2.2dci grande espace 'The Race'
If there is one thing I had confirmed by this abomination of a vehicle it is that there has to be a hell. It is a hell of an awful piece of engineering, and when it finally died I am absolutely certain that is where it went, along with Hitler, Pol Pot, Ghenghis Khan and Idi Armin. In the outer ring of Hades, all the baddest people are weeping and pushing knackered Espace's around. Ladies, if you want to drive around knowing that the bodywork will explode in shards of plastic if you are hit by a fully loaded bumble bee; if you want the school run interupted for weeks by good mechanics who can't find the reason for it not starting/not driving/shaking its wheels off/destroying its injectors, eating fuel like a fen fattie; if you want a car that when the children drain all the yoghurt over the seats and crush the rasins into the floor you simply smile and say 'Serves you right, you third rate piece of trash', go ahead and buy one. Ours, serviced and looked after, finally burst into flames with three children on board back home on the school run. I don't care what did it. I don't care if I get any insurance back for it. It was worth rushing to the scene of the accident and seeing the wife and chilren dancing in and out of the smoke singing "Woohoo the witch is dead, the witch is dead, the witch is dead."
Remember, with fuel prices so high, don't only make a decision based on mpg. Labour costs are also very high and going up, and I can assure you that a poor car costs a great deal more to run than the difference between 32mpg and 22mpg if the 22mpg is reliable and safe.

This is a love hate relationship. Great big car and for the first 2 years, great to drive. However, as has been previoiusly mentioned, there is a fuel system (Turbo) probelm with these cars. Out of all the incidents, 2 stand out as scary. My wife, mother-in-law, father in-law, 3young kids and myself,were overtaking about 65 mph the car cut out!! The other incident was when we had white smoke then enough black smoke. The engine was racing and wouldnt switch off. We had the fire brigade our and blocked the motorway. We were terrified. Arnold Clark were disgusting towards us and simply washed there hands of us despite the fact that they knew we had reported our concerns before the car came out of warranty. Parks of Hamilton were the exact opposite and have been fair and even handed. This market should be even more regulated. I am a solicitor and I know that you would have to dedicate a chunck of your life to pursue these large companies. They abuse good customers like us. It would take some convincing for us to buy another one despite the design aspects we loved.

Purchased my wonderful looking 2004 2.2dci grande espace in May 2010, Day 1 of ownership I noticed loud siren sound, which i was informed was the turbo about to expire. Straight back to the dealer and six months later (yes) my renault espace is still in repair.(new replacement turbo will not boost and goes into limp mode) Trading standards involved, loads of expensive solicitors letters etc. I will never ever buy a renault again. Avoid the 2.2dci model at all costs

No kidding,we got this renault grand espace car to replace our previous new 3 month old Grand Espace,which went on fire with me inside.Mercifully I got out as was travelling alone.Normally we have four kids..
6 months later our new replacement-the 54- arrived....
IT HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE...
Years of problem after problem...
The clutch fell off while driving.
The catalytic convertor cracked.
We got stranded on holiday for three days by a mechanical failure.
That took 8 months to sort!!!!
I know nothing about cars but I could tell it was a fuel injection problem..
8 months..car in and out of dealer.Mercifully we had extende warranty as compensation for the fire that wrote off the new car or we'd be broke!!
To the day after 3 yrs the real hassles kicked in..
the dealer was awful!!!!!!
Then the automatic hand brake went.....
Need I go on????
All the while my kids missed out cause we had no car!!!!!
I persisted because of the warranty...
BUT.............. the car was and is a disgrace...>
UNRELIABLE!!!!!!!AWFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!DISGRACE!!!!

I own a Renault Grand Espace (2002) I bought it from a local renault dealer 3 years ago. After a catalogue of engine problems which included the engine shutting down whilst driving, the dealer replaced the old engine with a brand new one. Two years on I would like to say that I was enjoying trouble free motoring but this is not the case. I had a sensor replaced in th engine last year and last week my engine has went into permanent limp mode, I am dreading taking it to the local renault daeler, but its booked in for next week. Myself and my wife have now decided to get rid of if, we will probably take a loss but it will be worth it to get this car of our hands. Just one other point the support from the dealer has been terrible. My advice if you have a Renault Espace is look around for a more reliable vehicle before you lose a lot of money.

Shocking reliability, engine dies in first gear for no reason, usually when trying to pull out of a junction.
Had a catastrophic power steering failure when approaching a roundabout on the A1. had to wrestle the wheel to get round. Could have been potentially very serious. Renaults attitude to servicing is a joke.
Electrics are poor as well. I've been driving with a permanently flat front tyre for the last two years according to my display. It's been 'fixed 5 times' and still doesn't work. Renault need to sort out their customer service, until they do don't buy one.