Anything I can do about my Renault Laguna?

Doing a bit a research on Renault.  I bought a new Renault Laguna III 1.5 dCi in January 2008 with beige half leather and auto hand brake and now have 210,000km on the clock. I forked out €32k in 2008 and five years later the engine is gone. Not happy, won’t buy another Renault. Seems to be a built-in switch that when it reaches 200,000km or five years the car is knackered. I have to get a replacement engine, which is impossible and not cheap. So much for commercial good will. Car was serviced and timing belt was changed. I would not recommend Renault to anyone, especially when the garage/dealer that I bought it from in 2008 is now in liquidation (not mentioning any names). Is it true that I potentially only have recourse through dealer of purchase? Are people out there aware of this situation?

Gareth Egan (Cadamstown)

Jul 2013 Filed under: warranty

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Expert answer

Hi Gareth,

Unfortunately, if the dealer from which you bought the car is now in liquidation, then your options are a bit limited. You can of course apply to have your case heard by the liquidator, or bring a case to the small claims court, but I would suggest that the first thing you do is talk to Renault head office directly.

A figure of 200,000km is not excessively high mileage for a car such as the Laguna III (it’s only just over 120,000 miles in old money) so there’s no reason for the engine to fail. If the dealer in question was a Renault franchised dealer, then there may well be some comeback on it. The only problem is that, at nine years old, the car is long, long out of warranty so you are, as you suggest, relying on Renault’s corporate goodwill.

Neil Briscoe - Complete Car Advisor
@neilmbriscoe