Renault Megane Advice
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Discussion

WorAl

Original Poster:

10,877 posts

208 months

Sunday 1st July 2012
quotequote all
Hi gentlemen....and the occasional lady. A friend of mine is looking at buying a 55 Reg, Renault Megane 1.5dci, with 35,000 miles on the clock. It's at £3990 and he says that this price is below any other at he can find from that year, plus they all have more miles on the clock. He's worried it is too good to be true.

Now, I know very little about Renault cars as I have zero interest in them, however I'm hoping a few of you guys have some knowledge. What are these cars like? Any major/common problems with them? Are they expensive to maintain? Any info at all would be great for the lad as he has a baby on the way and I'd hate for him to be forking out money which he shouldn't have to.

Cheers.

10 Pence Short

32,880 posts

237 months

Sunday 1st July 2012
quotequote all
Buy something Japanese and petrol. It may cost more to run in fuel, but he'll get more car for his money and far less likely to get surprising big bills from turbo/injector/DPF/DMF failures.

Apache

39,731 posts

304 months

Sunday 1st July 2012
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They are cheap, my daughter bought a 2006 1.9dci Dynamique with about 70k on the clock and got a very heavy discount....worked out at about £2000 plus a clapped out 2.3 Beetle which I reckon was worth about £900. The build quality is about as bad as I've seen on a modern car but it seems good value. The engine is lively and frugal and has yet to throw any toys out of the pram. I advised her to take out some insurance JIC

KardioKate

1,584 posts

174 months

Sunday 1st July 2012
quotequote all
WorAl said:
Hi gentlemen....and the occasional lady. A friend of mine is looking at buying a 55 Reg, Renault Megane 1.5dci, with 35,000 miles on the clock. It's at £3990 and he says that this price is below any other at he can find from that year, plus they all have more miles on the clock. He's worried it is too good to be true.

Now, I know very little about Renault cars as I have zero interest in them, however I'm hoping a few of you guys have some knowledge. What are these cars like? Any major/common problems with them? Are they expensive to maintain? Any info at all would be great for the lad as he has a baby on the way and I'd hate for him to be forking out money which he shouldn't have to.

Cheers.
That doesn't sound cheap to me. We've just picked up a57 reg Picasso for <2500.

Local garage also has a 06 reg scenic on th forecourt fr £2100

Schuey M

178 posts

162 months

Sunday 1st July 2012
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I'd avoid the renault like the plague. A focus tdci will be alot nicer to drive and wont breakdown every 5 minutes.

ChrisRS

1,787 posts

237 months

Sunday 1st July 2012
quotequote all
We've got a 2005 1.9dci 120, all i can say is stay well clear. To put this into perspective we refer to my Land Rover Discovery as our reliable car! It's that bad that when the washer fluid tank was empty i first suspected the pump had failed before checking the fluid level!


JAHetfield

443 posts

169 months

Sunday 1st July 2012
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Sounds expensive! I'd say it's worth £2k tops!

Personally, from working at them, I'd say avoid it. They're good when they're going, but when they give bother, they can turn into a money pit very easily.

DCi engines are very temperamental. Fuel system is on a very fine line between working and not working. Usually the HP pump goes first, starts to eat itself from the inside out and pumps small filings through the system and ruins the injectors. When replacing the pump and injectors (expensive), you also need to remove the tank and lines and clean them all out (hassle), although some people recommend changing them altogether. I recently changed an engine in a 1.5 DCi Grand Scenic. The engine cost me £750. That was before I added my cut plus labour costs. The turbos fail as well (£250 S/H, £4-500 Reconditioned). Mainly due to want of an oil change but I have seen them failing on well maintained cars too.

The aeroplane throttle style handbrake lever is prone to breaking. A S/H on can be picked up for around £50. Window regulators seem to be prone to bother as well.

Schuey M

178 posts

162 months

Sunday 1st July 2012
quotequote all
JAHetfield said:
Sounds expensive! I'd say it's worth £2k tops!

Personally, from working at them, I'd say avoid it. They're good when they're going, but when they give bother, they can turn into a money pit very easily.

DCi engines are very temperamental. Fuel system is on a very fine line between working and not working. Usually the HP pump goes first, starts to eat itself from the inside out and pumps small filings through the system and ruins the injectors. When replacing the pump and injectors (expensive), you also need to remove the tank and lines and clean them all out (hassle), although some people recommend changing them altogether. I recently changed an engine in a 1.5 DCi Grand Scenic. The engine cost me £750. That was before I added my cut plus labour costs. The turbos fail as well (£250 S/H, £4-500 Reconditioned). Mainly due to want of an oil change but I have seen them failing on well maintained cars too.

The aeroplane throttle style handbrake lever is prone to breaking. A S/H on can be picked up for around £50. Window regulators seem to be prone to bother as well.
So typical renault "reliability" then.

hehe


Edited by Schuey M on Sunday 1st July 13:46

The Nur

9,168 posts

205 months

Sunday 1st July 2012
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Tell him not to do it.

It is a Renault, that should be enough for you right there.

Alucidnation

16,810 posts

190 months

Sunday 1st July 2012
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My parents had one for 5 years and it never missed a beat.

Plus, on a 1.5 DCi 55 plate, i dont think there would be DPF issues as i dont think they all have them.

There is a dash light that comes on from start up if there is.

The Nur

9,168 posts

205 months

Sunday 1st July 2012
quotequote all
The Nur said:
Tell him not to do it.

It is a Renault, that should be enough for you right there.
I must admit thought that the above is from my experiences and may not necessarily be representative of the view of others.

I have been in the unfortunate position to have driven 3 of them for extended periods of time (2 owned, 1 my ex's car) and whilt the Mk1 Clio RT was excellent fun, all three decayed like Uranium.