StevieG

Am looking into buying one of these as a daily runabout for the family& they seem very well equipped & the high spec models are very cheap used. Anyone got any experiences (not "my mate in my local says Renaullts are crap ect etc) they want to share ?

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

I had an 04 plate as a courtesy car for about 4months. Really cant say anything positive about them, very bland A-B commuting car. I had the 2ltr turbo diesel, performance was dire as expected. Handling wasnt bad, for quite a large heavy car. Electronics were 'fussy' and certain features were annoying, like the petrol cap wont open until u press the central door locking button. Toy wise, everythin is built into the dash, so if anything went wrong it would be expensive to fix. The only thing I liked about it were the standard 17" alloys.

If u were to get one get the V6 (I think) petrol one with all the toys.

StevieG

Interesting, the V6 model seems as cheap at the 2lt (same spec). Anyone know what the economy is like ? I would like something reasonably from a petrol engine - I aready have an M5 so spend enough on fuel as it is !

Andy M3

I used to work for Renault. The Laguna is a bad car in every respect. The one thing I found when driving one that worked was the grip was pretty good, but handling dire. With 5 blokes in a 1.6 16v once, it wouldn't get out of 2nd in a 1 in 7 hill and the wheels used to catch the inner arch.

I would rather have a Mondeo or passat myself !

Dr Hu

My best friend bought a turbo diesel one as a family loadlugger - expired on his way home from work a few weeks ago, it filled the road with smoke, revved its nuts off at 5k rpm for 20 mins+ even with the key out....finally stopped when it ran out of engine oil - police called etc to close road (visibility) - turns out the turbo had blown, poring hot engine oil down the exhaust - being a diesel - the car carried on running on the engine oil........

Got towed to a renualt dealer - who rolled his eyes & said 'not another one....' - it seems that pretty much every turbo diesel has had (or is about to) have this happen to them - renault did a quote to fix - nearly £2k - looked on the net - presented loads of evidence to renault about how 'they all do it' - they agreed to pay 60% of the repair......

So the moral of this story is basically - dont buy a diesel laguna........

Mind you I laughed my bollocks off when he told me

Sub97

I've had one for a year now. I wanted something safe and this got 5 stars on the Encap site.

It does what I wanted basically. 45-50pmg (1.9 diesel), very compfy cruiser on the motorway, cheap to insure, still hasn't needed a service (after 16k - 2k to go), cheap tax, decent amount of gadgets etc.

I got mine for 10.5k from a Renault dealer. It was 12 months old with 12k on the clock, it's now just over 2 years old with 28k on the clock and it doesn't look like I've lost too much money no it.

Dracoro

Good for you

Bet you're crapping yourself hoping the above threads don't happen to you though

DarkForce

I would never buy one. A friend had an 02 plate dCi Dynamique Tourer and the build quality and reliability were horrendous. It was only 6 months old when he bought it but in the space of a further 6 months it was a nightmare. When I first had a shot i thought it was very fast, but it turned out the turbo was overboosting and it blew up shortly after.

Things fell off, random things stopped working then started again and after less than a year he'd had enough of it and handed it back. Plus when he hit a pothole once one of the alloy wheels broke into two, almost causing a huge accident.

StevieG

Thanks for the feedback so far. Went to see a couple yesterday at CarGiant (huge second hand car supermarket used to be known as Great trade centre), west London; wouldn't buy form them that's for sure. Knew the cars were ex company, so high mileage (an 03 reg I looked at had 91K on the clock !!), but they were in poor condition, filthy interiors despite the saleman saying the cars had been "prepared". Loads of toys inc sat nav/dual zone climate etc, but would be worried about these if there was no warranty.
Will look elsewhere I think.

DarkForce

If your after something like the Laguna i'd recommend anything from the VAG group - VW Passat/Skoda Octavia/Audi A4 Avant. Theyre all much better cars and shouldnt cost you much to run (unlike my friend's experiences with Lagunas!). Petrol Octavias in particular are excellent value for money.

Elliot

Are we all sitting comfortably ? Good then I shall rant for a bit..........

I'm on my second Laguna now as a company motor. First one was an old P plate 1.8 petrol base model. Was a good as gold and never broke down once in over 150K. So based on this when it came up for replacement I bought an 02 plate 2.2dci Sports Tourer in Privilege spec. Really nice car with lots of gadgets and toys but what a big mistake !

I have now done 80K in it and so far it has been recovered by the AA no less than 7 times with fuel injection, ABS, starting and clutch problems. In addition to this it had a leaking windscreen which caused the passenger footwell to fill with an inch of water and I have had the stupid card (which replaces the ignition key) replaced 3 times as it kept locking me out.

I am not alone, I have a colleague who has a 1.9dci on which the brakes failed completely on the A1 and another who has had electrical, heating (system failed completely in the winter and took Renault 3 weeks to fix it), clutch and key problems too.

And if the cars themselves aren't bad enough, the three dealers we have used to buy and service the cars have been the most unhelpful people I have ever met (this is not to say all Renault dealers are - I am sure there are good ones out there too !).

So, there are a lot of good cars out there in the Laguna class and I seriously recommend you save yourself a lot of hassle and buy anything but the Renault.

El

Mark A

iTrader: (1)

Bullocks, I'd been looking to buy one for the wife (DCi Tourer) looks like back to the drawing board.

kammy

LOL-these cars seem like total sh!te heeps!
Keep up the good work.
Kam- Honda Accord???

StevieG

Thanks for the replies folks, must admit I'm still tempted by the low prices out there & hey the last several cars I've had have all been reliable, 'bout time I had an excuse to go scream at a car dealer......will keep looking

DarkForce

Trust me - having something "interesting" is all well and good until you're sitting at the side of the road in the pissing rain waiting for the recovery truck to arrive