£600 Laguna 2, shed

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Discussion

MJ85

Original Poster:

1,849 posts

174 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
I've had some unfortunate trouble with my main car. As I need to be mobile, I quickly had to source a car.

A look at the nearest cars on Autotrader...





Same day, the car is mine (with a completely rubbish haggle, down to £600). 2003 1.8 120 HP Dynamique hatch, 103k miles and MoT until December.

Here she stood a few days ago.



But, the battery wasn't holding charge. After checking fluids and pressures, a quick trip with the trade card landed me:



Halfords’ finest! Alternator checked out okay.

Next day, straight into action across the country.



Unfortunately, grinding on the way home...



£21 of ECP's finest



They'll do for now, but it really needs new discs.

Today, the car has had an oil and filter change and a good clean.















Not looking too bad!

I've fixed a few things and there are, as you'd expect, some issues.

- dephaser is loud
- interior fan doesn't work on top speed (but does 1-3)
- head unit is from a Megane and doesn't fit
- thermostat stuck open and coolant dirty
- tyres are a mismatch of rubbish
- passenger window regulator failed
- no spare wheel
- jack is broken
- two speakers blown




And to everyone else out there, happy shedding!





Edited by MJ85 on Saturday 24th February 22:49

BMR

944 posts

178 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
Good shed. Did it have an advisory for those pads in last MOT ??

MJ85

Original Poster:

1,849 posts

174 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
No... and it had apparently moved about 6 inches since the last one. Not ideal.

Barchettaman

6,308 posts

132 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
I’m going to have to call foul on anyone using a detailing brush on a Shed.

Seriously though, top work, let’s hope it stays reliable!

0a

23,900 posts

194 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
Lovely looking things.

The worst internet reliability stories of any car I have ever looked up though!

MorganP104

2,605 posts

130 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
0a said:
Lovely looking things.

The worst internet reliability stories of any car I have ever looked up though!
Whilst this is undoubtedly true, how bad could a 2003 car for £600 really be?

Second thoughts, don't answer that. laugh

Love a bit of high-risk shedding, me. Massive respect to the OP. thumbup

MJ85

Original Poster:

1,849 posts

174 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
That brush picture was a bit of a laugh!

I’m going to say that a vast majority of Laguna 2 issues are with the DCi models, and not this boggo 1.8. I could be corrected, though?

bearman68

4,652 posts

132 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
So what exactly do they fail on?

MJ85

Original Poster:

1,849 posts

174 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/renault/lagu...

If you ignore diesel and estates... I think I’m fine! laugh

davebem

746 posts

177 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
bearman68 said:
So what exactly do they fail on?
It could be anything...its like running a classic car as a daily, but without the rust. However Id have one, always had a soft spot for Renaults of this era.

Benjijames28

1,702 posts

92 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
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Love a shed. 600 notes, can't go wrong.

Butter Face

30,298 posts

160 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
A friend of mine had one of these brand new in 2002 in the same colour. He was 20 at the time and his parents had done well money wise so bought it outright for him, same colour as yours.

I think they paid nearly £20k, they’re bonkers value at £600!!

ch108

1,127 posts

133 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
I had one of those on a 52 reg. Very comfortable cars too. Knowing the reputation of reliability issues I still don't know what possessed me to buy it.

Mine was 5 years old when I bought it, and only had around 20,000miles on the clock. Apart from having issues with both electric front windows within weeks of each other, and one occasion when it failed to start which was swiftly sorted in about 20minutes by the AA, and an MOT failure on a split cv gaiter, it was fairly reliable over the 4 years I owned it.

It does seem to be one of those cars where you either get a good one or a bad one, with very little in between! You don't see that many on the road these days.

Sadly a check on the DVLA website shows that my old car is no longer on the road.

agent006

12,035 posts

264 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
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Dad had a 51 plate one of these when I passed my test. Company car with free fuel card for personal use and family insured. I must have done 10k miles a year in it just in evenings and weekends. Great car to find my feet in, not too fast, wallowy bland handling but plenty of grip and no surprises.
By far not the most knackered company car at the standard 120k 3 year handback (56 Civic, take a bow), and fairly reliable along the way.

MorganP104

2,605 posts

130 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
The more I look at this shed, the more I like it.

No, really. laugh

MJ85

Original Poster:

1,849 posts

174 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
quotequote all
I’m glad it’s getting something of a good response.

My father had a previous gen Laguna with this engine when I was younger, so it has some ties there. Same colour, too.

Funny how things change. Cars like this were perfectly reasonable a while back. You can’t even buy a Laguna now!

Edited by MJ85 on Saturday 24th February 23:05

RC1807

12,531 posts

168 months

Sunday 25th February 2018
quotequote all
I always rather liked these, and the "Aston Martin-esque" coupé version, but never had the balls to buy one! I've only ever had one French car in 30 years of driving...

(Renault UK stopped selling their larger cars available in the UK, the Laguna now being what I think is a very natty looking Talisman)

Tyre Smoke

23,018 posts

261 months

Sunday 25th February 2018
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About seven or eight years ago I bought exactly the same car as a cheap taxi to do a school run. I expected it to do a year tops, paid a shade under £1500. It's still doing sterling service and has just topped 200k. Had to put a gearbox in it a couple of months back as it sent a couple of years through the casing. EBay sorted it out very cheaply.
Very comfortable car to drive, really can't fault it at all.

meehaja

607 posts

108 months

Sunday 25th February 2018
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I loved our laguna until it started being "typical"! Economical, comfortble, good looking, practical... engine would cut out intermittantly, (unless you kept your hand on the dash to "earth it"), MAF kept failing, clutch sometimes didn't work, would occasionally get stuck in gear, boot wouldn't open and the dash pod failed.

nice to drive thoguh!

anonymous-user

54 months

Sunday 25th February 2018
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Bringing back lots of memories of my 52 plate Laguna initial 2.0 IDE, none of them good. I used to say a little prayer to the French car gods every time I pressed the start button in the hope all the warning lights would go out.

The IDE engine is terrible, the only car that has left me stranded twice.

I ended up selling it spares or repairs on eBay with a 100% honest advert only for people to message me with advice on how to fix it.

MK1 Laguna was great, I assumed the MK2 would be the same only better.

Hateful POS