Renault Fluence and Renault reputation (warning-old thread)

I had a Laguna and couldn't get rid of it so sold it on for a massive loss against it OMSP.

My father had a Megane and couldn't shift it and only traded it in the other day for a Ford and was robbed on the trade in.

I don't go for the unreliable factor but mainly its a market perception that the cars are crap and because many salesmen are just fools for their customers they wont carry something their customers wont buy. It wouldn't make good business sense to have used French cars on the forecourt.

The Fluence looks pretty horrid from the pictures. My local Renault dealership was closed when I went to see one in the flesh.

If you pick up a Tom Tom model then you are doing well the others wont be much in a few years.

Renault don't have the confidence to put a 5 year warranty on it, that's through an aftermarket insurance company.

That said - it actually looks fairly well in the flesh and for the price, not even the Octavia can compete on size and specification.

If you are planning on keeping the car for a while, it could be a sound buy. Hopefully they've now ironed out the issues they had with earlier models, but even if not then the warranty gives peace of mind.

Well, you may be planning on keeping it for the full 5 years and flogging it when the warranty runs out. So from that point of view, resale is not such a biggie as the residual value is not going to be the best anyway on a 5 year old car.

But keep in mind if it is one of those Monday morning cars (as in, the staff on the production line all came in with hangovers) and it gives constant trouble.... then you should enquire if the warranty is transferable with ownership.

To be honest, I see plenty of renaults on Irish roads, they cant all be bad ones ... and as is normal the squeaky wheel makes the most noise (people who have one go wrong on them give out about them a lot and further erode renaults rep).


Saying all that:
Me <

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> renault
^ fifty foot bargepole

The new reanults are bullet proof - check out the survey stats.

They are also very refined and the megane is even supposed to be good to drive.

Don't mind all the pub-talk bull****ters - you could write down their entire combined knowledge of cars onto the back of an envelope.

Check out the car. If you like it; buy it.

The reason they are giving them away is because they have to.

They simply will not sell without the massive discounts being offered.

This should be a very good clue OP as to what kind of trade in value you will get in a few years time, especially a small saloon, as hatches are always worth more at this end of the market.

I know some say that their reputation will improve in time if they keep the reliability up but the truth is this is Ireland and a stereotype is next to near impossible to remove, just look at the strong resale values of Toyotas despite everything recently, and also VW's, again VWs have been selling cars here on something they were good at 20 years ago, VWs for well over 15 years now have not been well made yet people still buy them because their Dad had one in the 70s and 80s and they were "bullet proof"(which they actually were back then).

I wouldn't buy one OP, and besides the "5 year" warranty is 3 years from Renault themselves and the balance is third party cover(you're still covered either way of course), now if they were as confident as they say they are, do you not think they would cover the 5 year warranty themselves and not outsource it?

I would be very surprised if a Dual Mass Flywheel was covered in a warranty, these are usually considered to be consumables(even though single mass ones always lasted the lifetime of a car) and therefore will not be covered, if they are that certainly is a massive bonus.

PS the entry level Royale spec is quite basic, for not a lot more there is a Dynamic model which is much better equipped.

Looking at the Fluence on the Honest John website and it says that its built in Turkey (where are the other Meganes built?) for the Turkish, Romanian and Russian markets. Its not available in the UK but we're getting it?
Is is possible to assume it is sub-standard if it is aimed at Eastern Europe?