Fancy a Grand Scenic, after reading Car-by-car, I've been put off the diesel with EGR valve, and associated modern diesel engine problems. Is the petrol a better buy, would be for low mileage per annum (school run + annual hols) so MPG not too important.
My neighbours had 4 with little problems but all of them petrols, thoughts anyone??
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Probably the best bet but they are not very economical and are in quite a high tax bracket even the 1.4 although I think 1.6 is the smallest engine in the Grand Scenic ,they still suffer many common faults such as dashboard failure,clutch, and window mechs failing lovely design but not nice to own.
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We've had our 1.9 dCi Grand Scenic for 18 months. The 1.5 diesel and 1.6 petrol are too small for the Grand Scenic, but the 1.9 dCi suits the car well with a lovely smooth, refined delivery, and plenty of midrange shove. You have to thrash it mercilessly to get less than 40 mpg as well. 43-45 is the norm. The 2.0 petrol probably goes well (the only one we didn't try), but fuel/tax costs rendered that irrelevant for us anyway.
Apart from glowplugs and a wastegate pipe, the engine hasn't been touched since we've had it. The 1.9dCi had most of its issues fixed by the time it found its way into the Grand Scenic. It's a well proven Bosch fuel system (the 1.5 is Delphi and rumoured to be less reliable), and the general advice with these engines is they are fine if they get fresh synthetic 5W/40 oil at 9k intervals, and are driven hard from time to time ("Italian tune up"). We have the complete maintenance record for ours from new (from the Renault dealer computer system) and apart from the plugs and pipe, the engine hasn't given any trouble in 56,000 miles.
Build is a bit naff in places with 5p a square metre plastics here and there, but as others have said, a lovely design which sits upper-mid table in reliability terms of all the cars I've owned.
Cheers
DP
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Forgot to add as last sentence, for low miles, the petrol is probably a better bet anyway. See if you can drive a 2.0 though.
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We have recently purchased a 3 year old Grand Scenic 1.6vvt petrol.
The car is great with loads of space, lots of cubby holes and good seating position.
I think the 1.6 engine is a bit weedy with very little mid-range torque. You really have to work it to get it to go. However as ours is mostly used as SWMBO's runaround this isn't really a problem. We have used it for long trips and once you have it wound up on the motorway will quite happily cruise at or above the limit. I have driven it 520 miles in a day with no ill effects.
Economy wise we get 35mpg running around the lanes, mostly short trips with lots of stop-starts for tractors etc and 40mpg on a run.
My dad ran one and averaged over 42mpg, but he drives for economy. He now runs a 1.5 DCi which is noisier than our petrol but gets 53mpg in his hands.
Cost wise we paid just £3,525 for a 3 year old Expression with 22k miles and FSH at auction. Dealer have these cars for around £5k.
The equivalent diesel would have been well over a grand dearer.
Overall I would say that if performance isn't a priority then go for the 1.6 but I would like to try a two litre which would probably suit the car better.
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