Renault Grand Espace RXE Review

Overall Rating

Comfort, performance, all-round practicality.

As you would expect, the 3.0 v6 is a little thirsty. 3500 round trip to the South of France averaged 24.5MPG.

Bought a Grand Espace RXE 3.0ltr V6 (6 year old T Reg) a couple of months ago to add a little comfort to family holidays/ breaks. The first planned trip was made in a courtesy Espace due to a radiator leak found when changing the timing belt prior to pickup. A few hours after collection, and it's first exposure to rain, I found that both sun roofs were also leaking. The rear hatch seal also fell off the first time I opened it. So much for the 150 point check, service and MOT that was supposedly completed on it 2 days previously. Two visits to the garage later (Reg Vardy, Edinburgh East), and the problem with both sun roofs was determined to be more than the seal, but the entire frame, and confirmation that there was little chance of a replacement before my second planned trip, due to a lack of the necessary parts anywhere in Europe (yeah, right!).
The second planned trip to the South of France went well, the Espace came into it's own, both in terms of space and comfort for both driver and passengers (apart from when it rained, although the internal shower from the sun roofs was quite refreshing). More than enough space, comfortable ride, and the revolving driver and passenger seats makes in car picnics a breeze. A few more problems did however surface during the 3500 mile round trip (apart from the fuel bill @24.5MPG): both rear wheel bearings went, a problem with the front wheel tracking causing low speed tyre squeal, and a failure of the engine temperature monitor that feeds the dashboard (which according to Reg Vardy is a wear and tear component, and not covered under my 12 month warranty!). I'm also still not 100% sure that the V6 is sounding as sweet as it should.
The car is sitting in the garage as I write, 7 days after dropping it off for the planned 2 days of fixes. The whole job taking longer than expected,, probably due to so many other Renault failures keeping them busy, one of the replacement sun roof frames having a buckle in it so a third replacement being required, and me refusing to pay a penny toward the engine temperature monitor! Sir Peter Vardy thank you very much!!
Overall this is a great car for a family. The diesel engine may be more economic. but the petrol is more fun (~200BHP and 0-60 in ~10 seconds,) if you can afford the cost of running it. Fully loaded you could leave most boy racers standing at the lights if you are so inclined, but don't watch the fuel gage too closely when doing so!! I tried just about every MPV on the road before going with this aging (6 years old) Grand Espace. Nothing comes close in my estimation. Reliability would be my only concern, so keeping everything crossed that the gremlins will be sorted before the warranty expires.