USED Renault Laguna Hatchback (00 - 08)

My car

The car itself is very nice to drive and comes with a lot of kit. The engine can be a little underpowered at times, but generally keeps up with most traffic.

My experience of Renault dealers (4 in total) is of absolutely shocking levels of service and incompetence. If you buy this car, you may get to know your dealer well, and this for me has been the biggest downside to buying this car.

Two new tyres (with tyre-pressure monitors) cost me nearly £400. (Renault dealers will charge over £500) and nobody could give me accurate info on resetting the tyre sensor apart from ATS.

By the way, if you're in a similar position, chances are you don't need to pay Renault £50 to do this providing you keep the wheels in the same place after changing tyres.

I would never own another Renault again - stick to Japanese, at least they know how to treat a customer.

My car

I have owned this vehicle since August 2004 and found it very pleasant to drive. The performance and acceleration are not mind blowing but it is a smooth car to ride in and very comfortable to drive.

The overall spec is very good, with air-con, keyless entry, a good sound system and part leather seats, which wrap around you and give good support. It also has a very good electric sun roof, courtesy lighting both on the interior and on the bottom of the doors as thay are opened.

This must also be one of the safest cars on the road with features too many to mention. The wheels are 17-inch alloys and tyres are a bit on expensive side (cheapest Dunlops I could find fitted were £85, but they can go up to £130). The front tyres wear quite quickly, I had to renew mine at 17,000 miles.

Servicing intervals are excellent at 18,000 miles, and my first service at this mileage at a main Renault dealer cost £150 (inclusive of VAT). Overall I would recommend this car. When I first got this car, a neighbour who works in breakdown recovery admired it and told me that they appeared to be reliable as since their launch he had never been called out to a breakdown on one of them. (This seems to go against the bad press that they have received.)

Anyway I can only comment on my experience and can only say that I enjoy driving the car and would not put off anyone contemplating purchasing one.

My car

Since I bought my Renault Laguna Extreme 1.8 three months ago (new) the car has been back to the dealership five times - with basic faults too.

The car keeps losing power at slow speeds and the engine cuts out. I had to call The AA out last week to fix the driver's door, as it would not lock when I got in to it.

At the time when the car cut out on me, I was on the dual-carriageway doing 70mph with a new born baby in the car. I had no power at all - even no power steering. So I had to pull the car over to the hard shoulder myself, no warning lights appear, the car just stops.

Anyway, I did call Renault to make a complaint about this as the dealer did not help me when I went down to the showroom to get it fixed. Instead, the member of staff told me to come back a week later. He let me drive the car away, even though I felt it was not safe to drive on the road.

The dealership doesn't seem to want to know, which is very poor customer service.

I am not happy with the car and the service I'm getting. I have now made a full complaint to Renault.

My car

When this car drives well it is excellent. However, I am experiencing frequent issues, when car loses power at slow speed and engine cuts out. This has been going on now for six months. No warning lights appear, the car just stops. The only warning is that sometimes you can feel the car losing power. The problem clears when the key is removed and the car is restarted but surfaces again later. My Renault dealer doesn't seem to be able to clear the problem or even identify it. Not sure the car is safe to drive in this state as it has cut out on me on a number of ocassions now in high-volume traffic. I have tried to get a number to contact Renault directly without success.