Renault Megane?

mickob16

Some c**t hit my sisters car outside her apartment last nite causing a lot of damage.She had been saving to go to the US in April but now she is spending that money on a car.
She's looking at a 04 Megane for under 2k which seems cheap.There's 84k on the clock.What does she need to look out for with this particular car?
I think the timing belt should have been done at around 75k and obviously the service history is important.Anything else?

Fenian Army

RUN AWAY


Nothing but disasters with meganes for my friends and family.

mickob16

Would you mind explaining?

mr_edge_to_you

mickob16 wrote: »

Would you mind explaining?

Well I had a Laguna. Here's a quick list of my problems:

Key card - had to get two repaired, €150 each time.

Tyre pressure censors - will have your heart broke.

Brake lights - never worked properly.

Electric window regulators.

Faulty dash lights

Anything electric will break.

A disaster of a car for any independent mechanic.

colm_mcm

what he means is they're not very highly regarded.

Example, the Top Gear survey from 2006

Citroen C3 (133rd)
VW Polo (New) (134th)
Citroen Xsara (135th)
Citroen C5 (136th)
Fiat Stilo (137th)
Renault Megane (New) (138th)
Mercedes M-Class (139th)
Peugeot 307 (140th)
Renault Laguna (141st)
Renault Espace (142nd)


WhatCar placed it 86th out of 100


http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/renault/mk_cit-md_64/?section=bad

To Alcohol

mr_edge_to_you wrote: »

Well I had a Laguna. Here's a quick list of my problems:

Key card - had to get two repaired, €150 each time.

Tyre pressure censors - will have your heart broke.

Brake lights - never worked properly.

Electric window regulators.

Faulty dash lights

Anything electric will break.

A disaster of a car for any independent mechanic.

I had a megane and had similar problems to some of the above. You'd hit the break and instead of the brake lights going on the indicators would flash.

Pieces of ****e. Of all the cars on the roads that have suddenly gone up in flames I'd hazard a guess 90% are Renaults. Just my opinion of them.

cml387

mickob16 wrote: »

Some c**t hit my sisters car outside her apartment last nite causing a lot of damage.She had been saving to go to the US in April but now she is spending that money on a car.
She's looking at a 04 Megane for under 2k which seems cheap.There's 84k on the clock.What does she need to look out for with this particular car?
I think the timing belt should have been done at around 75k and obviously the service history is important.Anything else?

Well I have one, petrol,so this is my story.

After 200,000 miles it has the same clutch,battery and shocks as from new.
It's a very comfortable drive,40 mpg on long cruise.

On the downside it has chronically unreliable electric windows (known issue).Aircon has failed.One cardkey has failed and it's 150 euro for new one (no thanks).

ongarite

I had one for a few years. Nothing as dramatic as the above cases but things to look out for are:
window regulators failing
ignition coils were bad on early models but should have been replaced under warranty.
suspension bushings & wishbones are pretty soft and would probably need replacing on a '04 model.

Didn't have any issues with any other electrics in the car & never had any other engine or gearbox issues.

Guy:Incognito

Mate is drivign an 02 megane at the minute. The first bit of non regular maintenance its had was a few weeks back when a front spring broke from all the bouncing over speed bumps. It's been 100% other than that.

cml387 wrote: »

One cardkey has failed and it's 150 euro for new one (no thanks).

You can get them repaired. Plenty of the key repair places doign them and theres people on ebay doing them , you post it to them. About £30 i think.

Plus, €150 is actually about the norm for a modern day car key from any make.

Fenian Army

mr_edge_to_you wrote: »

Well I had a Laguna. Here's a quick list of my problems:

Key card - had to get two repaired, €150 each time.

Tyre pressure censors - will have your heart broke.

Brake lights - never worked properly.

Electric window regulators.

Faulty dash lights

Anything electric will break.

A disaster of a car for any independent mechanic.

Stuff like that, no matter how many times they got fixed the same stuff would go again, electrics were a disaster

Kristopherus

Meganes on the road before 2008 were/are a lottery regarding electrics. In 2008 Renault had a big rethink/review of their then current crop. Result - a batch of electrically sound cars that were/are a huge improvement. Renault fits out their cars brilliantly and their engines are top notch. The post 2010 crop of renaults are the bees knees. In each model you have 3 versions - Expression, Dynamique & Tomtom/Initial. They have upped their game immensely.

mr_edge_to_you

Kristopherus wrote: »

Renault fits out their cars brilliantly and their engines are top notch.

