2005 Renault Grand Scenic Dynamique from UK and Ireland - Comments

Panels do not line up in several places, rear tailgate, bonnet, rear door, all these have a larger gap on one side which should be equal. The upholstery is starting to go fuzzy, especially in the back area where you brush past the fabric panelling to obtain access to the third row of seats. Trim around the rear door has come away and the black trim around the window where the sunblind clips to was bent out of place on delivery.

The rubber "feet" on the middle row of seats keep falling of.

The car has had may visits to the dealer to get problems corrected which are, stereo facia developed an annoying rattle, rattle on engine which to correct this has had to have the timing belt and pre-tensioner replaced, and now has developed a squeal.

Another problem which the dealer cannot rectify is as you release the accelerator and press the clutch to change gear, on occasions the engine revs actually rise, as if your foot is still on the accelerator!!!

Overall the car is not that bad, but the 1.6 petrol engine model seems to be under powered (we had a 1.5 DCI as a courtesy car and it was faster) leg room is quite spacious if the third row of seats are not used, but is a bit cramped when they are in use.

Glove box is really difficult to access if there is a front passenger. Have also banged my head a few times on the tailgate as the style curves around and has "pointy" edges.

Gear stick is in a good place, but if you have the "cool box" option between the front seats it makes it harder to fasten the seat belts, I have grazed my knuckles a few times.

The Dynamique model looks good with the satin chrome trim which finishes the look really well, along with the leather steering wheel (better than the plastic one.)

Well equipped with auto lighting/windscreen wipers and easy to read LCD display. there are plenty of audible warning systems which are great, warns you if a door is not shut, if you leave the key card in the slot etc.

Hi, I have the 2005 1.6 Dynamique, after picking up car from dealer, I was exploring and pulled up rear sun blind on door and it had such strong spring that it snapped out of my hand and the hanging hook made a hole in the blind. I agree with the revs rising when changing gear I thought it was me wearing wrong shoes or something my husband said it was my bad driving! we had a problem with the alarm, it kept on going off for no reason over a day by the evening we had to call out AA as we could not sit up all night to keep switching off (we live in London and are surrounded by lots of houses) AA could not sort out, so sat up switching off, anyway took to dealers next day, they would not give a courtesy car even though car only 2 weeks old, however they knew the problem straight away, it was to do with the bonnet catch (on the first day we opened bonnet to have a look as you do) and apparently us opening the bonnet caused the problem, I think that is cr-p myself, but they fixed problem within 30 minutes and had no problem since, but then we haven't opened bonnet since!we like the car, but I felt at first that after driving a K reg 1.8 I fully loaded cavalier it was not as powerful and the cavalier had done over 110k miles.

Aug 2005 - We are thrilled with our 1.6 petrol Grand Scenic Dynamique car.

Previously we had the Renault Megane Dynamique 1.4, which was only 2-years old when we decided to change to a larger model.

The Grand Scenic has bags of space, especially as we have 2 sons aged 8 & 10 and a large Labrador dog. The boys adore the car as they have lots of room and trays etc. for them to put their books on. We also find having an option to have a 7-seat car an advantage, due to picking up the boys friends etc, however, would say that the 2 rear seats would only be suitable for children as there is limited room.

My husband would have preferred the 1.9dCi, but, I am quite happy with the performance. However, my husband has a high performance vehicle so still he can get his 'speed' fix if desired.

Overall, the Grand Scenic is an excellent family car and achieving 5 stars in the Euro NCAP* crash test was an important factor when deciding what car to go for - as my family's safety was the top priority in deciding what car to purchase.

Although we have only had the car for 3-weeks we have been Renault customers for over 2-years and have been very happy with the service we have received from them.

Regards

Maxine.

Update on my review,10 months old and has covered 10500 miles.

The engine is getting noisier and still not achieved the MPG that the dealer says you should get. Only managing to get 28mpg when I should be getting nearer 35mpg.

The over reving when changing gears is my fault, I have been told that I am changing gear to fast and beating the computer when it tells the engine that my foot is of the accelerator, well I will leave it up to your imagination what I think of that!!!

The rattle on the engine is back, but the rattle on the stereo facia has been defeated, but has led way to another coming from somewhere on the dash, Renault are unable to find where though.

Alarming though is the fact that the brakes are making a droning noise when braking, Renault says its brake dust and gave them a good clean, but 10 miles down the road and it was back!

We also treated ourselves to a set of sun-blinds for the 2 small triangular windows towards the back of the car and also the rear window, they cost £57 and are only the mesh type with a flexible steel surround, they are a very good investment as they really do work, but the sticky pads that are supplied to fix them in place tend to come away from the surface you stick them to. Apparently "our" sun (as if its different from what the French get) melts the glue thus making them fall of.

Hi I am back, I agree with a couple of points that other people have made, I am disappointed that the car only seems to be getting 25 - 28 miles to the gallon, also the fact that The revving up thing I think it is to do with changing gear too quickly I feel that the car can be quite sluggish and does not like stand idle for days at a time, it always seems a bit jumpy after starting it say after a weekend of no use!however I would buy one of these again, but would buy a bigger engine and not black (I am forever washing off the dust!) It is a nice and light car to drive.

