Faults:

Dashboard rattles.

Headrest broken.

Gearbox has just gone.

Clutch has just gone.

Occasionally decides it won't start.

Hole on key card at wrong end (think this is common to all key cards for the laguna).

Carpet cover above pedals has come away meaning my feet are often mixed up in wires.

General Comments:

Nice smooth car - even at speed.

Sticks to bends well.

Is smart looking - inside and out.

Is very comfortable.

Nice sound on factory radio and CD player.

Economical.

Lots of good gadgets inside.

Faults:

I particularly want to draw attention to the keys supplied with Renault Mk.2. They are in the form of a metal card, which is very easily lost and at £145, very expensive to replace. There is a hole in the card, but it is impossible to put this card on a keyring since the card has to be inserted in the ignition hole side first.

After losing a card, I used the replacement on a day to day basis, and recently this failed when I was away from home. The card contains a manual key, and I looked in the instruction book to see how it worked. The book says remove a plastic cap from the drivers door to reveal a keyhole. In fact, the keyhole is on the passenger side.

When I tried to operate the manual system, I discovered that the key was a blank. My Renault garage demonstrated that replacements keys randomly come from the factory as blanks. What is more, I enquired of the garage as to why, when using a manual key, it is only possible to lock the passenger door. They said that the only way to secure the car with the manual key is to exit via the boot!! My garage tell me that a further two keys have arrived from the factory, but the manual key in each is a blank.

General Comments:

Unless you are very, very careful, expect high running costs on keys alone.

Faults:

The passenger window rolled down without touching the button from time to time, fixed immediately under warranty.

The navigation system gave up a few times on long drives, most of the times it worked again after restarting the engine, but sometimes it would come back after an hour or so. This was checked out a few times by the dealership, but they could not find anything wrong with it.

Brake disks had to be replaced after 20.000 km's, because of vibrations when braking.

General Comments:

Value for money, I would say. Very smooth ride, it even bothered me a bit the V6-sound was barely hearable inside. This is definitely not a sporty car, but more of a fast grand tourer. You can really surprise a lot of people at traffic lights and on the German autobahns, because of the fast acceleration, it just keeps on going to 200+ km/h. The steering is too light to throw it around bends and the ride too comfortable (it needs the 17 inch alloys) for it to be sporty. The gearbox is not as smooth as a Mercedes or BMW, and I would prefer a manual. Fuel economy around 8 km's to the liter (could be better if you drive more economically). Though lots of drivers had lots of technical problems with the Laguna, this is not my experience. Also because of the vast number of Laguna's sold, this car depreciates enormously. If you want a cheap, but fast family car, you can pick up one of these very cheap, go for the "Initiale" model (everything is on it).