2000 Renault Megane Liberte 1.4 petrol from UK and Ireland
Summary:
Why oh why did I change from a Toyota?
Faults:
Ignition coils fail prematurely.
Car Dashboard goes into error mode every morning in winter.
General Comments:
Good.
Good safety features, ABS,5 airbags, three point seatbelt in middle back seat, side impact bars etc.
Low insurance group.
Poor.
The Renault Megane Petrol engine uses an individual coil for each spark plug. All four of these have now failed prematurely.
On cold mornings the car dashboard goes into error mode when first started. This clears whenever the car has driven 100yards and is stopped and restarted. We're talking every morning in winter.
The main Renault dealer stated that the ABS computer required reprogramming. Didn't fix fault. Car taken back. "A multi-way block connector was loose". Didn't fix fault. "It's either the ABS wiring loom or ABS servo - we'll replace the wiring loom first and if that doesn't work, we'll try the servo".
Now to me this smacks of poor servicing techniques. Remember I'm paying for all this. They're talking about over £1000 which I have to pay for them to make a diagnosis. No guarantee this will resolve issue, no rebate on unnecessary work carried out.
Despite having raised this issue with the service department and customer services department of the local dealer and twice with Renault UK, they have made no attempt to contact me never mind resolve the issue. Seems to be a total disregard for customer satisfaction.
The main Renault dealer from whom I bought the car took a shortcut wiring the electrics on a tow-bar fitted to this new car as a result of which some of the lights did not operate and the car had to be returned for remedial action. This was a deliberate action by the engineer as the cables in question had been cut short.
Road handling is poor, you can feel the rear end slip and lurch as you corner.
Comfort is poor on long journeys.
The gearbox is obviously designed for a more powerful engine as 2nd gear has no drive until the car is traveling at speed.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 5th August, 2003
8th Nov 2007, 06:02
I agree about the handling on corners - My Megane lurches every time it encounters a manhole cover on a bend. Maybe with more than one day's driving one notices these matters.
The problem is apparent at moderate speeds driving through built up areas - you don't really need to be rallying along country roads like Colin McCray to feel it.
These are a great car for a DIY mechanic. They'll give you plenty of experience on working on cars. Whether it's fitting ABS pumps (always have checked by garage), shocks, ignition coils (which are changed more frequently than the oil), door catches & locks, accelerator cables... which isn't a bad assortment for a 7 year old car.
Incidentally, on the ignition coil front, Renault are well aware of the issue with the coils, but seem perfectly happy to supply as many coils as you want - after all it's revenue for them.
Try and source Beru third party coils - after changing two full sets in as many years, I fitted a set of Beru coils and haven't had to change them since. Now maybe I'm a skeptic, but wouldn't you think Renault would have identified the fault and sourced the more reliable units for their customers? And did I mention the Beru units were just over half the price of the Renault units?