Further update to my first review. Now the weather is starting to get cold, I have noticed that the engine runs very sluggish until it warms up.

Also whilst the engine is idling the engine seems to misfire slightly, the dealer has told me it is due to the valves, with it being a VVT engine it does not like running slow and it is classed as a sporty engine - come off it a 1.6 "sporty"

Renault Grand Scenic 1.9 Dynamique.

We have had our car since May 2004. With full leather seats, double sun roof and climate control it is a very comfortable car. Visibility is excellent and the diesel engine frequently gets high 30s fuel consumption on long runs (35 - 38) and one morning recently 42 mpg down to the coast from London in the rush hour.

Fantastic torque in the 1.9 diesel, it will accelerate / climb hills really well - power coming in at low revs compared to petrol engines. I noticed the contrast with a Ford Focuse we hired that needed to be kept at high revs to make similar progress. The alarm problem manifested itself early on (fixed with adjustments to bonnet catch) but it happened again recently and so we asked dealer to disconnect alarm sounder. It still flashes occasionally, but at least we and the neighbours sleep. The climate control failed twice in early Summer, but Renault City fixed it quickly second time around - a small part was required - all within warranty.

Someone crashed into us one day too this Summer, their older Renault was wrecked, but ours suffered only very minor cosmetic damage to front which was covered by other driver's insurance. Testament to vehicle's safety.

At present, boot lid does not always indicate it has shut properly so we need to purposefully shut it.

We have got through one set of front tyres at around 14,000 miles of hard driving. Back tyres okay. Also one set of brake discs at front too. Also had to replace part of exhaust and heat shield after some damage on holidays on rough roads in Spain.

Auto features like lights, card key, auto wipers, auto closing windows make driving other vehicles a real hassle as you have to remember to do all these things. Electric handbrake is also a great idea once you get used to it. Again, renders other vehicles so old fashioned.

We really like this car - design is fresh compared to VW Touran or Ford C-Max. We plan to get another at end of 2 year lease.

What would we like to see added?

IPod input as standard to Stereo. More effective glove box cooling - it is only a small hole really that blows in cool air. It would also be good to have ESP as a standard feature .

Rear two sears are really for kids, but for short journeys even adults can squeeze in if necessary. It would be nice if luggage cover could be stowed somewhere when rear two seats are used.

Luggage capacity is excellent with or without two rear seats deployed. With seats up, you get two nice holes in floor to put stuff in that stops it rolling around.

I have had my Grand Scenic since August 05, it is a Motability vehicle. I have had nothing, but problems with brake noise, low power, clunky gears, too light steering, plastic inserts on the sides of the seat which, are no problem to get in to the car, but getting out!!. I feel that I should be on Strictly Come Dancing. However, I shall proceed with taking it back to my Dealer for them to sort out.

Hi I wrote the first review above and this is just another update.

The brake noise has been rectified, fingers crossed, this has been done by replacing front and rear calipers and pads. The water pump has been replaced due to a leak, another cam belt and dephaser pulley 2nd in 16000 miles, faulty alarm on the bonnet catch and the stereo has been sent of to be fixed, the volume button needed to be pressed hard to change the volume. They said they have fixed the rattle on the dash which apparently was a loose wiring loom behind the display.. but it's still rattling away.

I am driving a 1.5 dci 100 hp version.

It now has over 88.000 km in yust over a year.

Since it is a leasing-company-owned vehicle I can only indicate problems, but the leasing company will do the discussions with Renault, this gives very strange reactions to problems, but that is just side info.

I have seen ;

-- electrical problems including refusing to start several times (great invention an all-electric-system without an escape route)

-- drained battery without any app. reason (it is a standard car nothing special)

-- parking brake failure.

-- general brake failure.

-- emission system failure.

-- alternator failure.

-- injection system failure (it is a diesel!!)

-- window lifter mechanism snapped off (at -10 C), it is all plastic and very very small.

Very important the TOTAL lack of engine power under 4000 revs, the same engine is used in their Clio range.

Vibrations and noise everywhere, it is getting worse over time.

-- In order to keep the engine running when you drive off the motorway you need to keep the airco switched ON!! otherwise the engine will stall on halt.

Third gear has a life of its own (you will get a very strange gear-shifting pattern here going from 2 to 4)

Since it is a leasing-car it has NO spare tyre, but the good-oll-sticky-stuff-bottle which renders the smallest puncture to a replace-the-whole-tyre operation (now you can figure out why leasing is a gold-mine).

The official Renault dealer indicated the life-cycle of a car like this " 5 years and 15k per year " everything more is luck.

The car has been in so many times without things fixed...

I am very disappointed in the quality in general, this car simply has no positive points.

I am glad it is not mine!!

I recently purchased a 1.9DCi (130bhp) and in general have found the car to be excellent achieving around 43mpg (predominantly motorway driving).

The only significant problem I have encountered in heavy road vibration through the steering wheel, which was temporarily fixed by having the front wheel re-balanced; but the vibration is back and now find the car uncomfortable to drive after about 30 miles. The car is going to the garage after work and will keep you posted.

