsinki at 10 am, and from there it was a bit more than one hundred kilometre journey home to Hollola.
The first day's drive from Tallinn to Kaunas was unusually boring. Fortunately, from then on there were many nice landscapes along the way and nice twists and turns on the roads. Driving in Poland was a pleasant experience, except for the risk-taking driving culture.
Gdansk was an interesting and lively city, and since the weather was kind while I was there, it left a very positive impression on me.
Another place that left a very positive impression was the island of Rügen. Beautiful landscapes and nice little villages. You could easily find things to do there for several days. In the middle of summer Rügen is apparently quite popular with German holidaymakers, and it can be crowded, so the best time to visit would probably be outside the busy season.
The entire trip was 13 days long, and the Alpine clocked 2,673 km during the trip. 203 litres of petrol was used on the trip, and the average consumption based on those figures was 7.6 l/100 km (7.4 l/100 km according to the trip computer). Now I have driven the Alpine in eleven countries in three years, so the car has already seen many sides of Europe. It remains to been seen where to visit next.
18 April 2025
Driving season 2025 has now been opened. I picked up the Alpine from winter storage from my hometown on 13 April 2025. This winter was mild and all snow had already melted prior to my trip to pick up the car but few centimetres of fresh snow fell to the ground just before the trip.
Luckily temperatures rose quickly to way above zero degrees celcius on the day when I travelled to pick up the car and all the snow melted conveniently in time for my 400 km drive back home.
Once again Alpine started without problems after a long period in winter storage. It seems like the CTEK battery charger keeps the battery charged pretty well.
The next service for the car will be soon and this time it will take place in Berlin. This means another European road trip. I will get back to you once that trip is done and dusted.
20 October 2024
The third driving season is now over. It started on 20 April 2024 and ended on 5 October 2024. I drove approx. 6,200 km during this season and now the car has been driven 25,318 km in total.
One of the highlights of also this driving season was a Central European roadtrip, this time to Germany, Netherlands and Belgium in May.
I had the car serviced in Antwerp during the road trip and the fuel pump was replaced as a recall at that point. I had no technical issues with the car in 2024 so living with the Alpine has continued to be very problem-free.
I changed settings on the Alpine during summer to enable wireless Android Auto. My car is model year 2022 car and from that year on, the wired Android Auto and Apple CarPlay was available on the car. Cars delivered from sometimes in 2023/2024 had also wireless Android Auto / Apple CarPlay. Enabling wireless Android Auto on my car required minor setting change via OBD port, and the instructions to perform this operation were found on a British discussion forum. Handy!
Also this driving season included few visits to different car events with the Alpine. I participated on a French vehicle event in May. I also visited weekly "Ajoneuvoharrastajat Ahvenistolla" event once and "Sportscar Breakfast Club" event twice during the summer.
In addition to participating on car events, naturally the season also included many great moments behind the wheel of the Alpine on Finnish roads. See you next spring!
14 September 2024
My second car so far has been a 2019 Ford Fiesta ST which I've owned from new. I sold the Fiesta in mid-August and replaced it with a 2021 Renault Megane RS 280.
What is common with the Megane and the Alpine is the engine. Both have same 1.8 litre turbo-four, although Alpine has slightly less power at 252 hp compared to Megane's 279 hp. Renault Sport and Alpine do have lots of other things in common too and it will be interesting to see what kind of similarities can be found on my Megane RS and A110. I'm planning to write a story about the differences and similarities of these two cars once I've had more experience with the Megane RS.
Megane will be my daily driver during the winter season when the Alpine is in winter storage. Alpine will be my daily driver during the summer season and Megane will be used when there is a need to carry more stuff or people, and also sometimes when some boring longer drives are planned.
I have created own website for the Megane RS where you can find stories related to my experiences with that car.
9 July 2024
I hadn't met any other Alpine's or Alpine drivers during my first two years of A110 ownership. However, that has changed this summer and now I've already had couple of Alpine encounters.
As I wrote on my Germany - Netherlands - Belgium - road trip story, I saw another blue new generation A110 in northern Germany in May and had a short chat with the owner of that car.
