Hands on with Renault?

skdb

I am thinking about buying a SH Renault Scenic 1.4 from 2001 or 2002 but have never owned a Renault.

Anyone had any "Hands On" experience with these Cars?
Max. mileage before its too old?
Typical breakages with Scenics?

Any guidance / hints / tips would be great.

GERMAN ROCKS

nice looking car lots of toys. u will get one very reasonable. i really cant fault one

pburns

Pretty much everyone on this forum will advise you to avoid like the plague. (Although there is one misguided zealot who will point you towards a Renault forum with lots of advice for patching back together with some gaffer tape, glue and a hammer:D)

Reliability-wise there are just too many problems. If you don't believe me read this: http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/index.htm?md=847&

Anecdotal evidence backs this up. A guy at work can't wait to be shot of his. His wife is so sick of the money they have spent on it that she has given the green light to a much less practical replacement!

It's a pity because by all accounts the interior is well laid out and very practical. But it really is a bag o'****e...

BrianD3

pburns wrote: »

Pretty much everyone on this forum will advise you to avoid like the plague. (Although there is one misguided zealot who will point you towards a Renault forum with lots of advice for patching back together with some gaffer tape, glue and a hammer:D)

Reliability-wise there are just too many problems. If you don't believe me read this: http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/index.htm?md=847&

Anecdotal evidence backs this up. A guy at work can't wait to be shot of his. His wife is so sick of the money they have spent on it that she has given the green light to a much less practical replacement!

Are you trolling or stupid or both? First of all the OP asked for "hands on" experiences of the Renault Scenic 1.4 2001-2002, you don't have any hands on experience of this car and neither does "pretty much everyone on this forum".

The very ones who'll tell you to avoid like the plague generally haven't a clue what they're talking about. Or maybe their Da owned a Renault 18 in 1978 and it rusted so every Renault (and every French car) ever made is a bag of sh1te :rolleyes:

The Renault forums website is excellent - infomed opinions from people who actually own and work on Renaults. Specific, constructive advice not some nonsense that someone heard down the pub or from a taxi driver. If anything, reading that website you'd get an overly pessimistic view of Renault reliability as many posters only seek out the site when they have a problem. You will find similar websites for every other make of car, because lo and behold, other makes suffer from problems too. And judging by the latest statistics on http://www.reliabilityindex.co.uk/ there are at least 10 makes that are worse that Renault including Audi, Mercedes, Porsche, Saab, Chrysler, Landrover and others.

E92

The reliability index is not a great comparison, as it takes the cost of repair into account, so if 2 cars have the exact same problem and one car costs more to fix then the car that costs more to fix is "less reliable".

So I wouldn't be getting too excited about some cars like Porsches doing "badly". A Porsche is probably more reliable than a lot of brands, but the high cost of repairs drags their score WAY down.

pburns

BrianD3 wrote: »

Are you trolling or stupid or both? First of all the OP asked for "hands on" experiences of the Renault Scenic 1.4 2001-2002, you don't have any hands on experience of this car and neither does "pretty much everyone on this forum".

A calm, dignified response I see:rolleyes:...

My late da had a Megane for about 6 years which he bought 'nearly new'. It was the worst cars ever brought about the place - various electronic glitches and it was pretty much spent by 100,000 miles (although as the odometer had stopped working at this point the mileage was a bit of a guess:rolleyes:). This is despite having been well maintained and was in stark contrast to Japanese, German and even British cars he'd owned previously.

I think that counts for 'hands on' experience...

In addition, I can think of at least 6 friends, neighbours and colleagues who have had similar experience with Renaults over the last 10 years. So I'm not talking about a 1978 Renault 18 from my toddling days as you infer... There's plenty of evidence - online, offline, anecdotally - to suggest the marque is WELL BELOW AVERAGE when it comes to reliability. Even Renault top-brass themselves admitted it at the launch of the Laguna III. To try and claim anything else indicates that you are the one who is either 'trolling or stupid'...

BrianD3 wrote: »

The Renault forums website is excellent - infomed opinions from people who actually own and work on Renaults. Specific, constructive advice not some nonsense that someone heard down the pub or from a taxi driver.

Now this is the bit that makes me laugh - the saddos on the Renault forums. The mere fact that such forums exist is damning enough. When was the last time you came across a forum dedicated to DIY fix-its for Toyotas, Mazdas, Hondas, Skodas?

BrianD3 wrote: »

If anything, reading that website you'd get an overly pessimistic view of Renault reliability as many posters only seek out the site when they have a problem.

...that's really clutching at straws and sounds like an ass-covering exercise because you know if I bother loooking up a Renault forum it will be full of desperate Renault owners proving the very point I'm making!.:D

junkyard

Well said pburns, I couldn't agree more. OP, you'll need to be hands-on with Renault a lot more than you'd think, my advice, don't buy one they really are sh1te, ask anyone in the motor trade.