A minor problem is the (electronic) boot opener, which failed; the garage advised me of a manual switch that you have to move with a screwdriver.

Side indicator repeaters (plastic panels) are not securely fixed and have to be checked every so often (especially if you use a car wash frequently, which I do not).

Right now I am driving a 2006 scenic 1500 diesel.

Simply because my leasing vehicle a grand-scenic 1500 diesel is down again.

This time the complete gearbox-differential-drive-shaft-unit needs to be replaced.

The right side front wheel was moving front/back 15 centimeters whilst the right front side of the car was going up/down 10 centimeters.

I have told the people at Renault several times that my car was changing speed without app. reason (slowing down and speeding up) with the same throttle settings.

But as usual there was NO problem from their point of view!!

Those people are simply NOT telling the truth to their customers -----> is that legal???

Any way I will have it back Monday evening (and that is because the insurance will get my loaner car back).

So now for a little bit of off-topic the loaner scenic 2006 1500 diesel;

It runs VERY WELL it has power (thus indicating that my own car is NOT alright) going down to 50 kmh in 6 th gear and then flooring the throttle will yust result in a move forward of the car - slowly- but it doesn't die out!!

With my own car going down to 50 kmh and then full throttle will only result in a STALL, I can only do that in first and second gear without stalling the engine.

My opinion is that the people at Renault know very well their cars have problems, but as long as they can keep that silent they are happy.

I understand that one finds a faulty car every so often with any make. I genuinely believe that Renault are now improving standards, particularly with the help of their connection with Nissan.

I recently came back from a holiday in Nice where once again I hired a Scenic. This time I was given a 1.5 diesel Grand Scenic. There were five of us and I was the only one driving throughout the three week holiday. I found the Grand Scenic to be a particularly good vehicle. Lovely user friendly

cabin and the Grand Scenic was very easy to drive. I had to regularly park about half an inch from the wall because the little road where we were staying was extremely hilly and very narrow. As vehicles of this type are, this one was easy to park. I did a great deal of driving on all sorts of roads, from mountain passes to the large auto routes etc. The diesel was able to cruise at the 130 kph speed limit with ease. I found the sixth gear very helpful. Roadholding was the one thing that could be improved, but the Scenic has been designed to give a comfortable ride under normal sensible driving conditions.They would have to harden the ride to help the roadholding, but that would make the ride unpleasant. One place where I found a big weakness with the 1.5 diesel engine, was driving up a steep very narrow slope coming out from an underground parking. I hesitated and then the the Grand Scenic barely made it up the slope. If I bought one I would definitely go for a 1.9 diesel or the new 2.0 diesel that is due to appear.

I have hired many different Scenics and even taken one for a test drive. I honestly feel that the ones I drove were pretty well made. They may vary a little from country to country and I don't own one yet, so I can only write about my experiences. I find that they are a delightful vehicle.

We purchased our 1.6v dynamique grand scenic in August 2005. The vehicle itself is a lovely car to drive the mechanical side of it lets it down. Our car has been back to the garage on numerous occasions with the same fault, the pulley in the engine. The car is about to make its third trip to the garage for the same problem that was rectified 3 months ago. The constant squealing from the rear brakes when executing slow manouvers is also embarrassingly loud for a vehicle that was bought brand new last year.

We have had our 1.9DCI Dynamique just over a year now. We bought it from Renault Watford, it being a 6 month old ex-demo with 9k on the clock.

Throughout the year we have had to put up with the unbelievably noisy brakes, which they tested, but said they could not fix, even though they knew it was a 'known feature'.

The air-con in winter is a disaster - there is more moisture than in a Turkish bath if there are more than two people in it (a 7 seater!) and it takes ages to de-mist the front window on a cold morning. Basically not enough power to do the job.

After its 18k service, I was advised that the front brakes were "70%", so decided to not get them changed (shouldn't they last to 100%??). Since then I have had continuous brake failure warnings. When I took it back in for the 4th time, they told me that the brakes were now at 90%! What did I do differently in a month to lose 20%?

In a moment of madness I agreed to part with £150 to get new brakes, but why should I have to? I do really feel I have been conned.

Even though I like the car and its great features, its definitely a summer car, due to the air-con limitation, I don't see myself sticking with Renault.

I'll also get my rear brakes done privately as I hear generic pads don't give the terrible noise.

Oh yes, the rear wiper doesn't work in the cold and the washers freeze due to lack of insulation..

I have a 2.0 VVT Scenic Maxim.

The overall comfort. level of trim, ease of driving, parking etc. are very good, BUT since new (Sept. 2005) there has been a slight, intermittent misfire.

Dealer has been unable to identify the problem. Sometimes an error message results in a coil and spark plug being swapped. Sometimes not. "Can't reproduce the error".

There is a definite lumpy idle, which at times is worse than a very rough diesel tractor, BUT intermittent.

Now there is an acknowledgement that there IS a problem, especially after it didn't want to start. So now, after one week in the workshop, they are re-programming the computer and changing TWO coils.

Hopefully that will fix it.

A.