Well, the Espace is back home after 4-months at the Dealership

marsdenman – Member
£4k for a fuel pump?

You could buy a mountain bike for that…..
£4k on a mountain bike? You could buy a perfectly reliable second hand German car for that.

Ask dave_b on here about his “perfectly reliable German car”. I’ve had 5 French cars over the years. All were great. Worst choice I ever made was a new-style Honda Civic. Reliability was patchy at best but the number of ongoing – and never resolved – minor problems was shocking.

marsdenman – Member
£4k for a fuel pump?
You could buy a mountain bike for that…..

£4k on a mountain bike? You could buy a perfectly reliable second hand German car for that.

Joking apart – surely for £4k it would be quicker / simpler all around to just drop a new engine in?
= one happy (ok, slightly happier customer) relating tales of ‘good customer service’ and they send the broken lump back to base for a leisurely repair (which is what I guess they did – can’t see too may clean rooms being installed in dealerships…)

Actually yep – in balance i’ve had 2 Peugot’s
405 TD which I ran till it died.
205 Petrol which also ran till it was sold for next to nowt as the MOT repair quote was £600 on a car worth about £1k. It was only a 1.4 petrol with circa 160k miles on it.

I certainly won’t be in a rush to purchase a VW after someone I knew who’s engine blew up in his Golf after not that many miles (under 80k I think). He had the car properly and regularly serviced and pampered it beyond what is normal for a healthy person. VW gave him zero help at all towards a new or reconditioned engine.

http://www.reliabilityindex.com

Very useful for making sensible decisions.

Just by way of balance I am now on my fourth citroen and so far have had no issues with them at except service parts you would expect. Two of them were run to 100k+ miles without issues. I’m now hoping the fourth one doesn’t bite me on the behind! Have had more issues with Fords to be honest.

http://www.reliabilityindex.com

Very useful for making sensible decisions.

Nice link, seems the c4 scores quite well (lthough no data yet for Grand Picasso), while C-Max, Octavia, Volvo XC90, VW Touran score poorly

Intreasting that warrenty direct score the xc90 low where as the owners score it as high. I know that the older ones have an issue with the AWD but not that much goes wrong with them.

Another site I like is http://www.honestjohn.co.uk which also seems to have lots of real world info.

My brother had a laguna, which had a nasty habit of killing the engine as the air con belt tensioner would fail, which would throw the belt, which would take out the cam belt, which would kill the engine.

Did it twice in two years, so he sold the car.

When he spoke to the dealer, he mentioned ‘they do that a lot!’

Shit cars, wouldn’t touch Renaults with someone else’s.

Bimbler

We have had a Grand Picasso for 4 years [70000 miles] it has been a great car and no problems. Been to the Alps 3 times with it loaded up with 4 bikes, the rear suspension self levels so you dont know the bikes are on. Have just swapped it for a newer one.

My brother had a laguna, which had a nasty habit of killing the engine as the air con belt tensioner would fail, which would throw the belt, which would take out the cam belt, which would kill the engine.

Which is exactly what my Megane did, wonderful cars Meganes! Saying that I now have a Peugeot, so have to put up with good reliable mechanical bits, but comically french everything else (built in sat-nav bust, hilarious beeping on board computer error messages about there being ‘No fault’ with the rear lights, of course there isn’t a fault, they work!!!)

I had an 04 Nissan Micra as my second car, which unbenownst to me at the time of purchase was actuallly secretly French (made in conjunction with Renault). 3 minor recalls in the first 2 years, then once it hit three years it was a disaster. Four starter motors, a chunk of the engine, a shonky EGR valve, an oil leak and the entire wiper rack needed replacing. It finally died at five years of age, with just 75,000 miles on the clock. It was a bloody diesel as well.

Meanwhile, my first car, a Vauxhall Corsa, is still going strong after 17 years. I sold it six years ago, and it had 120,000 mile on the clock then. And it’s petrol. :/

£4k for a fuel pump?

You could buy a mountain bike for that…..

£4k on a mountain bike? You could buy a perfectly reliable second hand German car for that.

😆

What a rip off everything is these days. £4k on a fuel pump? Seriously? What is it made from, gold?

You’ve got to love a manufacturer that picks up 90% of the cost of a problem on a 7 year old car – bet if it had been a VW Sharan (paragon of reliability that it isn’t) then VW would have jsut laughed!

