Buy another Laguna?

Buy another Laguna?

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Discussion

rosbif77

Original Poster:

233 posts

103 months

Friday 20th April 2018
quotequote all
My last three cars over here in France have been Renault Lagunas. I owned a 1999 3.0 V6, then a 2000 2.0 16v and finally for the last five years a 2008 2.0 16v. This Laguna was bought at 58000km (one owner) and I got it to 198000km back in March before it started misfiring on cold start up.
It’s always been regularly serviced at my local Renault main dealer, just like the other two Lagunas I owned, and i spared no expense keeping it in top condition.
The head mechanic told me it was the spark plugs which needed replacing and told me to come back the following week to get them changed. Unfortunately five days later the cylinder head gasket blew without any warning and since then i’ve been carless.

My dilemma is do i take a risk on getting another Laguna, bearing in mind that the current one passed its ‘contrôle techniqué (MOT) with flying colors and zero adversaries last July, and had a huge annual service last October with new disks/pads/types/all fluids changed. The head mechanic convinced me to sign off for all this by telling me that the Nissan chain driven petrol engine was unbreakable and it could easily do 300000km.
Fast forward 6 months and it blows its engine without warning!!!

I’ve found a Renault Laguna 3 from 2012, the last year it was manufactured, and interestingly it’s the same 2.0 16v Nissan petrol engine but with added bicarburation ( can consume bio ethanol and petrol). My local Carrefour has E85 pumps selling bioethanol at 69 centimes/litre compared to 1.48€/ litre SP95.
It has only 74000km, one owner and priced at 8000€. Should i take another chance with a Laguna or switch to another brand? ( Opel or Ford).

Frankly can I trust Renault again after the sudden, completely unexpected engine failure of my current Laguna? Everyone tells me that i was just unlucky but then after spending 6500€ over the past five years keeping it in fantastic condition only to see it blow it’s engine , i’m rather tempted to switch to another brand.
Renault isn’t as cheap and good value as it used to be and used Renault cars like Meganes are as expensive as Golfs over here.

I do 2500Okm + annually ( 80% motorway) and i’ve always had petrol instead of diesel cars. This is the first ever time a car i’ve owned has ever suffered such a catastrophic engine failure.
Several garages quoted me a bill of 4-5000€ to replace the cylinder head gasket

Edited by rosbif77 on Friday 20th April 14:01