Faults:

Catalytic Converter needed replacing at 42000.

Near-side Track Rod needed replacing at 42000.

Mid-section of exhaust needed replacing at 42000.

4 new Brake Pads and 2 Front Discs needed replacing at 42000.

Remote central locking stopped working at 43000.

Gearbox needed replacing at 52425.

General Comments:

Bought this car in 2003 and after 2 years and only 17000 miles of driving, the above faults have had to be rectified.

General build quality is sub-standard for a car in this class.

Engine is noisy even at low speeds.

Gearbox is sticky and sloppy.

Faults:

Major problems with the Valeo Card Key fobs. The car was supplied with two card keys. Both keys developed the same fault 10 months apart, the miniature switches mounted on the printed circuit board directly under the lock/unlock symbols come adrift from the circuit board after a period of use. Replacement cost for new key as quoted by Renault dealer is c. £140 each.

Check yours now! Does one of the lock/unlock buttons feel more solid? Chances are you are suffering from switch demount syndrome. Take the spare Cardkey with you so you don't get caught out like I have... twice.

General Comments:

Cardkey build quality poor.

Acceleration is noticeably sluggish when moving from standing. My Doblo van pulls off way faster.

Steering does not inspire confidence, well balanced for motorway use, but seems to lose sensitivity at normal road speeds.

Very low laid back driving position, car seating is too low to the ground causing frequent driver head bashing on roof lining when entering the car.

Faults:

The only thing that went wrong with this car is that it was borrowed to go to France, while it was there it started to smoke. We now have the car back, it has been serviced, but still does it. It does this when you reach around 80 miles per hour.

General Comments:

Great car to drive.

Comfortable to be in.

Got everything you need.

Faults:

Engine first started to take a lot of oil. After 3 months of filling the car with a lot of oil because it started to burn a lot I took it to Garage and had the valves replaced. 2 of them had burned out.

I am disappointed because the car had a full service history and had only done 35,000 miles when I bought it and I had only done 10,000 in it.

General Comments:

Overall the car is reliable and starts first time except for this engine problem.

The ride is not as good as my previous car which was a Mondeo.

Faults:

The ventilation system went wrong. It was only blowing on the highest speed.

The CD player got jammed and had to be repaired.

General Comments:

The engine is brilliant, so quiet for a diesel and the performance is very good too.

The cabin is very well built with lots standard equipment.

The shape of the car makes it look sporty and aerodynamic.

Faults:

Nothing.

General Comments:

The car is very comfortable and roomy in the cabin. There is plenty of space for legs on the front seats. There is a lot of space for legs also on the back seats, but the roof is really low, so a person over 180 cm tall cannot sit straight on the back seat as the roof would be touching his head. The seats are very comfortable and soft, so even after longer travel (4+ hours) I feel fresh after getting off the car.

The car has a very good grip in the turns, it does not lean too much and does not tend to slide in higher speeds.

The brakes are gradually increasing in power, so it is necessary to push more to brake faster. The car is quite heavy and has a significant body-roll.

The motor is very quiet for a turbo-diesel. The power is excellent especially at higher speeds (over 130 km/h.) The car really likes to go uphill and there are few that can compete in this class of the car. For speeds up to 100 km/h the acceleration is not so good.

The interior is very nice. There is rattle and squeaking sounds coming from the panel in front of the front passenger seat. This is in relation to the ventilation system and it is very noisy at certain speeds. Also the rear brake light cover was making rattling noises upon acceleration, but this can be fixed easily.

In foggy or wet weather the windows get foggy from inside very quickly. In this case the air-conditioning has to be used often the dry the air. In winter the fog on the window inside tends to freeze which is very annoying and dangerous as the view outside of the car is bad. In winter it takes a lot of time to heat the inside of the cabin due to its size. In summer in high heat it requires to run the air-conditioning at maximum due to the huge glass surface of the windows letting in the heat.