The next Alpine encounter happened at the end of May on a French car meet in Järvenpää which was attended by another Finnish new generation A110. That was an Abyss Blue car based in Turku. The owner of that car had also previous history with Alpine since he had owned an original generation A110 prior to buying the new generation car. It was nice to be able to share A110 experiences with another Finnish A110 owner.
Earlier this year I had been contacted by an owner of an original generation A110 who happens to live here in Hollola. I've sent couple of messages with him but so far we haven't met in person. I haven't been able to see his A110 either since it is not in Hollola at the moment because it is currently displayed in Mobilia car museum in Kangasala. Both the new and old generation A110's are pretty rare in Finland and it's quite funny that there are two A110's in such a small town as Hollola.
I have visited two old vehicle events during June and July. First one was an event called Mommilan Kyläpuodin Vanhojen Ajoneuvojen Ilta where I saw a red Alpine A310 (or it's relative). The other event was called Vääksyn Mobilisti-ilta where I saw the same red A310 plus another A310 in same colour.
19 May 2024
It was again time to get my Alpine serviced in the beginning of May 2024 and that meant another road trip to Europe. I had a little bit more time for a road trip last year and was able to drive all the way to Slovenian Alps then. This year however I only had one week of holiday available for the road trip which meant that I didn't have time to go to nice mountain roads in the Alps.
Originally I planned either a ferry crossing from Finland to Travemünde and then having the car serviced somewhere in Northern Germany and doing some kind of German road trip or alternatively a much shorter ferry crossing from Finland to Sweden, then service for the car in Stockholm combined with Swedish road trip.
My A110 was subject to a recall where the fuel pump would be replaced with a new version of the pump. This recall impacts a large number of A110's manufactured before May 2022. Due to the recall I ended up deciding to drive to Antwerp in Belgium where I had bought the car originally and having the fuel pump replaced there.
This decision meant a little bit more driving than I had originally planned but hopefully I would still have enough time to enjoy some nice roads and cities along the way.
The plan was to take a ferry from Helsinki to Travemünde and then continue to Netherlands with planned stops in Den Bosch and Breda. Then short drive from Breda to Antwerp to Alpine Antwerpen. Once the car would be serviced, then plan was to drive to Northern Netherlands to Groningen. Then from Groningen to Hamburg and from there back to Travemünde. Altogether a little bit more than 1,500 km of driving.
The trip started on 4 May 2024 from my home in Hollola with a little bit over 100 km drive to Vuosaari harbour in Helsinki. A 30 hour ferry trip on a Finnlines ferry from Vuosaari to Travemünde in Germany followed. Like last year, I asked if my Alpine could be categorized as a low car and therefore directed to a place on the ferry where it would be easy to drive. The ferry line customer service personnel did accept that request which was nice.
There was a nice Porsche 911 GT3 Touring last year on the same low car queue as my A110 but this year I was the only car on similar queue and there were no other interesting cars waiting to board the ferry.
The ferry crossing was pretty uneventful and once we arrived to Travemünde at 9 pm on Sunday evening I still had two hours drive to my destination for the evening which was Hotel im Forth in Oyten near Bremen in Germany.
Hotel im Forth was conviniently located near autobahn, reasonably priced and the room was perfectly adequate for one night stay. The view from the hotel room window on the morning was actually quite nice. Even though the autobahn was close, it felt like the hotel was located somewhere deep in the countryside.
The next day was a bit longer driving day which took me from Oyten in Germany via Den Bosch to Breda in the Netherlands. Altogether a little more than 400 km of driving on that day.
I had planned the driving route so that I would mostly avoid motorways which is far more enjoyable way to travel in my opinion. I did also drive on the German autobahns and Dutch highways for some distance and I have to say that driving on the Dutch highways was very boring since the speed limit on those was 100 km/h even though the roads were in very good condition and the traffic was mostly not that heavy.
I reached Den Bosch in the afternoon and parked my car on a park + ride location called Transferium from where I took a bus to the city centre.
