Faults:

Injectors, washer.

General Comments:

A serious contender for other brands who are more expensive to buy. A good comfortable cruiser, riding on the motorway in style.

This Laguna is one of the 3 I had in the last 4 years. I love the way it looks, even after 15 years since launched.

This one I have now is a 1.9 turbo diesel, 6 speed manual. The other Lagunas I had were 1.6 and 1.8 engines. The 1.6 was good for town use, but needed more power on open road. I would suggest the 1.8 for more power and better fuel consumption at higher speeds.

The diesel I own now gets 43 MPG even driven by my heavy foot, and pulls through the gears with ease.

Do I recommend this car? Of course!

Would I buy another Laguna again? Of course!

Faults:

Where do I start?

Rear and front suspension bushes.

Cat fixing plate sheared off, causing cat to shear off and break at turbo exit point. Various attempts at welding seem to have worked, else £900 for a new cat!!!

Rear and front wheel bearings.

Broken water pump.

And for the big one. This car has had 2 new gear boxes. The first just after I took ownership, and the second when the driveshaft damaged the differential. It turns out that after 100k of mileage and 7 years, the driveshaft was just 20mm too short and caused all sorts of problems when turning left, something I had to do for at least 50% of my time on the road!

Engine mounts, gearbox mounts were all replaced, suspension was checked, all was where it should've been, drive shaft was too short, MASSIVE design flaw by Renault I think. Total cost of this repair was £2,000.

New gearbox linkage - Renault only sell it complete, not just the cables... Another way of ripping people off.

There are other things I have just forgotten...

General Comments:

Lovely car to look at, very nice inside, and simplistic, which is good. Not many rattles etc... Car started to wear with age inside, all inside parts still worked fine though.

Car is quick for its age, 120bhp diesel, with good amounts of torque. Large boot area and very practical. I loved this car, and it broke my heart with its poor reliability. Not sure how Renault could make such a bad car; wasn't aware it was possible to be that bad!

Unfortunately I shall never buy another Renault based on this experience. My previous Laguna (W plate - Phase I) was amazing and never missed a beat, but this had changed for the Phase II.

Off to Toyota now, hopefully I'll have money to spend on my girlfriend from now on...

Faults:

Catastrophic gearbox failure while driving on the M4, resulting in the front wheels locking while driving along! Apparently I'm not the only one this has happened to.

Would really like to know if anybody got anywhere with claims/damages claims? Gearbox and engine require replacement. The crankshaft was also damaged, hence engine damage.

Faults:

There was a rattling noise coming from the engine area, which was never fixed, even though I took it to the dealer I bought it from on numerous occasions and reported the fault - it always came back to me the same way.

The car would not start at about 37000 miles. Had to get the car lifted and taken to the dealer. It was away for about 2 weeks before I got it back. Something was wrong with the chip in the key card and it had to be replaced.

The drivers seat was worn badly when I bought the car. Then at approx 38000 miles, the passenger seat started to move up and down freely. The ram had no effect at all. It would have move up and down about 5 inches, or more, when braking, going over bumps etc. It did not feel safe for the passenger. It cost £700 to fix.

At 40000 miles the rear brake light on the boot stopped working - took it to the dealer and they never fixed it. When a friend came over from Scotland he was able to fix it. The bulb was loose.

General Comments:

The car was really comfortable when driving and it was good at handling. I think I had more problems with the dealer than the car gave me. The dealer was unable to determine causes etc.

I have now went and bought myself a Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCI Zetec.