>> >>I defended mine for ages <<
>>
>> Can I ask why?
>>
Because for the first 10 months we had it, it barely put a foot wrong. It was comfortable, well equipped, and had what is still the quietest, smoothest and most "petrol-like" four cylinder diesel engine I've experienced. It was a lovely car. All the naysayers reckoned it would break and fall apart, and I begged to differ. I was wrong, they were right.
>> Prob why when I buy cars that are 7-10 years old I never look at
>> Renault. Would love to read the transcript of the email, that seems a very odd
>> attitude and a short expected lifespan - I would have thought 15 years minimum with
>> attentive servicing, anything less is pathetic in the modern age.
Renault UK paid for an electric window regulator failure a couple of weeks out of warranty. This was a known issue at the time, having been covered on Watchdog in some detail. However, despite a full Renault history, they didn't want to know about the £3,000 odd worth of other failures that occurred between 37 months of age, and 44 months when I finally lost patience after total clutch hydraulic failure and a £900 bill to repair it.
During protracted, and ultimately fruitless negotiation with Renault, I asked if it was reasonable to expect a car to last more beyond 3yr/60,000 mile warranty period. I was told that "it was reasonable to expect components to fail on older vehicles" and that what I was reporting could be considered within expectations. For clarification, the issues at this time included:
Clutch slave cylinder hydraulic failure - breakdown and recovery needed - £900 to fix.
Intermittent PAS failure - quoted £1300 to fix
Intermittent blower motor failure - known fault with resistor wiring - dash out job at £300.
Intermittent electronic dash failure - quoted £400 to fix. Note this too appeared on Watchdog some years later and Renault started coughing up in full for replacements which as far as I know they are still doing to this day. At this time they "weren't aware of any problems with this unit", which was the story I got with almost everything.
So what I had was a Trigger's Broom scenario - yes, I could have made my Renault last a long time, but it would have meant a steady and ongoing replacement of expensive components, and a nagging doubt about reliability that frankly I would only expect on a £250 small ads banger. And let's be clear, we were talking about a gently driven 56,000 mile family car with a full main dealer history and which was not yet 4 yrs old.
At some point during this discussion, my resolve cracked and I realised the company has no faith in its products, no respect for its customers, and it denies all knowledge of problems which 5 seconds with Google shows were known, documented design faults. I forked out for a spanking new clutch kit, and had it fitted, drove the car home, parked it on the drive, and the next time it moved was when someone came to test drive it a few days later. That was in 2008. Bought a 2 yr older Golf with the cash, which we've still got and which has more engineering integrity in its wheel nuts than the Renault contained in its entire structure.
Even if Renault have turned a corner in quality, they are in my experience an awful company who think four figure bills on family cars are to be expected and are just a fact of life. No company with any pride would allow a customer with a just-out-of-warranty example of their products with a list of expensive faults to feel like they were on their own, and that their expectations of a product working reliably beyond its third year were unreasonable.
Yes, Renaults are nice cars. Yes they are comfy, and the diesels are brilliant. Yes, they have lots of nice toys to play with. Yes, they have a level of practicality that borders on genius. But they are not good cars, and they are neither well supported, or well regarded by people who have to work on them.
Perhaps the key point is that, with such a huge choice of manufacturers making such a wide range of very good cars, what's the point in taking the risk with this lot?
Last edited by: DP on Fri 19 Apr 13 at 13:27
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