Den Bosch was a nice middle-sized Dutch city with canals and nice old cathedral called St. John's Cathedral (Sint Janskathedraal).
It was just a short drive from Den Bosch to my final destination of the day, Breda. I had booked an apartment near the city centre for the night and I had some time to walk around in the city of Breda before it was time to go to sleep.
Breda seemed like quite similar city as Den Bosch. Nice, middle-sized Dutch city with lots of cyclists, and of course some churches. The main church was called Large Church Breda (Onze Lieve Vrouvekerk) in English which probably describes it quite well.
Unfortunately I didn't have much time to spend in either Den Bosch or Breda so my visit allowed me to only scratch the surface of both of those cities.
The drive from Breda to Antwerp was very short in the next morning and I dropped the Alpine in for the service at Alpine Antwerpen.
This was my second visit to Antwerp, first time was two years earlier in 2022 when I picked up the Alpine from the Alpine Antwerpen dealership. After two visits to the city I can say that I like Antwerp quite a lot.
This time I had a peaceful breakfast at a restaurant, walked around the city, then ate some local delicacies (ie. fries) for lunch and visited a museum called Museum Plantin-Moretus. The museum was mostly dedicated to the history of printing. Nice place to visit!
I stayed at the same budget hotel called B&B Hotel Antwerpen Centrum as on my earlier visit to Antwerp.
The next morning it was time to pick up my Alpine from the service. In addition to regular second year service I had asked the rear tyres to be replaced and like I mentioned earlier there was also an outstanding recall for the car to replace the fuel pump.
The dealership had said beforehand that the cost for the service is usually around 800 EUR which was in line with the prices on few German Alpine dealerships where I had asked for an offer for the service.
The total cost for the service was 926 EUR including two new Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres in size 235/40/18. The cost to replace the rear tyres was 447 eur which meant that they had only charged 479 EUR for the service which was much less than expected. Nice!
The recall work was obviously done without cost to me and they also installed the cabling for my CTEK battery charger at my request so that it would be easy to plug-in the charger in the future when needed.
After picking up the car from the service it was time to hit-the-road again and head towards Northern Netherlands and Groningen.
I made few stops along the way. First one was in Kinderdijk to see the old windmills in there. I had visited Kinderdijk before but it was nice to see the windmills again.
I also made two other quick stops to other Unesco World Heritage sites during the day. The first one was called Schokland which used to be an island but is not anymore since the Dutch dried the surrounding area to get more land for themselves.
The other stop during the day was Frederiksoord, yet another Unesco World Heritage site. It seemed to be some kind of old village worth naming as Unesco World Heritage site.
My accommodation for the night was Best Western Plus Hotel Aduard few kilometres outside of Groningen. I arrived there in the afternoon and drove to the city centre of Groningen to see the local sights and to have dinner in the city.
There seemed to be lots of young people (students?) in the city - and a lot of cyclists also in there! The city seemed vibrant and lively place.
The next phase of my trip took me from Groningen to Hamburg. I took the minor roads again in the morning and headed towards a town called Delfzijl in the Netherlands just to see the ocean.
From Delfzijl I headed to Fortress Bourtange which is a fort in a village called Bourtange, still in the Netherlands. It seemed like people still live inside the fotress village and it was quite nice place to have a short visit in.
It was only short distance from Bourtange to Germany and I continued on the minor roads for a while until it was time to speed up the progress and hit the German autobahn between Bremen and Hamburg.
I had booked the same accommodation near Hamburg as last year. The place is called Hotel Gasthaus zur Linde and it is located in Seevetal approx. 25 km from Hamburg city centre. The hotel was conveniently located near the autobahn. I didn't want to drive to Hamburg city centre so I took public transportation to reach the city centre.
There was a Hamburg harbour birthday celebrations going on at the Hamburg harbour and there was lots of people celebrating that. There was also a very large number of different size boats and ships cruising in the harbour which was a nice sight.
I didn't know Hamburg that well beforehand. I had visited the city for couple of days in the nineties and done two short day-visits there later on. The city was much bigger than any other city which I visited on this trip and it was an interesting destination. There has been lots of development work going on in some areas near the harbour and those places seemed very nice.