…good point. It’s a 2005 3-litre diesel with 80k on the clock. In theory it should be reliable for ever. I’ve had it since 2009 and it was okay for just six months. Since spring 2010 it has been in and out of the garage for misfiring issues umpteen times.
A couple of hundred quid at a time but never really fixing the problem.
The ultimate solution was rediculously expensive and not guaranteed to fix the problem – the car was in effect beyond economical repair. Top of the range Grand Espace Initiale worth peanuts and broken.
My resultant snotty letter to the MD secured a good discount, but the dealer secured the balance … 75% from the warranty team (I believe because this is not an isolated case) and 15% off customer services as an apology.
90% ! As chrissyboy says I can’t imagine many manufacturers standing by their cars in such a way.

The reliability index has to be taken into consideration along with other things, peoples experiences are important too.

I won’t touch Ford as it would mean I would have to visit my local dealer, who I have had to deal with through work with my Ford Transits, the local dealer is rubbish!

The local Renault dealer on the other hand who have serviced my Master have been fantastic.

I just looked on that reliability index for a Hyundai, there isn’t any there! Is that because they have a five year warranty and don’t need expensive aftermarket cover??

By the time they are five years old no body is going to be buying expensive aftermarket policies.

Me thinks I’ll look at Hyundai for my next car 😉

I certainly won’t be in a rush to purchase a VW after someone I knew who’s engine blew up in his Golf after not that many miles

Exactly how did it blow up?

Yep, another Renault hater here, scenic and a CLio which nearly bankrupted us. Renault were zero use as some of the moajor failures on both were just out of warranty. Dealers were even worse. We had one issue whcih they couldn’t diagnose the fault for, as the warranty was dealership not manufacturer (after the first year) the dealer wouldn’t pay for the repair until they knoew what was wrong but they the Renault experts couldn’t decide what was wrong.

9 weeks to replace an airbag in the Clio that blew when it shouldn’t have, i.e. no impact and no one sitting in the seat! Dealer managed to destroy the ABS pump and the circuit board in the dash repairing it. Got the car back at 5pm in December to discover just as I was about to join the motorway that both low beam and high beam on both headlights had been blown. Limped it back to the dealer in gloom on the front fogs. That was all the Clio (anyone remember Clio bonnets openning at 70 mph, Renault put it down to owners not servicing the bonnet catch properly despite the fact it wasn’t mentionned in any of their service literature). Scenic striped the splines from it drive shaft pulling away from traffic lights.

Best response from a dealer though was with the Scenic which we had extreme trouble starting at one point. When we finally got it into the dealer it started fine. The dealer couldn’t work out what the problems was so told us to bring it in next time it wouldn’t start. 🙄

Now own a VW Touran which has been fine for 2 years and a Honda CRV wihch is excellent after 6 years.

Caveat, we did have a Peugeot 205 Diesel that had 275k on the clock when we sold it, now that was cracking little car although a tad basic.

My rule with French cars

Small and basic, probably pretty good and will run forever with little care.

Large and Luxury, will depreciate hugely then everything electrical will fail and/or fall off 2 days after warranty expires.

A chap at work has just got his 2yr old Renault back. It’s the SUV style one, that shares the Quashqui platform & engine (apparently). Anyway it started with them diagnosing a vibration as a dodgy timing chain. So in it goes. Engine had to come out to change the chain…20 hours labour. Week later same fault. Goes back in. New engine…!!! £6900 for the engine, another 26 hours labour this time. Luckily the warranty picked up the tab. They took all the a/c & pumps off the new block, to refit the old parts. They even refitted the old clutch. Ok, so they have come good in the end, but they even asked him to pay for the courtesy car.

I certainly won’t be in a rush to purchase a VW after someone I knew who’s engine blew up in his Golf after not that many miles

Exactly how did it blow up?
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I’d hazard a guess it was a 1.8 turbo, that went bang due to lack of oil pressure caused by sludge build up, and VW would of claimed was due to inadequate servicing…

I certainly won’t be in a rush to purchase a VW after someone I knew who’s engine blew up in his Golf after not that many miles

Exactly how did it blow up?
[/quote]

I’d hazard a guess it was a 1.8 turbo, that went bang due to lack of oil pressure caused by sludge build up, and VW would of claimed was due to inadequate servicing…

Another bit of balance – I have a 12yo 406 HDi estate (hence big), has done £150k, of which £130k under my ownership. Have had a few problems over the years, but nothing showstopping or particularly expensive.

Wow, £150k is some kind of service bill. Oh, I see, you only paid £130k…… 😀

You see, if you’d spent a fortune on a Passat estate, you would never have needed to service it even if you’d done a million miles, it would have done 70 to the gallon all the time and it would be worth more now than when you bought it. And people would think that you’re Jesus. And want to have sex with you.

You should have thought that through when you bought it.

French cars might not be the most reliable, but they can’t be beaten for style and chic