RENAULT LAGUNA 1.6 16V Authentique 5dr (2001)

Ok car, pathetic service from Renault

I ditched my Renault Laguna in the end after five frustrating years of trying to get Renault to do anything at all apart from ignore me and tell me the warranty didn't cover things. Maybe things have improved since but it's definitely worth hearing from existing customers first before buying a car from any manufacturer's dealer.

It's sad because the car itself was ok really. I mean it wasn't amazing and it had a few too many repairs needing for my liking, but it was alright. The main things were electrical, like safety monitors going off when nothing was actually wrong, that sort of thing. The engine needed some work over the years I had it but all in warranty (fixed after much huffing and fussing and delaying by Renault, and with no chance of a courtesy car).

The Renault Laguna that I had was apparently a 16 valve but it wasn't all that powerful really, seemed sluggish when you asked it to overtake. On the plus side it got through petrol pretty slowly.

The 'build quality' I scored low. I knackered my rims a couple of times on bumps which weren't too bad, not the sort of thing where you'd think ah no that'll knacker my rims. The paint chipped pretty easily as well I was always buffing things out, and it got rusty towards the end of when I had it, which was five years old so probably not ageing well after that.

Shame about the build because the inside of the car was pretty fancy, I mean coming at it from an early 90s car that I had, it looked quite futuristic, with the neat angles on the dash panel and fancy display at the top.

It was a pretty practical car too, decent boot and seats, that sort of thing. Maybe if you get one of the later Renault Lagunas from this lot it would still be ok. I got mine in 2001 when they first replace the earlier Renault Laguna model (I was watching at the time), so maybe they sorted out some of the problems over the years.