Faults:

November 2002 (5 months old) Fuel injection computer causing various problems such as revving into the red line with no depression on the accelerator, lack of power when trying to accelerate and juddering during normal running. Reprogrammed twice with no resolution to the problem. Off the road with this problem for 10 days in total.

March 2003 (9 months old) Climate control heater matrix leaking fluid all inside the car. AA recovered to Renault main dealer where it remained for 4 weeks as they were to busy to repair it.

April 2003 (10 months old) CD player started skipping and missing, I asked for this to be resolved during 36,000 miles service. The dealer claimed there was no fault found and so nothing was done. Unit continues to play up.

August 2003 (14 months old) Finally prove to the main dealer that the CD player is faulty, it has now been removed and sent away for repair not replaced. The car was fitted with an old unit with only the radio working as a courtesy to me!! At the same time they are far to busy to replace the faulty front offside pressure sensor that the car now has. The dealer has said they will resolve this when the CD unit is returned.

Among all these problems, getting the car serviced has required a minimum of 4 weeks advance booking to get a service without a courtesy car, and at least 6 weeks notice if a courtesy car was required. Not helpful if your work comes up on a daily basis and you have to cancel the service at short notice.

General Comments:

What a shame, this is a very comfortable car that is a pleasure to drive when it's working.

Unfortunately it's let down by the support from the main dealer, and their total lack of provision to deal with spur of the moment emergencies, or any minor task that should take no more than 10 minutes to resolve. Such as pressure sensors that only the main dealer can rectify.

The other disappointment of course is the general reliability of the car, especially after 3 years of complete trouble free motoring in the old model of Laguna, such a shame as this is another customer lost.

Faults:

4,000 miles, loud rattle, caused by loose exhaust bracket. Time off the road 1 day.

31,000 miles, gears crunching, new gearbox fitted. Time off the road 27 days.

42,000 miles, clutch slipping, new clutch fitted (following 3 visits to the garage. Time off the road 3 days;

52,000 miles, brakes grating, new pads fitted. Time off the road 1 day.

55,000 miles, loss of engine power, engine only reaching 2,000 revs max. Time off the road 6 days so far (not fixed yet!!!) The courtesy car developed the same problem today.

Days off the road does not include the scheduled service intervals at 18, 36 and 54,000 miles.

General Comments:

Would I have one again - no chance.

If my car is anything to go by, Laguna II's are unreliable piles of junk and the renault dealers are a total waste of space.

Sadly I have got to keep it another 18 months so I expect many more problems yet.

This is a great shame, as it's a great car to drive when it works.

Faults:

A new tyre was needed when I picked the car up - replaced for free by the Renault garage, which is a good thing as Continentals are around £100 a corner in this size.

The only real problem has been with the oil level sensor, for which the car is currently in the garage. For some reason, the car decides to tell me that I have no oil in the sump, whereas a visual inspection reveals that this isn't the case.

Drivers seat creaks a little, but this is expected because of my slightly unusual driving position (I'm over 2m tall...)

The car only came with one card - looking at around £100 for another one.

General Comments:

My beloved old Laguna (Mark I Phase II on a 1998 S plate) was getting a little long in the tooth. 117k miles, and although the bodywork was pretty good, it was almost time for a new clutch / cam belt / aircon service, which combined would have cost about the same as the car was worth.

I took out a few cars, and wasn't impresed (Saab, Vauxhall, Ford). I then decided to see what the 210bhp V6 was like.

I can honestly say that I fell in love with this car! The equipment is fantastic - easy to use, well placed and genuinely useful (apart from that hazards button - very easy to press by accident).

In automatic mode, the acceleration isn't as harsh as you might expect with 210 horses under your right foot - but knock it into semi automatic mode, and you can really feel it pull! The characteristics of the 24v engine are actually quite awe-inspiring, especially after about 3500rpm, when you really feel it start to shift... and keep pulling to license-endangering speeds, if you're not careful!

The downside to that impressive power reserve is that it is very tempting to use it, which does result in a fuel economy of about 20mpg during "enthusiastic" driving. I've had 32mpg on a motorway run, and I average about 27.5mpg combined, which isn't too far from my old Laguna 2.0 8v which used to return around 32mpg combined.

Cruise control is great for long motorway journeys, but I still can't quite figure out what the speed limiter is for, although it is useful for keeping that V6 monster on a leash.

Insurance isn't too bad (210bhp in a group 14), and it is a very nice looking car. I did get a few comments about it being an estate from my colleagues (I'm 24), but a quick blast up the motorway soon removed any doubts they might have had about its ability to perform!

Oh and a word about the boot - that thing is cavernous. I do a fair few miles and listen to a lot of music, so I do enjoy having a sound system to match (no, not Nova boy bass in case you were wondering!), and this boot has bags of room for kit and still more than enough space for luggage and shopping.

I can't think of much else to say about this car really - I personally think it is fantastic, and offers real value for money, even though it will depreciate like there's no tomorrow. It seems that about a dozen people have said how bad this car is, but when you consider that there must be several thousand of these on the roads, I would urge anyone to seriously consider one of these, although all the problems seem to have been with the 1.9dCi so far, but hopefully these have been fixed.