2002 Renault Laguna Privilege 1.9 DCI turbo diesel

Summary:

Good car, let down by reliability issues

Faults:

Fuel Injection Fault. The car had poor performance when I bought it in April 2011, but at that time the fuel injection fault light had not illuminated. I exchanged the MAP, MAF, wastegate solenoid and EGR valve without improvement to the performance.

After 12,000 miles, the fuel injection light came on and the car dropped into 'get you home' mode. Took it into the local garage to have the fault codes read, but they only showed faults with MAP, MAF and wastegate solenoid; unsurprising as I had recently changed them. Tried exchanging MAP sensor again, but still no change.

At the point of scrapping the car, I decided to see if it might be a dry joint on the MAP connection, so pushed small pieces of silver foil into the plug socket, and hey presto, the fuel injection light went out and the car was running better than ever. Renault seem to have problems with the electrics, and this is just another example.

General Comments:

When running right, a joy to drive. Unfortunately so unreliable that I couldn't recommend it to anyone.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 15th November, 2011

2002 Renault Laguna Dynamique 2.0 petrol

Summary:

Pretty, but very unreliable

Faults:

Fuel pressure gauge started malfunctioning. Causes car to go into limp mode at random intervals.

Clutch expired.

Faulty reading on the tyre pressure gauges. Shows two tyres as flat when they are fine.

Electric windows stopped working.

General Comments:

It's a pretty car, comfortable, and with a responsive engine. Unfortunately, the reliability issues for about two months of ownership are just unacceptable. I realise I may have bought a lemon, but from the other comments around here, I don't think I'm the only one.

Every time I took the car out, I was terrified that something else would go wrong. At the end of the day, it completely eclipses any positives about the Laguna.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 15th January, 2011

2002 Renault Laguna Initiale IDE 2.0 petrol

Summary:

Badly built and expensive to maintain. Wouldn't recommend

Faults:

Problems I stumbled into:

- Fuel pump needed resetting.

- Immobiliser locked and cost £450 to FIX!

- The ABS had 3 faults.

- Everything is expensive, as it is mostly controlled by the ECU, and is hi-tech, and because of this, everything is expensive.

Pros:

Nothing really. Only a good car if you have enough money to maintain it.

The exhaust mount cost the previous owner £600!

Cons:

Badly built.

Very poor reliability.

Bottom Line : Very expensive, badly built car.

Wouldn't recommend.

General Comments:

Seats are nice, have seat heating.

Nice alloys.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 28th December, 2010

2002 Renault Laguna IDE Initiale 2.0 petrol

Summary:

Absolute worst car I have ever owned

Faults:

Constant false tyre pressure warnings.

Leaking sunroof.

Misfiring engine.

Noisy suspension.

Fanbelt jumped and started to wear away.

Check injection warnings and the car shuts down.

Headlight washer jammed.

Sat nav frequently switching itself off.

Parking sensors failed.

CD player skipped.

Air conditioning fan speed control not working.

17 inch tyres stupidly expensive.

Rear brake have integral bearings, so stupidly expensive.

General Comments:

I owned a MK1 Renault Laguna for 3 years and it was brilliant. I needed to get a new cheap runabout, so I decided on a MK2 Renault Laguna. The first one had been really good, so the new one must have the same reliability, but with more toys?

On the drive home, the engine occasionally misfired and the idle was quite rough. Next, the harsh and noisy ride started to really annoy me, but I just lived with it. I started to look through the large pile of receipts with the car, and noticed just how many things had been fixed on the car. This was not as good a thing as I first thought...

The problems started to occur, and one by one I fixed them. It got to the stage where I was frightened to drive the thing in case something else broke. I started doing some investigation on the 2.0 IDE, and found it was the worst engine in the world.

Then the inevitable started to happen. First of all the car gave me a fuel injection warning and coughed to a halt. I restarted it, and everything was fine for a week when the same thing happened again. This time it didn't want to restart. Once cold, it was fine again, but the next day it broke down again so I put it on eBay as spares or repair. A guy bought it, fixed it and is still trying to sell it on nearly 2 months later.

I will never, ever buy French again, German only for me from now on.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 2nd August, 2010