1993 Renault Espace RT 2.1 turbo diesel
Summary:
Cheap to buy and run, and very very useful
Faults:
In over 2 years of ownership, very little up until last week, when my cam belt snapped & took out a couple of cam followers, & maybe more.
General Comments:
Absolutely fantastic & economical (average 35-40mpg) work horse.
With all 7 seats in you, have a mini-mini bus, and with all the seats out, you have a very useful sized van.
This is my third Espace & by far the best so far. My first one was a mk1 1.6 petrol; very reliable & useful, but starting to look a bit dated & tired, so I treated myself to a mk2 V6, which although good looking & fast, was a complete pain in the backside, as I spent all my spare time tinkering with it, trying to keep it going.
I finally gave up & moved onto a mk2 diesel, which is the best of all worlds; reliable, economical & very very useful. Maybe a bit sluggish, but if you floor the go pedal to overtake, it has plenty of power.
Sadly the cambelt snapped last week, & I have neither the time or ability to fix it or pay someone to do the work, so after reading the reports on this website, I am moving on to try a Peugeot 806 diesel (I like the idea of the sliding doors).
Summing up, if you are thinking of buying an Espace & you are on a budget, get a diesel (costs more to buy than a petrol but will soon pay for itself with the economy) & make sure the cambelt has been changed recently. Also if it gets difficult to start & smokes on start up, try a bottle of injector cleaner in the fuel, it made a world of difference to mine.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 7th December, 2007
4th May 2009, 03:41
I own an Espace Mk4 and recently, it started to lose power when I hit the higher revs, and a tappet became noisy. The only thing that would help would be turning off the engine, then restarting. And even then it wasn't perfect. When this happened a smell of exhaust fumes would be present inside the vehicle. Taking a 185 mile drive up north, when we got there I decided to try the 'fuel injector cleaner' in a garage. Emptied 1/4 of a bottle into half a tank of diesel (about 30 litres). Drove it all the way back, and it's like a new car! No noise, revs up to max with no issue, more power, and it would seem better economy (although this is only 1st day driving it since done that) as the fuel indicator hasn't moved down a notch yet!
If you have a problem like this, buy a bottle of injector cleaner. Seriously the best fiver I've spent in a long time!
4th Apr 2010, 13:35
It's me again! And I am on my 5th Espace, both sunroofs leak, the heater only works on full (what a surprise!), the clutch judders a lot pulling away, I can't get the radio to work properly, the back door catch broke, one of the rear doors is hard to open, the washer bottle pump has stopped working & the rear wash wipe has stopped working.
But I still love driving the thing! And have just purchased my 6th Espace, is it possible to be a Espace addict?
1st Jul 2008, 10:45
Thanks for your tip.