Renault (Independent) Servicing

Dilton Motors at Dilton Marsh. The guy is 100%. Handles all makes.

The good garage scheme may offer some help in finding a reuptable independent dealer as well as word of mouth and a google search in your local area for good independent garage specialising in your make of car. FWIW £280 isn't so bad for a Renault. My recent servicing cost around £400. That doesn't include MOT and light adjustment as well as new tyres which adds another £280-350. Renault main dealers are notorious for been extremely bad especially customer service wise. Once they have sold the car to you they are not interested that is were the service ends, they're not interested in any problems.

The biggest mistake I ever made in my life was buying a Megane. It cost me over £3k just in repairs and servicing etc which is half of the price I paid for it used. It has been an absolute lemon. It has broken down several times and has had numerous faults so much so that I will never ever buy another Renault or French car ever again period.

In hindsight a warranty would have saved me a lot of money. Not buying it in the first place a whole lot more. The only thing I'm considering as a replacement would be a Japanese, German or American car. Probably companies like Mazda, Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen-Audi Grp, Ford and Vauxhall. If I switch to Mazda I will be going from one of the least reliable car companies to one of the most reliable.

Buy a Vauxhall and you WILL regret it. They are utter shyte.

On Sat, 03 Mar 2012 18:47:38 +0000, John stammered:

Renaults are shit. IME all the do is catch fire. Every one I know personally who has had one has had fire issues with it. This goes back to a 1979 T-reg Renault 18, a 1986 and a 1987 5 TC, a 1988 5 GT Turbo, a

2003 Twingo with 18,000kms on the clock, and two Lagunas.

Renaults are s**te, but please keep up the myth about the others. Citroens especially, I love them. Those who simply think they are s**te are wrong, but it keeps the values low for us that like them.

Wait until a diesel pump, ECU, locks or gearbox fails in any of the above you've mentioned. You'll wish you'd kept the Renault.

I don't drive diesels mike. A breakdown recovery guy I was speaking with at the end of 2011 when my megane last broke down on the M1 stated that the cars he has the least call outs to are Honda's and Vauxhalls, and he had been doing that job a long time. He said the only time he has been called out for a Honda it was just to do with a keycard issue with it losing its programming code and needing to be reprogrammed. Other than that he said he just doesn't get called out for any Honda's or Vauxhalls. He did say Renaults and French cars in general are the worst and always have problems.

I guess it depends which one. I think the Astra sport hatches are great especially the SRi Turbo. Also the newer 1.4 Turbo and the equivolent from VW and Ford with the Golf and Focus pretty good as well (recent issue of What Car). The Insignia is meant to be a pretty reliable solid performer. If it wasn't you wouldn't see so many big companies doing deals with them to provide company cars for their fleet. I would love to know which Vauxhall's in particular you think are bad?

+1

Renault dealer service pricing seems to be very expensive.

My VW Touran first longlife (2 year) service cost £155 (admittedly a couple of years ago) - just booked the first 2 year service for my wife's Skoda Yeti - £165.

A friend has a Scenic 1.6 petrol and has just paid £259 for the first service which he got down from £289 by haggling with 2 local (Surrey) dealers. Thinking it was a local thing, I spoke to my father who had the first 2 year of his Clio in January - he paid just over £200.

Incidentally my father in law had a Renault Safrane for 7 years and 125,000 miles with no major bills. My father is on his third Clio with no problems on any of them and the friend with the Scenic is on his third, with no major bills. However, I do have a friend who had a 54 plate Megane estate which cost him over £2000 in repairs in 18 months despite having only covered 59k and having one owner and full history.

£165 is what I was charged just for replacement battery on megane years ago by main dealer until I complained and they refunded me. They also lost my keycard while it was being serviced and had to order a new one from France! I had to wait three or four weeks to get it back and they didn't even give me a courtesy car.