Have you got a Renault Espace? What do you...

[hotpotmama]

think of it? Am considering one as I need a new car.

i've the grand scenic and to be honest i wouldn't get another renault! they are really safe and this is why i went for it in the first place but it isn't the most reliable and this was buying one from brand new. think next time i'll either get a honda or a toyota.

bloke at my garage cringed when I told him I'd bought a renault, when I told him it was a grand scenic he said 'well at least its not an Espace'

what about a VW Sharan, Ford Galaxy of Citreon C4 Picasso - they're all similar size

I would very much echo the sentiment re avoiding renault if you want a reliable car and to avoid the need for expensive repairs. I had a renault scenic and it was SHOCKING. We bought it at 2 years old and kept it for about 18-20 months. In that time it required 3 expensive repairs all to do with a reoccuring ignition fault that they never got to the bottom of (despite saying it was sorted each time they tried to fix). I would never buy a renault again. You simply didn't know whether it would start on any given occasion or not. Also the external and internal trim was very very flimsy. Internal door pockets came off, number plate fell off, head rests fell off, boot catch fell off (and renault wanted about £300 to fix the boot catch!!!!!!). Should also mention that we have never perviously had any troubles of this kind with any car we have owned so it wasn't like we were abusing the renault or anything!

Have now got a vauxhaull zafira and have owned it from 1 year old for the last 7 months. Not one single problem so far with it so fingers crossed that it will stay that way for a good while yet! It is a really decent relaible car and does what we need it to. Had lots of good reports re vauxhaul and reliability from friends before settling on it.

Am not too sure re reliability of other brands to recommend to you but would defo say that renault did not work out for us at all.

xxx

DO NOT BUY ONE

I have a Renault Grand Scenic and so far since buying it in June of last year it has cost me over £1300 (new clutch and a pin in the steering rack plus a couple of £100+ interim services from a non Renault garage). It is a low mileage 04 plate which was previously a motability car so all servicing and maintenance etc was kept up to date, so in theory it should have been a safe buy.

DO NOT BUY A RENAULT. IT WILL BANKRUPT YOU.

I am swapping mine for a golf as soon as I am financilly able

£1300 in 7 months

Oh crap.

Ok, will leave the scenic then.

So, how do I raise an extra £500-£1000 to get a picasso?

Although DH is being arsey about one of those too as he says citreon will cost lots for parts.

If I were you I would avoid French totally

I have an ancient espace, love it but it does need genuine parts and they're pricy.

The older ones were built better

We've just bought a Ford S max, get it on Friday Lot's of friends recommneded them and the nearly new market is very good for them at the moment.

Lol yup he wants to avoid the french, but that seems to be a race thing

We only have £2100 budget (trying to look into loan to get it up to £3000). It is turning into a nightmare.

Oh tis the xsara we're talking about btw

Oh, we weren't going to spend that much on the scenic . The £2100 is scraping together every penny we have iyswim. They all seem to be about £2500 on autotrader for anything within 30 miles of here, and dragging the kids further than that for test drives etc is a nightmare

I lie, one was much less - it was all broken inside

Pregnancyquery,

You are defo right to think again re renault. Our 02 reg scenic was (as detailed above) a total nightmare. We part exchanged it to a dealer as i honestly could not have sold it in good faith to some poor unsuspecting family through a private ad. I would not wish that moneypit car on any1. Also forgeot to mention above that the last straw with the renault was a hissing noise coming from the breaks when you deployed the clutch. I was just not prepared to pay another penny in repair costs for that hunk of junk. Plus was seriously upset re the ignition problem which meant i could not rely on the car at all.

Look around at 02 plate scenics ones that you see driven on the roads - many have no boot catch on (ours had fallen off too). My poor neighbour still has hers and i regularly see it taking about 15 goes to start. Boot catch also missing and number plate hanging of.....

Am not trying to tell you what to do honest! but would hate to see you walk into a financial disaster with a scenic........

xx

we have just bought a 51 plate xsara picasso for £1000, it was off a mate and he was looking for 1250, but we knocked him down as it twas a bit tatty and we needed to do a few things to it when we got it. But now its sorted and I love it, should give us a few years worth of motoring with the 3 kids before we win the lottery and get a Ford S max!

Defo don't get a Renault, at my company they are the least popular company car as they are ALWAYS in the garage.

Mine also grinds on start up. It is a horrible noise but noone can figure out where the noise is coming from and why.

On the plus side mine has been quite good from a stuff falling off point of view.

PregnancyQuery have you considered going to a motobility auction? thats where we got ours

its 4yrs old with only 17k on the clock and in mint condition and we'd have to have paid double from a garage

worth mentioning you can get all makes/models there so am not trying to shove a grand scenic at you!

We had one.

never, ever, ever agin.

Lovely to drive-- but spent mor time in garage than out and parts were a nightmare to obtain often: a simple repair would take a few days.

Now we have Mitsubishi Spacewagon- Heaven!

(the last straw with ours was bieng trapped in a tunnel in a car park, seven months PG, alone, unable to get phone to work underground- at Christmas so a massive queue of cars behind us.... something like the third alternator in a year imploding on me).

I can't believe how bad your cars have all been!

My espace is at least 16 years old, has done £130k miles, the electrics are past their best but my mechanic comes and fiddles with them and they keep working!

It has had a new gear box at some point (automatic) and in my time a new start motor and radiator tank both quite cheap to do. Absolutely love it other than the petrol consumtion so I now run a micra as well for when there are just 4 rather than 5-7 of us.

We're looking at a Picanto for when there's 4 of us or less: definitely the way to go I think.

Plain old peachy, you have my sympathy. I know exactly how it feels to be stranded in a scenic. Thank god i always managed to get it started again but would sometimes take up to an hour of trying the ignition before it would eventually sputter into a sort of half life, enough to limp it to nearest renault dealer with hazards flashing....

Am so glad those days are behind me.......

I've had my espace for about 2years and I brought it for £200 (no I haven't missed a 0) I have had to spend money on it over time but tbh it's been ok considering its 18yrs old. It does have a habit of having a flat battery sometimes though so I do have to be careful of that and spark plugs are being changed as I type but it's done ok considering though I will be replacing it next year once we can afford it (hopefully!) I'm thinking of buying a VW but needs to be a 7 seater.

herbietea if your dad can reccomend a good 7 or 8 seater I'd appreciate it as dp knows nothing about cars and I'm not great either!