My 172 is my 3rd Renaultsport,having previously had a 182,then a 200,then moved onto the VXR,now onto my 172. I actually quite liked it to be fair,was mapped to 285bhp and was obviously a lot quicker than my Clios,and loved the note from the Remus exhaust. Handling was poor in comparison though,even after I put a set of Bilstein B14 coilovers on it.
People slag off French cars for being unreliable,but VXRs take this to a new level,and these issues ain't cheap to sort out. Electrical,Gearbox,Turbos the list is endless. I got rid of mine soon as the box started playing up. If your mates interested,tell him to do his research first,especially regarding the gearbox. And just because it's had a rebuilt previously,doesn't mean it won't fail again! And it was rattly inside,not as bad as my mk2 Clios but still not great.