2005 Renault Laguna Extreme Sports Tourer from UK and Ireland - Comments

Today 22-10-06 the gearbox has failed totally,

the car came to a complete stop on the m1, the bell housing had a hole in it and oil went everywhere, the AA man told me stories of this type of gearbox doing this all the time.

The car has been a good one, but the fuel costs are high, but this could be due to the faulty gearbox.

The AA does not allow its recovery crews to discuss the reliability (or lack of it) of different manufacturers.

Well they don't keep to that rule. My Renault Megane broke down, and the AA guy was telling me all sorts of stories. That the Renault key card is a complete nightmare, that Nissan have gone down hill since Renault started sharing parts, that VW has hit rock bottom in terms of reliablity, and that if I wanted a reliable car I should go and replace my megane with a Toyota or Madza as the guy doesn't seem to be called out for those as much.

There are no reported issues as far as I am aware with Renault manual boxes. I suspect you just got a bad one. And in any case it will be covered by the warranty.

Firstly I have had two french cars including a Renault Laguna and haven't had any problems. I have had a Toyota for one day and the distributor failed. Renault so many cars there are bound to be a few problems, but the safety mode on these car will save the car from any extra damage. the hole in the bell housing was most likely caused by a stone or other similar object flicked up by another car and striking the bell housing. very unlikely a problem caused by Renault.

As you see the comments above nearly all of unhappy ones from UK and Ireland. I am a customer of Renault nearly 12 years and nothing have been seen except small issues. But hole seems a very serious damage that every warranty can include. These gear-set housings of new cars of all brands are A356 Aluminum series. So they are safe at passenger and driver safety plus Environment friendly (1/3 weight loss by density against steel) but lack of UTS and Service Life.

You can experience failures like these in all brands of cars and excellence is cannot be defined in human life.