Faults:

The driver's air bag is faulty.

The rear door rubbers tend to leak in heavy rain.

The boot fit is poor.

General Comments:

The car is very comfortable.

The boot space and seat fold down variations are excellent and allow a lot of large gear to be carried.

Although 0 - 60 time is not blistering, it will keep accelerating for ever.

The car handles well despite being big.

The electric extras are both excellent and well put together.

Faults:

No major problems.

Did have a leaky rear door which I tracked down to the seal not quite fitting at the bottom. Rather than paying for a garage to look at this, I lifted the seal at the bottom and put in some tape to lift the seal up a bit.

Paint easily scratched.

General Comments:

The gearbox can be a bit of a pain - hard to get into first / second gears sometimes. Also clutch (at least on mine) has very sharp biting-point.

For long distances in summer, the car is brilliant - just turn on the air-conditioner, sit back and cruise; the miles disappear very fast. The boot is cavernous - great for camping trips into Europe.

Fuel economy in town isn't brilliant; but then this is quite a large car.

On the whole though, a difficult car to beat - and slightly more distinctive than the Mondeos/Vectra competition.

Faults:

Water leak into the rear footwell - cheap.

Heater matrix failed - very expensive.

Paintwork is easily damaged.

General Comments:

Good spec and very comfortable with lots of space in the front. Not so good in the back though. Unfortunately there's lots of things to spoil an otherwise good car.

Drives well, but the engine is seriously under powered for a 1.8.

The biggest problem is the gear change - either it's the worst design ever or Renault fitted my Laguna with a box of old nails. It's obstructive and a downright pain to use. The car has to be almost stationary in order to change down from 3rd to 2nd. Changing up is often bad as well - it's just not reliable.

The heater matrix failing is a common fault apparently. If you've got air con you'll need a big wallet to get this fixed.

Faults:

Inner CV cover £190 to fix.

Service - £260!

Replacement bonnet release catch - £170!

General Comments:

It is a lovely car to drive.

With the right add-ons the car looks very aggressive and stands out amongst the crowd, but it is an expensive toy.

Faults:

Nothing significant.

General Comments:

A beautiful ride... passenger compartment is extremely comfortable; handles well, extremely responsive engine for an automatic.

Much better alternative to a Vectra or Mondeo.

Faults:

Exhaust replaced.

Tyres replaced.

Accident damage.

General Comments:

It would be very hard to go back to a car without steering console radio controls.

Faults:

Minor electrical, eg airbag failure, aircon failed after 12m.

General Comments:

My mileage is c 25k p/a.

Faults:

Many problems with the fuel tank cover. It gets in ice and is very difficult to open. The service is not able to fix it. In the latest '98 model the lid design is improved.

General Comments:

Nice car to drive but the engine has been a disappointment. The 2.0S "Volvo S40" engine it has is noisy, consumes a lot of petrol and doesn't give remarkably better power than the "old" Renault 2 litre engine. Anyway the car has a lot of space for people and luggage. Also design is nice.

Faults:

Nothing yet (8000 miles, 2 months), unless you can count a cracked windscreen, which was not the fault of the car per se.

Servicing costs high though (104 for 6000 miles), although I have now located a much cheaper garage.

General Comments:

Air conditioning is excellent in the hot weather, but tends to re-evaporate water when switched off, which then redeposits on the windscreen. Performance is reasonably good for a heavy car (1420kg unladen), and torque between 2000 and 4000rpm is excellent. Economy generally about 43mpg, to date best 46 (long motorway run, no air con), worst 38 mpg ("enthusiastic" A-road run with air con).