The next day was my last day before the ferry trip to Finland. I only needed to be at the Travemünde harbour at 11 pm. so had plenty of time in Hamburg before I needed to start heading towards Travemünde.
During the day I visited two museums. First was the International Maritime Museum (Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg) and the second one was a small car museum called Car Museum Prototyp (Automuseum Prototyp).
Other places I visited during the day included the St. Michael's Church (Hauptkirche St. Michaelis) where I visited it's viewing platform for a good view over the city. Another place I visited was St. Nikolai Memorial (Sankt Nikolai Manhmal) which was basically an old church tower left standing as a memorial to Second World War bombings. The rest of the church had been destroyed during the war.
When it was time to start heading towards Travemünde harbour I once again took the smaller roads and just enjoyed driving the Alpine on the German countryside.
When I was waiting on traffic lights to turn right on some small German town, there was another A110 heading towards the traffic lights from the opposite direction. This was first time ever I saw another A110 on the road (well, excluding the one which Alpine Antwerpen salesman used to pick me up from my hotel when I bought my car). We both flashed our lights and waved at each other on the traffic lights.
Once I had turned right, I drove slowly to wait for the other A110 to catch me and once it had done that I indicated right and we stopped by the side of the road.
The other A110 was an A110 S with the same Alpine Blue color as mine. It had an aero pack and some small modifications on the car. The owner had owned and raced an original generation A110 earlier and he showed some photos of him racing the car. He had later sold that car and replaced it with a new generation A110. It was very nice to meet a fellow Alpiniste and have a chat with him.
Then it was time to drive to harbour and wait for the boarding to the ship. This time at least there was one other interesting car on the ferry. That was an Aston Marting DB7 which the owner had just bought from the UK and was on the way back to Finland.
The next day was a sea day and after two nights on the ferry we arrived back to Vuosaari harbour in Helsinki.
All-and-all it was 1,700 km of driving during the eight day trip. Well, actually lot of time was spent on the ferry so it was more like 1,500 km of driving on five days in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. That's a little bit more driving on a short period than I would've liked but that was what was possible this time.
The car had the second service and the recall work done without issues which was very nice.
I liked especially Antwerp and Hamburg. Both very much worth visiting.
From the perspective of driving pleasure, there wasn't so much to enjoy on the on the minor roads on the areas which I visited compared to for example Alpine roads which are very enjoyable from that perspective. I did still however enjoy driving slowly through the countryside and small towns of the Netherlands and Germany, and I did manage to have some enjoyable moments behind the wheel of a lovely Alpine.
1 May 2024
Winter is finally over and my Alpine is back on the road. I was planning to travel to my hometown where the car was in winter storage on Saturday 20 April 2024 but the weather turned pretty bad on that weekend so I had to postpone my trip to pick up the car.
By weather turning pretty bad I mean that most of the Finland got several centimetres of fresh snow and the temperatures were several degrees below zero degrees Celsius which meant that driving 400 km from my hometown to where I live on a car with summer tyres didn't sound at all tempting.
The next weekend was already much better in terms of weather and therefore I took a bus to my hometown to pick up the car on Saturday 27 April 2024.
The roads were already completely clear of snow but my hometown is much further up north than where I live and there was still some snow on the ground there. When I got to my homeplace I also found out that there was quite a lot of snow in front of the garage. Well, that meant some snowplowing before I was able to drive the A110 out of the garage.
Once most of the snow was cleared it was just a matter of reversing the car few metres to the gravel road which was clear of snow.
Car is now back home and soon it will be time to do another Central European road trip to get the car serviced.
One thing I don't like on the A110 is the central vent on the ventilation system which is not adjustable in volume or direction. It just blows air without any way to adjust it in any way. A company called Atelier Design Mecanique sells a "diffuser" to be attached on top of the central vent. This diffuser enables closing down the air circulation coming from the central vent.
I have bought this diffuser and it is now installed on my A110. We'll see how well that works.
