2003 Renault Laguna Expression review from UK and Ireland

I had this on a 3 day trial to see if it was suitable car to replace my company Focus. I loved the look of these cars and thought I would love to have one.

BUT...Where to start.

I picked up the demo car from the dealers and was told that the tyre pressure device had been disconnected because of the weather conditions!

Not a great start then, very rude salesman gives me the card and wanders of to talk about his weekend etc with other like minded sales people.

Insert card, scrambled and garbled text comes up on the display, no start, nothing just some odd noises.

Engineer called from coffee break clearly annoyed about having to move, car REBOOTED!!! and then the thing starts. As you can imagine, I'm not convinced by the whole charade at this point.

Finally make it onto the road and I kid you not, after stopping for fuel the car needs to be rebooted again after some warning about the injection system.

After this, the car seems to function correctly for a few hours until the radio which had a mind of its own anyway decided to die, permanently.

Other faults during my "ahem" test drive include detaching trim (passenger side kick trim panel) stuck windows, constant warnings about engine fuel system and a leaky back door.

Car returned to dealer who didn't even seem to give a jot about reported faults. Unbelievable attitude.

Nightmare car, I can only imagine these things when they get older.

On the plus side, car is very comfortable when it goes, has a good turn of speed for large car and lights up like the Enterprise at night.

I would really have to advise against these cars though unless you know that yours is a good one.

Goes well for a 1.8.

Card thing is cool if it worked properly.

Great stereo, again when it works.

Looks a dream, but I wouldn't trust it as far as I could spit a rat.