The Laguna was a very comfortable car as I was doing as horrible commute at the time. I serviced it regularly and had no engine trouble whatsoever. That's why being a Renault owner was so frustrating.

mkdon05

Kristopherus wrote: »

Meganes on the road before 2008 were/are a lottery regarding electrics. In 2008 Renault had a big rethink/review of their then current crop. Result - a batch of electrically sound cars that were/are a huge improvement. Renault fits out their cars brilliantly and their engines are top notch. The post 2010 crop of renaults are the bees knees. In each model you have 3 versions - Expression, Dynamique & Tomtom/Initial. They have upped their game immensely.

Hello Bill.

ANXIOUS

I've an 03 Megane over a hundred thousand miles on the clock. The car is extremely comfortable, its easy enough on petrol.

The only things that have gone wrong with it are, the windows three out of four broke. Getting them fixed in a few minutes. The car key broke, some great chap of boards fixed it for around thirty i think.

RST

I have a 01 Megane from new with 111 thousand on the clock. Only non routine work I ever had to get done were ignition coils. Comfortable car and gives 40mpg. All this Renault bashing is a bit tiresome.

colm_mcm

RST wrote: »

I have a 01 Megane from new with 111 thousand on the clock. Only non routine work I ever had to get done were ignition coils. Comfortable car and gives 40mpg. All this Renault bashing is a bit tiresome.

Completely different model to the one the OP is asking about

RST

Agreed, it is a different model but there is a lot of blanket negativity around here when Renaults are mentioned irrespective of model or year.

colm_mcm

Maybe so, but the generation of Megane after yours is an absolute pile. That's not a generalisation. That's having sold them and having them coming back getting new steering columns, window regs, random electrical faults fixed etc.

Maybe the OP might find one that isn't rubbish, but statistically the odds are against him.

I can't see why it's a risk worth taking when there are other cars for the same money.

barura

I like Renault, and would consider a megane... But not one of those ones from those years, heard too many horror stories. In real life, not just on the internet!

OP, please try and steer you sister towards more reliable cars, such as the Ford Focus or even a Fiat punto! Those Meganes are pretty, but they're really a roll of the dice as to how long they'll work. The electrics in them are just too finicky. Though I'm sure there are good examples out there, somewhere.

slimjimmc

Mine '03, 120,000 miles, owned from '06 & 40,000miles.
- front window regs, replaced under warranty at 45,000miles - perfect ever since : €0
- 2 coils @ 50,000miles (common enough problem on Ford Focus too I hear) - 10 minutes job and perfect ever since : €120
- rough idle and stalling, hard to start when engine hot @ 70,000 - removed crank sensor at top of gearbox, wipe of a rag and refitted. Done in 10mins and perfect ever since : €0
- 1 inner tie rod @ 90,000miles : €60 part+labour @ main dealer
- 1 front spring @ 110,000miles : €110 part+labour @ indy

Starts on the button first time every time.
Only NCT failure was due to the tie-rod which started to rattle 3 days before the test, flew through every other time.

barura

slimjimmc wrote: »

Mine '03, 120,000 miles, owned from '06 & 40,000miles.
- front window regs, replaced under warranty at 45,000miles - perfect ever since : €0
- 2 coils @ 50,000miles (common enough problem on Ford Focus too I hear) - 10 minutes job and perfect ever since : €120
- rough idle and stalling, hard to start when engine hot @ 70,000 - removed crank sensor at top of gearbox, wipe of a rag and refitted. Done in 10mins and perfect ever since : €0
- 1 inner tie rod @ 90,000miles : €60 part+labour @ main dealer
- 1 front spring @ 110,000miles : €110 part+labour @ indy

Starts on the button first time every time.
Only NCT failure was due to the tie-rod which started to rattle 3 days before the test, flew through every other time.

It's the crank sensor that does that? If only I knew that a while back, a friend wouldn't have to change car!

mr_edge_to_you

RST wrote: »

I have a 01 Megane from new with 111 thousand on the clock. Only non routine work I ever had to get done were ignition coils. Comfortable car and gives 40mpg. All this Renault bashing is a bit tiresome.

Is that the old model? They were a great car. My first car was 99 1.4, never gave an ounce of bother because there was no ****ty electric gadgets on it.

mickob16

Thanks for the opinions lads,some horror stories there.I think i'll try advise her to look at other makes first as that Megane seems too hit and miss to waste money on in these tough times.