I hate Renault

theallpowerful

So, this is the story of my Renault Scenic, and all the trouble it has caused me to date. Please take this as a cautionary tale, and keep it in mind when you visit any Renault dealer...
I bought my Dynamique Spec Renault Scenic in March 2004, and I was overjoyed with it! It was spacious, comfortable, and was actually quite nice to drive! I even got used to the "huge bottom"

Anyhow, after using my new Renault happily for a week or so, the "I" fell off the word "Scenic" on the back of the car (leaving me for a time with a "Renault Scen c"!)

This was a warning of further things to come

Renault were very apologetic, and refitted the "I" for me without a fuss (although I was without my car for quite some time, which is a nuisance, since I need my car for work!)

So, a week after that, one of the tyres explodes... not while I was doing anything unusual... It just went bang without any real cause. The guy at the tyre place suggested it was a dodgy tyre, and that I should contact the dealers about it, which I duly did.

The dealers told me that they were sorry that had happened, but that there was no way of proving it was a dodgy tyre, so as a gesture of good will they would give me a £75 voucher for their dealership. THIS NEVER ARRIVED!

Over the next 3 years I had regular visits to Renault for warranty repairs which included the following:

• A broken suspension strut
• Two visits to have glow plugs replaced, both of which took 2 days
• A failed electric window which got jammed in the door
• a reset of the electric window computer
• a product recall due to seat belt problems

Each of these visits to Renault meant that I was without my car for at least a day, and on some occasions more than one day, which was a nuisance, since I have to use my car daily for work, and being without it meant time off work!

Then came the crunch! 2 months after the warranty ran out both key cards failed, and left me stranded on Tesco's petrol station. I had to call out the AA (£187 to join on the spot and use the service, and nearly 4 hours of waiting for a flat-bed truck to take the thing away!)

I have expressed my dissatisfaction to both the Renault dealer and to Renault UK, but they are completely disinterested! As far as they are concerned it's not their problem and they don't really care!

I have sold my Renault back the the dealer (at well below the value!) and bought myself something more reliable!

Wrote letters to both Renault UK and the dealership (Sunwin Renault) and have had a brief phonecall from Renault where they basically said "sorry, but we're not going to do anything for you". Still not even a response from Sunwin Renault...

As a result of my general anger I was motivated to set up wehaterenault.com... I doubt it'll do any good, but heh, if any of you out there have had similar experiences with Renault, please visit the site, create yourself a login and blog about it - the more blogs we get the more likely Renault are to take some notice of their consumers!

Thankful to no longer be a Renault owner!

Don't make the mistake I did! Buy something else!

oldagetraveller

Sorry to hear of your problems, I would never buy a Renault after the experiences my daughter had with a 19 Diesel. Clutch, gearbox, fuel pump to name just the major faults.
Also I'd never buy a car which looks as though it eats too many pies.:D I hate their big ar@e adverts too!!
I'm confused about the time period - car bought in March 2007 and over the next three years. Do you mean 2004 or months?

theallpowerful

oops!

What I meant to say (as you correctly pointed out) was March 2004!

Should learn to check my dates properly

sharpei31

i bought a grand scenic 2 years ago and from the day i picked up this car i had problems with the brakes, ( they squeaked ) very loudly, just like a bus would do when coming to a halt, but to be honest renault got the car straight in and said they sorted it out i picked the car up and a day or so later they started again so it went back in to the renault dealership,this went on for over 18 months and i must of had the car back to the dealership 12 times, now 2 years later i just live with it as renault gave me some rubbish saying its a characteristic of the car, i said so when i bought the car,why didnt you tell me that it had power steering , abs , electric windows , and the brakes will squeak like hell all the time,i dont think he thought i would of bought the car if he said that

sharpei31

if your car brakes down in a tescos car park, dont joint the AA, or rac,as tescos give free AA cover if you break down in there car par, or if you break down beside there car par ,get a push to there car park

theallpowerful

sharpei31 wrote: »

if your car brakes down in a tescos car park, dont joint the AA, or rac,as tescos give free AA cover if you break down in there car par, or if you break down beside there car par ,get a push to there car park

Noooo!!!... :mad:

I wish I'd known that at the time!

Or that the staff at the petrol station had mentioned it to me...

That's a really useful tip! Thanks :T

Hope your Grand Scenic starts to behave itself! Brakes sounding like a bus was another problem I had with the Scenic, but what with all of the other problems I never got round to getting it looked at! Sounding like a bus is not a "characteristic" of anything other than... well... buses!

Timmne

I love my Clio - 3 years and 5 months old and never caused me an issue!

Sorry yours did though.

sarahg1969

We had a 53-reg Espace, which, by the time it had done 27,000 miles, had had TWO new turbos.

I was driving away from work one day, on to a busy roundabout, and it as I pulled out, it would NOT GO - very frightening experience as dozens of cars sped towards me.

Anyhow, it was allegedly repaired under the warranty by the dealer. I was left without a car for a good couple of weeks, though.

Shortly after, both key cards failed and we had to have two new ones - about £360, I think, but again under warranty.

We then drove it to France, where the same thing happened, the day before we were due to come home - the car just would not go above about 11mph. Fortunately, as this happened, we were outside a Renault garage, so pulled in there. The vehicle was towed away and we were stuck in France for an extra week (well, you can't complain about that!).

After a lot of toing and froing about the warranty (only 2 years in France but 3 in the UK), it was repaired. Now, what they didn't tell us was that when in France they repair everything that's wrong with your car.

It had another new turbo, the engine had to be repaired because of a massive leak, the gearbox had to be refitted, the aircon was repaired and numerous other bits and pieces were done. In all, we had to pay 200 Euros. Plus a week's accommodation, of course.

At the end of it, we were happy that the car was finally fixed properly, but we sold it when we got home.

Maybe we had a lemon? I don't know. But I certainly wouldn't risk spending a LOT of money on another Renault.

jackieb

My cousin had a 2004/05 Laguna and the computer died in it. The car wouldn't do anything and it was just over a year old. Renault fixed it under warranty, otherwise it would have been a fortune to fix it. They got rid of it too.

johne74

Many years ago my father bought his first Renault, a 19 brand new from a Renault Dealer, the list of faults were Rust after 2 weeks, windscreen wiper falling off on the motorway on several occasions (not the blade, but the complete wiper arm), boot lock popping out, front wing popping off the bolts. Car was duely sold after 18 months.
Anyway a year or so after my mother liked the Clio, so it was bought and kept for 3 years with no problems.
So anyway as the Clio was a good motor, a new Fat Jackseyed Megane was bought, well, computer never worked properly, Aircon kept dying, electrics would be intermittent, rust again, so after 18 months that went and a Hyundai was purchased. There has not been a single problem with that.

To be fair to the Renault dealer they fixed the cars no problem, but still, Renault are crap.

tiff

We hate Renault too, hate the key card system. We've spent so much on our car (01 Laguna estate) its not worth selling now, we've invested too much in it!