Renault Laguna 2.2 dCi > Reviews (7)

I’m a girl so clearly I am not going to be able to tell you about a car!!!! Oh except it’s blue I can manage that.

My dad wanted a new car, he used to have a Toyota he liked that but wanted something he could show off with a bit something a little faster, something slick and well Mum wanted something practical…

Dad and I went around looking at all sorts of cars, BMWs, Volvos, you name it we looked, we looked at the Renault Laguna and I quite liked it but it was nothing special really it was a sensible boring car, quite nice looking and well designed but they are really common about half the staff at my dad’s school have them, I thought he should have something a bit different to fit into his nice space right in front of the main entrance…then one day I was at my boyfriends house and my Dad came back and told me he had bought a Laguna I was not a happy bunny…

He bought the sporty version, the one with posh hubcaps and a leather steering wheel that isn’t even sporty, well it has electric sunroof and windows, and Dad likes it. He takes it everywhere (ha ha) up and down to Durham (we live in Cheshire) and we’ve been out the country a few times.

I thought it was pretty normal, just a car but apparently I was wrong, every day there were herds of little boys not even old enough to drive lusting over it at the front of the school and people telling me what a nice car my dad has…

My boyfriend (at the time) had a Max Powermagazine and apparently it is a very safe car, you’d only get your legs crushed if you were in an accident sitting in either front seat or so he informed me anyway…I’m not actually sure if I should be happy about this or not.

Now to be honest I didn’t want to talk about the car as much as the manufacturing, as I said it is my dad’s car I can drive but I have never driven his (I’m not insured to) that is the fundamental reason that I’m not going to write about driving the car.

The car is under 3 years old, and it has never been right, the airbag light has been on constantly he has taken it back at least 5 times then he gave up, so for compensation after my dad made a complaint they had had it for 5 full days on 5 separate occasional and it still wasn’t fixed so they said they’d fit a tow bar for him for the caravan.

A nice gesture perhaps until after a 3 week trips around France, motorways, and everything, driving from Crewe to Plymouth, cross the channel all around France then 30 miles from home, we got pulled over because the caravan indicators were the wrong away round I mean it they were indicating left when the car was indicating right. This is because they had crossed the wires over so everything was wrong; just think about how dangerous that would have been.

Next day back in Crewe go back to complain, on the way a chunk of metal fell out of the sunroof now the flap doesn’t shut and the window bit clicks when it opens. The man at the Renault garage didn’t seem to even care. Ok it’s not fair to blame the car for the mechanics. But it was the whole attitude it was that Renault ring up every month and ask whether you like the car and if everything is OK and they seem surprised when they get the answer Yes… but the airbag doesn’t work, the sunroof doesn’t shut and did I mention the back seat doesn’t go flat or even down anymore.

And when they are told we are not 100% happy with the car they don’t actually do anything about it or follow it up.

Yeah the other main fault was that we have to put the back seat down at least once a week for my cello to go across the back to the boot and it can’t cope after about 3 months it was getting stuck and didn’t go down properly and it never goes flat.

The car itself is good though, my dad is now looking to replace it and he wanted to buy a new Laguna I said to him this one is less than 3 years old and it’s falling apart…he said he knew but he likes it…

And he does like it so it can’t be that bad I asked him about it for this, and I think I scared him because I have never taken an interesting in driving the car before only picking him a nice looking one!! He says it’s the nicest car he as ever had and he accelerates well, handles great and well I’ve seen him go around a corner in 5th gear as a new driver I don’t think I shall be looking to learn for my dad.

I do like the look of it, I think the spoiler makes it better looking because without that it is a bit dull, the shape is nice, and on the inside it has a CD player, electric everything, soft seats and plenty of room.

It doesn’t use much petrol either it appears very efficient gets to Durham and back on a tank of petrol. The engine is really quiet even when travelling fast. It’s a good car I’m just not too happy with all the little faults like the airbag, they actually told us this was a common problem with this car…my maths teacher brings me home on a Tuesday and he has a similar Renault car and his petrol warning light is permanently on…I mean warning lights are there for a reason it’s like the little boy who cries wolf what happens if there is a fault with the airbag? We don’t know and if it opens whilst driving at 70 mph down the motorway then it could be lethal.

I know I haven’t been very nice about Renault but my mum has a Clio and I steal that quite frequently (beauty of being 17 with a driving licence) and we have never really had any problems with that so I may be doing them a disservice (I’ve written a review on the Clio too)…just the above was my experience of a Renault I suppose it comes down to what you want and what you think.

I think the fact he actually wanted the newer version of the same most mean the car outweighs the problems…I think actually with me and my sister off at uni next year I think he is angling for a proper sports car…. Mum has different ideas!

In Summary nice car, pretty blue colour, goes fast, handles well, great fuel efficiency, quiet and comfortable to ride in good looking design…with the draw back of annoying little faults that don’t really matter but are always there, the indicator thing was a garage error but it was a proper Renault garage so they should know their own cars…and Renault should employ competent people or at least pretend to care when they don’t.