Renault Laguna 2.2 dCi

...reserved the car from the Renault website (Renault to go) with only 6 miles on the clock. It was less than 6 months old (a 53 plate) with a whopping discount of £6625 off the list price of a brand new one. I went to my local dealer to buy and it was delivered there within 10 days which included the Easter bank holiday weekend. It now had 7 miles on the clock.

My initial thought when the saleman drove it up to me was that it was really ...
...of bad press about many Renault dealers tho').

2 days later I was back... I couldn't get the main beams to stay on. This time it took 2 weeks for the part to turn up and a further week before they could book me in. Enough complaining as this is nothing major.

The car was beautiful to drive on the motorway and after 1500 miles was averaging 45 to 50 mpg on the motorway at speeds of 70 to 80 mph. The official consumption ... more

I reserved the car from the Renault website (Renault to go) with only 6 miles on the clock. It was less than 6 months old (a 53 plate) with a whopping discount of £6625 off the list price of a brand new one. I went to my local dealer to buy and it was delivered there within 10 days which included the Easter bank holiday weekend. It now had 7 miles on the clock.

My initial thought when the saleman drove it up to me was that it was really noisey from the outside. Being a gadget freak I was really looking forward to trying out the key card. I inserted the card into the centre of the console and hit the start button. The first thing I noticed was that the auto display on the dash showed up a big A.. no idea what that meant so I went back to the salesman to ask. He had no idea and neither did any of the technicians. I switched it off and started it up again and everything was normal and it was put down to being a flat battery giving strange logged error messages

After driving off the only noise you could hear were the 17 inch alloy wheels on the bumpy road.

The handling of the vehicle was excellent with a smooth 5 speed automatic gearbox with flick shift which meant you pushed the lever to the left and you could drive it pretty much like a manual by pushing forward slightly to move up and pulling back to move down. This could be done at any time.

Being a business user I drove the car 350 miles in 2 days but whilst driving back late at night I was freezing because the heater didn't work. Apparently a very common fault on the new Lagunas. The dealer was great and fixed it the same day I took it in and they offered me a courtesy car (lots of bad press about many Renault dealers tho').

2 days later I was back... I couldn't get the main beams to stay on. This time it took 2 weeks for the part to turn up and a further week before they could book me in. Enough complaining as this is nothing major.

The car was beautiful to drive on the motorway and after 1500 miles was averaging 45 to 50 mpg on the motorway at speeds of 70 to 80 mph. The official consumption for this auto was only 47.9 so I was fairly happy. The noise of the engine also diminished so it just needed to be run in and warmed up. Although when sat at traffic lights you can hear a bit of engine noise.

Inside - a bit plain for a high tech car but then everything is hidden behind push panels. Even the cigarette lighter is hidden by a smaller similar panel below the key card. The centre panel lifts and slides back to reveal a small shelf box for placing pens and things in and underneath that you have the cd player/radio. To the left if you press reveals a cup holder. Below the big flap are the controls for the heating, ventilation and aircondtioning. Below this is the unit for the key card.

Safety - the car comes with 8 airbags, traction control, esp(stability control), NCAP crash test 5 star rating and get this some sort of plastic front wings which bounce straight back into shape if knocked or pushed (supposed to be pedestrian safety). Also doors lock when you drive off and reach a speed of 6mph.

Security - what can you say.. it hasn't got a key. Comes with immobiliser and alarm as standard, deadlocks and is insurance group 10.

Key card - has 2 buttons. You guessed it one for opening and one for closing the doors. If you press the button to open the doors once it only opens the driver door. If you press the lock button twice it deadlocks the car. If the batterie run out don't panic as there is a hidden key in the card which allows you to enter the car. The car still reads the card even with a flat battery in the key card.

Computer - controlled via a push button on the windscreen wiper stick and displays how much oil you have, calculates mpg, calculates average speed, tells you how many miles to your next service, tells you how much fuel you have used and tells you how far you can travel on the fuel remaining (no more worrying about whether I can make it to the nearest petrol station when the fuel light comes on)

Audio -no idea how many speakers but it sounds good. Comes with a single CD player and controls are on a paddle just behind the steering wheel so no more fumbling for the volume control. The volume also adjusts itself depending on the speed you are travelling which is good for me as I spend a lot of time on the motorway and can't be bothered fiddling with the volume controls.

Electric connections - there are plenty. The usual cigarette lighter, there is one in the centre arm rest storage box with a tidy shelf for hiding your mobile phone whilst charging (or for me - so that it doesn't get stolen when I forget and leave it in the car), one socket at the back of the storage box for the rear passengers and another socket in the boot.

Windscreen - heat reflecting which means that none of the motorway or prepaid tunnel toll cards work if you stick them on your screen. I now drive up and wave it in the drivers window. Windscreen wipers are great as you can control the intermittent speed and the rear wiper comes on automatically if you have the wipers on and are reversing..

Ample room in the front as the steering wheel can be moved up and down as well as in and out. Rear space is also good (I'm 5'11 and have tried the back seats for space). Also hidden in the rear seat centre arm rest is another hidden tray for storage of small items and cup holder.

You couldn't really tell this was a diesel until you stop at traffic lights. Even in cold morning starts it drives away without the usual sluggish diesel putting your foot down and nothing much happening feeling.

The auto gearbox with the kick down has tremendous power when overtaking and you can feel yourself being pushed into the sports seats when accelerating rapidly.

Overall the car is great to drive and is excellent for motorways and general use. It is economical (takes 70 litres of diesel roughly 15 gallons and gets about 650 to 700 on a tank mostly motorway driving) and servicing is 18000 miles or every 2 years. I have also found that if you get the car serviced at a Renault dealer it can be up to £60 cheaper at other Renault dealers. So it's worth shopping around.
 

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