Renault Scenic

Great car, shame about the engine!

2005 (55)

We have had our car from new. We opted for the 1.9 dCi 'Grand' Scenic version. At the time, the extra boot space didn't actually cost anything extra and we found a car with a great set of extras for a really good price.

For years the car was brilliant! Never had a single issue with it. In the past couple of years we have started to have a few problems.

First the turbo broke. This apparently is very common on this engine and costs an arm and a leg to get fixed mainly because the engine is so difficult to work on. Since having this fixed, we have also had problems with the EGR (I think it is!) which is basically an emmissions related problem. So far, we haven't had this fixed as we have been quoted a lot of money to get it done! Its murdering the economy (now getting about 32mpg rather than the average 42mpg we used to get) and the car is a little sluggish. We will be getting this fixed soon and will get a full engine service done at the same time. Hopefully this will keep it happy for a bit longer.

The rest of the car has been great. Had no issues with anything else (except the main dealer!) and generally it has been pretty cheap to run. The boot size on the Grand Scenic is excellent - I have been using it to its maximum capacity over the past 18 months or so! We use the car to ferry kids around and have done since they were born. It's perfect for parents with Isofix bases built in and an additional rear-view mirror so you can see the back seat (and make sure the kids aren't killing each other).

In all honesty, I would have the same car again but I would seriously consider taking out extended warranty to cover any engine issue - A turbo shouldn't be breaking after around 50,000 miles!

Mr L Pollard

Still not sure

2004 (54)

In many ways, the car is perfect. It's very vertical for us oldies and poor in health, but with a reasonable boot. And, being diesel, it's cheap to run (because of tax and insurance, certainly not fuel), and it's not at all sluggish. But the big problem is the electrics. They're complex and expensive to repair: a new speedometer - i.e., a new dashboard - cost £400/450 plus fitting. And they're unreliable and difficult to fix. I'd like to replace it with the same model, but I'm not sure I can afford it.

Mr R Falconer