SV

Funny that I haven't heard one bad thing about them except from people who are saying
"ehhh yeah renaults are crap...."
"why?"
"just...really bad reliability..yeah"


Renaults are excellent.

junkyard

ClioV6 wrote: »

Funny that I haven't heard one bad thing about them except from people who are saying
"ehhh yeah renaults are crap...."
"why?"
"just...really bad reliability..yeah"


Renaults are excellent.

Try selling one of the f**king things with warranty and you'll soon wise up.:rolleyes:

Henry Ford III

You honestly couldn't script this any better.

Guy:Incognito

resale vaues have little to do with it. If resale is the guide then the Golf is the best car ever brought into Ireland.

pburns wrote: »

Now this is the bit that makes me laugh - the saddos on the Renault forums. The mere fact that such forums exist is damning enough. When was the last time you came across a forum dedicated to DIY fix-its for Toyotas, Mazdas, Hondas, Skodas?

It's an owners forum with a section for asking questions, whats the problem with that? All the makes have their own forums for owners. EDIT.Funnily enough the first Toyota forum I came across (UK owners club or somesuch) has a section broken down into 5 or 6 forums for issues)

As for the OP question. The misus had a 00 1.4 Scenic for two years. She was originally looking for a focus but much preferred the Scenic when she looked at it. She traded it in for an 05 Scenic in Feb. I was getting her to hae a look at a few differnt cars at the time but she like the old Scenic so much she was alays leaning towards another one. The first one gave no trouble at all. There was a slight issue wth the the new one when we got it, there was a bit of a grinding noise the odd time on startup. The garage ( Finn Reddy) sorted it out the following day and done the timeing belt while they were at it. Happy days.

junkyard

Stekelly wrote: »

resale vaues have little to do with it. If resale is the guide then the Golf is the best car ever brought into Ieland.

VWs in general aren't much better than Renaults, there's a myth that VWs are reliable, they were, once upon a time, up to the mid to late eighties but it's been all down hill since.

SV

junkyard wrote: »

Try selling one of the f**king things with warranty and you'll soon wise up.:rolleyes:

Ok, when I sell my current clio I'll give a year warranty.

junkyard

Believe me ClioV6 after a month you'll wonder why the idea of warranty ever entered your head.;)

E92

AFAIK the Clio doesn't give much trouble. It's the rest of the Renault range that goes wrong and gives them the reputation they have(the Mégane II and especially the Laguna II are useless).

Guy:Incognito

E92 wrote: »

(the Mégane II and especially the Laguna II are useless).

Honest john reckons the facelifted Laguna is much better so it seems to be 01-05 mainly.

Honest john : QUALITY VASTLY IMPROVED FROM 2005 FACELIFT AND LAGUNAS SINCE THEN HAVE HAD LITTLE TROUBLE. (caps are not mine, I copied/pated fo honestjohn)
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/index.htm?md=331&

pburns

E92 wrote: »

AFAIK the Clio doesn't give much trouble. It's the rest of the Renault range that goes wrong and gives them the reputation they have(the Mégane II and especially the Laguna II are useless).

This is true to a degree. I knew a girl with an oldish Clio, didn't give too much trouble. It seems the further up the range you go, the bigger the problems because Renault threw (still throw?) all these 'surprise-and-delight' electronic gizmos on for showroonm appeal without proporly testing them like the Japs would. Best example I can think of was the early 'keyless entry' which was an unmitigated disaster.

I have to laugh at this thread...

Junkyard and I are probably the most anti-Renault guys on this forum and the other guys are equally passionate about the marque...

I do get exasperated by the defense of the indefensible though...

unkel

pburns wrote: »

I have to laugh at this thread...

Junkyard and I are probably the most anti-Renault guys on this forum and the other guys are equally passionate about the marque...

Don't get overly excited. Most posters here are neither in the "anti-Renault" nor in the "Renault fanboy" league...

Henry Ford III

The Clio is fine folks. Well regarded in the trade. The issues apply to Meganes and Lagunas,
and also to a few non volume sellers such as the Espace (Espastic - not too p.c. there ).

The keyless thing has been nailed perfectly by other manufacturers incidentally.

macnab

I have owned a few Reno's, the Clio is a good car alright, but stay away from from the Espace, and dont go near an automatic, Renault turbos seem to give problems too but I never had 1 with a turbo. I have always had a soft spot for them but I wouldnt buy another Renault.

E92

Wasn't the Espace voted most unreliable car more than a few times? I think I read in one of those reliability surveys by WhatCar? that 77% of them covered by Warranty Direct needed a claim in a one year period, which is truely appalling.

faceman

Some people have no problems, some people had woeful experiences. Like anything if you are buying one make sure it comes with a warranty.

Get it checked out before you buy and make sure it comes with the 2 key cards.

