2001 Renault Laguna review from UK and Ireland

On the whole this car has been very expensive to keep on the road which surprised us as we did not think the mileage unreasonably high and we knew the car's history and that it had been impeccably serviced and maintained.

Not long after we had it, however, we were faced with a bill of £2K for various maintenance issues. One of which was an oil leak from a part which had already been replaced once previously! Needless to say it involved stripping the engine, hence cost.

The remote card keys for the car both went wrong. The batteries in them started to run down immediately when replaced i.e. in a day or two! Several times we came back to the car and were unable to unlock it without the manual key and then had alarm issues because we had set the alarm with the card key when parking. The card keys then cost about another £200 each, plus had to be ordered at length - no quick fix available.

The most frustrating thing to date though is the electric windows. Both of the front windows have stopped working which is terribly inconvenient. We have lived with it for a while since had to regroup finances after the last bill which goes to show that it has not just now gone wrong. The driver's side went wrong about a year ago - so the car was only four years old. The front passenger one then followed a few months later. Our very reliable local garage (non-Renault) who we have now returned to has quoted us nearly £300 per window of which the part is about £200. Dismayingly, our mechanic was not surprised that this had happened, as he had seen this before with Renault e/w, also he pointed out that similar window mechanisms for another make were only half the cost. It angers me that Renault can charge so much for a part which seems to be unreliable at the design stage! Also I am wondering if we will have to pay another £600 to get these windows fixed again in another 4-5 years?

The car interior is comfortable and attractive.

Bodywork appears okay, no major problems so far.

Engine does not seem powerful enough for the size of the car; hills are a chore!

Rear view is awful - but this seems to be the norm in the design of most of the cars nowadays. I would prefer to give up something on the style front and be sure I am not about to run over the cat/child/mini parked behind me.