I bought a cheap Renault Laguna in Decemeber and have been happily running it the last few months. However last night whilst driving to some friends there was a horrible crunch sound big car judder and I had no drive. Called Green Flag and the guy who came out seemed to think it was trust bearing / clutch related. Got the car dropped around the corner from the friends house and they have a local garage up the road who I will go and talk to first thing (open at 8:30).

Now if it is a clutch and related parts, it isn’t gonna be a quick fix nor a cheap one.

I paid £800 plus a trade in of my old car for this and I can’t decide if the bill is going to be say more than £500 to cut my loses or not??

As I am 100 miles from home, I don’t know the area so I don’t have the luxury of trying lots of garages and getting the best price. Also if I get it fixed I have to factor into getting home and back.

My wife has a good little Fiat Panda (05) and I am tempted chucking in the second car and starting a life of commute and single car.

I would look up your local gumtree and go and buy a banger for 500 quid and make your way home.

JOb done.

Getting home isn’t an issue as such as the friends we are visiting owns his own company and has offered to use his hire car account and get me a cheap car or the wifes Dad has offered to come and pick us up if needed.

I don’t tend to have much luck with bangers, always seem a good idea and this one certainly hasn’t worked out!

sell it to a scrappy.
bangernomics only works if the amount you’d spend to fix it is less than the cost of a ‘new’ banger.

Don’t throw £500 at an £800 car.

If this is the only thing wrong with it, and it runs fine, is holding together well & will pass next MOT ok, then it may be worth spending some cash to keep it going – better the devil you know, etc.

Clutches are not that expensive, in general. On a FWD machine the job is usually fairly cheap and short. But lack of drive (when it was in gear) suggests either a box fault or the friction plate has collapsed or stripped its splines. Thrust bearing in he clutch only “works” while the pedal is pressed and it’s non-function on an otherwise OK setup would mean you just can’t get the car into gear.

If this is the only thing wrong with it, and it runs fine, is holding together well & will pass next MOT ok, then it may be worth spending some cash to keep it going – better the devil you know, etc.

+1. If you swap it, you’re getting a potentially unknown quantity which may be equally broken. If you like the car and everything else is sound, it might be worth keeping going. If there’s other problems, it might be its “time.”

That said, disposable motoring can be cost-effective, but you do need to dispose sometimes.

Well, going purely on the professional advice given to me, the garage said deffo a clutch but certain things were pointing to the box as well.

Car had a few issues, fairly minor but issues non the less. The main being a leak in the boot and a rusty hole coming through the boot.

Taking this into fact, the value of the car and the fact I am 100 miles from home and logistics of getting the car fixed could be a lot of running around I decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle. Garage gave me a reasonable amount for the car so I don’t have to do anything other than get home and the father in law has offered to pick us up.

Just feels rather random that I have come away on holiday with a car and going home without one.

Have decided to commit to a 25 mile commute for the next month or so. At least it’s end of term next week and the school I work for has a month off so it’s reduced working hours as well 😀

What year laguna is it?

Can you get it in gear, and if you can, does the speedo move when you rev the engine?

Can you get it in gear, and if you can, does the speedo move when you rev the engine?

No, we tried that – thats drive shaft related isn’t it?

Thrust/clutch replace on a ka recently was 280. I wouldn’t pay anymore than that. Hjow long is the MOT? Dec? Personally I’d scrap it and look at picking up a citroen c1 new for 5999 special on a 0% finance

Surely you realise that bangernomics doesn’t work with French cars especially Reno’s. A new clutch should only be 200 quid with labour but then I live in the North East. Best banger for your buck has to be an old Corolla.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201102376862652/sort/priceasc/usedcars/model/corolla/make/toyota/radius/100/page/1/postcode/dh12bb?logcode=p

Agree on Corollas. Avoid a Indian owned one though – it’ll have been ‘got there’ already.

If once fixed you couldn’t buy anything better for the money, it’s worth doing.
However, a French car isn’t the best choice for banger-nomics, just because there are a lot of them in the scrap yard doesn’t mean there are plenty of parts worth fixing.