Henry Ford III

Agreed, although more have ongoing problems than other volume brands.

You're better off without those poxy keycards, which caused nothing but trouble. As I said earlier other makers have perfected the keyfree system.

Green Hornet

pburns wrote: »

I have to laugh at this thread...

Junkyard and I are probably the most anti-Renault guys on this forum and the other guys are equally passionate about the marque...

I do get exasperated by the defense of the indefensible though...

Yep. Its got to be said that almost every other day there is a new Renault related thread and the feedback is almost always negative. I know the Renault huggers out there are quite passionate in the defence of the indefensible but surely the fact that there are not very many Ford, Honda or VW complaint related threads must say something. By the way I'm not saying other brands do not have occasional issues but it certainly appears that the probability of buying a bad Renault is greater than that of other manufacturers.

Guy:Incognito

Green Hornet wrote: »

Yep. Its got to be said that almost every other day there is a new Renault related thread and the feedback is almost always negative. I know the Renault huggers out there are quite passionate in the defence of the indefensible but surely the fact that there are not very many Ford, Honda or VW complaint related threads must say something. By the way I'm not saying other brands do not have occasional issues but it certainly appears that the probability of buying a bad Renault is greater than that of other manufacturers.

You either drop in and out of the motors forum every few months or are blind. Theres usually a "my golf/Passat etc is doing XXXXXX what is it/how do I fix it" on the first page of threads. The Renault ones come along at 2 or 3 together every so often. I can only think of 1 offhand over the last couple of weeks that was there yesterday about a Megane.


Theres a difference between a thread asking about opinions on Renaults/ people that are thinking about buying one and people coming on and posting about how to solve a problem.

Theres been plenty of focus related threads. The corsa seems to spring up a bit too iirc.


At the end of the day Renault might come near the bottom of the surveys but are not bottom, save for the odd one (think the espace might have but in fairness its a limited enough segment and the motoring journos seem to love them so they have to be doing something right) but people on here go on like they are the worst make by a country mile and there are piles of them on the verges of every road in the country.

Henry Ford III

Let's keep this on topic eh?

junkyard

Stekelly wrote: »

but people on here go on like they are the worst make by a country mile and there are piles of them on the verges of every road in the country.

Piles of them in every garage in the country though.;)

kyote00

here is one for Toyota's - http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/

problems posted on the mighty Avensis in the last month range from brakes, turbo, overheating, head gaskets, low revs & stalling...

toyota's --- pure rubbish ....

pburns wrote: »

A calm, dignified response I see:rolleyes:...

My late da had a Megane for about 6 years which he bought 'nearly new'. It was the worst cars ever brought about the place - various electronic glitches and it was pretty much spent by 100,000 miles (although as the odometer had stopped working at this point the mileage was a bit of a guess:rolleyes:). This is despite having been well maintained and was in stark contrast to Japanese, German and even British cars he'd owned previously.

I think that counts for 'hands on' experience...

In addition, I can think of at least 6 friends, neighbours and colleagues who have had similar experience with Renaults over the last 10 years. So I'm not talking about a 1978 Renault 18 from my toddling days as you infer... There's plenty of evidence - online, offline, anecdotally - to suggest the marque is WELL BELOW AVERAGE when it comes to reliability. Even Renault top-brass themselves admitted it at the launch of the Laguna III. To try and claim anything else indicates that you are the one who is either 'trolling or stupid'...



Now this is the bit that makes me laugh - the saddos on the Renault forums. The mere fact that such forums exist is damning enough. When was the last time you came across a forum dedicated to DIY fix-its for Toyotas, Mazdas, Hondas, Skodas?



...that's really clutching at straws and sounds like an ass-covering exercise because you know if I bother loooking up a Renault forum it will be full of desperate Renault owners proving the very point I'm making!.:D

kyote00

Green Hornet wrote: »

bla bla bla....but surely the fact that there are not very many Ford, Honda or VW complaint related threads must say something.....

perhaps it says that Ford, Honda and VW owners cant use the internet or don't have computers....

Green Hornet

kyote00 wrote: »

perhaps it says that Ford, Honda and VW owners cant use the internet or don't have computers....

Nice one :rolleyes:

GTC

kyote00 wrote: »

here is one for Toyota's - http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/

problems posted on the mighty Avensis in the last month range from brakes, turbo, overheating, head gaskets, low revs & stalling...

toyota's --- pure rubbish ....

Avensis for US and UK/Ireland built in those respective countries, hence the reliability issues.

I had a Renault Megane (son's car) a few years back, dreadful heap. My dad has had a string of unreliable Scenic garbage that has put him off the brand for good. He's gone back to Japanese-built machines lately, bought a Mazda 6 petrol a few weeks back. (Mazda 6 diesels however seem to be dreadful, I hear they have used designs similar to some Ford TDCi engines (no surprise there!))