Unplanned on the Xsara:
One door handle snapped in the cold. Local dealer fixed for free.
Rear central locking solenoid: £40
Belt tensioner: £80. It's still whining, but nowhere near as loud as it was so I'm assuming it's normal. :-)
That's it - in 8 years.
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According to the ADAC in Germany Renault are the foerth most reliable car in Europe ahead of some supposedly foolproof Japanese makes.I have a love hate relationship with Renault having had a bad experience in the past but the Laguna Initiale Dci I am running at the moment is absolutely super to drive far better than the 5 series I have just got rid of .I thinka lot of problems in the UK are due to extremely poor agents and mechanics who have never been trained on the various models.
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My Friends Renault Laguna estate, bought in 2002 had a nasty ending last year. He was driving down the motorway when the engine light came on. He pulled onto the hard shoulder, and left it in neutral, whereupon the engine continued high-revving. he tried to turn off the engine (I say tried). He removed the key, the engine continued running.
So he left the car quick sharpish, grabbed essential items from the boot, and watched the engine compartment go up in flames.... unsurprisingly a write-off.
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VW Bora (51) 2.0 SE
VW Touran (54) 1.9 TDI
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So its sort of the franco/italian car lottery - some you win, some you loose?
One car doesnt make a trend, nor does ten.
Lagunas certainly seem to be well accustomed to breakdown lorries around here. Clios, well they just try and kill the driver with the bonnet lol
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My 1998 Ford Fiesta Si 1.25
I bought at 55,000 and ran till 98,000 in approx. 3 years.
Repairs required:
-Sticking front brake caliper (caused by rust inside) - £20 for mechanic to clean it up
-£150 to get through last MoT - needed a suspension part and the exhaust patching up.
That's it. All the rest is just routine service items like oil/filters/sparkplugs etc.
Ultra reliable motor.
98k and still going strong. On original cambelt! Only reason I'm selling is because I don't really want the cost of a new cambelt being fitted, plus I fancied a change of car. As long as cambelt is changed before it snaps it should be a great motor for the next buyer.
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I agree TVM!
Our '98 Clio, now 47k, we have owned since 4k.
1 weeping power steering pressure switch - changed by me (replacement also weeped so replaced 2nd time FOC by dealer)
1 x lumpy idle, crank position sensor cleaned by me.
1 x battery
1 x exhaust centre section
1 x exhaust rear box
6 x mots = 6 x passed flying colours
Ours has aircon and is still plying its trade in the Cheddar household, it is worth more to us than we would get for it, selling or trading.
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According to the ADAC in Germany Renault are the foerth most reliable car in Europe ahead of some supposedly foolproof Japanese makes.
So, how does one explain that then? Dodgy survey?
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No, I think they just ask different questions. The various surveys here - JD Power, TG, etc. seem to place much higher value on dealer service, satisfaction, etc. whereas ADAC (German equivalent of AA) just list breakdowns they attend. Similar surveys to ADAC in France have had similar results.
It's interesting, the recent What Car survey, whilst having Lexus etc. at the top showed remakably little difference in satisfaction rating between the top and mid-table cars (something like 86% v 80% satisfaction). So whilst Lexus owners may (on average) be more satisfied, they are not THAT much more satisfied.
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We ran our 1997 Laguna (1.8RT Sport) for 4 years relatively trouble free. Sold it to the brother-in-law last year and it's still going strong (although one door lock has now gone apparently)
Needed one suspension bush and a new heater matrix in that time as well as the usual consumables....oh and the bonnet release catch would play up too!
Damm fine car (apart from the old 8v engine when it got to the 4000rpm mark...ouch!)
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We took a big gamble buying the Scenic. I've never owned a Renault before, and neither has SWMBO, but we both fell in love with the car itself. From talking to other Renault owners and former owners, the experiences tend to be a real mixed bag. Renault seem to have a strong brand loyalty, with many owners being on their second, third or fourth Renault. On the other hand, some have owned one and said never again. My aunt has a current Clio 1.5dCi 80 which is her third Clio, and prior to that had two Renault 19's and a Renault 5. None gave significant problems.
As for the reliability of our own car, unless the previous owner has doctored the service history (unlikely if I'm any judge of character), ours has had only a couple of very minor electrical faults in its 2.5 years. Certainly, they'd had it for just over 2 years, which is not a length of time most people would keep an unreliable car, so I'm inclined to believe that's the whole story.
Will of course let you know as time progresses, but I really want this car to be a keeper. It does everything we want, is good to look at, and good to drive. That said, it won't be on the drive for long if it starts acting up. The odd niggle is fine, but if it starts letting us down, it's gone.
I've got a good feeling so far though.
Cheers
DP
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I'm one of the people who has been moaning about Clio reiabilty on the technical forum - my daughter's 53 reg 1.5 Dci which has on numerous occasions since new stuttered to a halt (several times in rush hours on the M11).
Two things to bear in mind
Firstly, in the previous seven years she had owned an R5 and an old shape Clio 1.9 diesel - neither had any faults in that time - that's why she went for a new Clio - her previous Rens had been very reliable..
Secondly In the 3+ years she has had the new Clio 4 main dealers have been unable to locate the fault causing the stalling. She either got told that "there is no fault - nothing registers on the computer", "you are imagining it" or she twice had the EGR replaced - once under warranty, once for a couple of hundred pounds. On the umpteenth breakdown it took an RAC man to say it was the throttle potentiometer which has now been replaced (fairly cheaply)and the car (fingers crossed ) seems "repaired". If that had been done 2and a half years ago under warranty, I would no doubt have been on this thread saying how wonderfully reliable Renault Clios were (except for a small fault repaired under warranty).
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Phil
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She either got told that "there is no fault - nothing registers on the computer" "you are imagining it" or she twice had the EGR replaced - once under warranty once for a couple of hundred pounds. On the umpteenth breakdown it took an RAC man to say it was the throttle potentiometer which has now been replaced (fairly cheaply)and the car (fingers crossed ) seems "repaired".
This proves that backup is almost as important as the car itself.
I had a Peugeot 306 many moons ago which was like this. A few silly problems (intermittent stalling, tappet noise, poor cold starting) that the dealer never seemed to be able to resolve. As a conseqence, they became big problems, and I ended up thoroughly disliking a car that, in most other respects was one of the best I'd ever had. As with your daughter's Clio, if these had all been sorted first time, I would have defended that car to the hilt.
I've had similar issues with Ford and VW dealers too. It's plain to me that many technicians in car dealerships have no diagnostic skills beyond plugging in a computer and following instructions. In each case with my 306, it was a question of getting one of the good ones allocated to the job (pot luck), and then miraculously getting the problem fixed. In one case, this was the eighth attempt to find what turned out to be nothing more serious than a sticking idle control valve.
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My aunty has owned a succession of new petrol Renaults (5s, Clios and Meganes) every three years since the 70s. She's never had any complaints hence why she keeps going back to them. I remember her getting a Citroen AX (when they axed the 5) in the early 90s but it wasn't for her...
On a personal level I inherited my late uncle's 89F R21 diesel. In 1998 the car had 75k on it and the 2.1 67bhp engine was tough as old boots (I used to service it myself dropping the oil out every 6k). The car had no rust at all and was extremely comfy (loads of rear legroom) and a good cruiser once up to speed. Being a saloon model in black made it look like a French embassy car or something...quite rare - never saw another.
Problems I had were driver's seat bolster cloth worn away, numerous failed dashboard bulbs and a failed diesel pump. My uncle told me it had had a brand new gearbox from Renault at around 70k.
I got peanuts for it when I traded it in at around 130k but I believe it's still going somewhere.
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