Latest development on this is that Renault UK have said it needs a new engine, £7k, no surprise there, BUT they are paying 90% of the cost. That's right, 90%! And it will be guaranteed. A de facto admission of liability if ever I saw one, but no doubt 'without prejudice'. I've said yes, and we'll see how things go from here. This car has no more chances to crap out. I drove a friend's Kia Sedona at the weekend. Not so luxurious inside, but a really nice engine, and a 7 year guarantee go a long way to making seats feel more comfy.

I guess I'm lucky coming to this thread after 5 trouble free Espace 2.2dCi owning years. All services have been done at the relevant mileages, but I've had the oil changed every 4500 miles, about twice as often as per the manual. But on Friday Feb 10th I was driving through Belgium with a full 7 seat load of a mate, his kids and my kids on the way to Austria for a skiing holiday just as we've done for the last three years. Sailing along thinking how good life was when with no warning lights there was a sudden loss of power and clouds of black smoke from the exhaust. I pulled over and stopped, and after a bit of 3G googling we found a local Renault dealer about 6km away. How lucky was that? The very helpful local (english speaking) Renault dealer organised a tow to his place, he and his mechanic looked, smelt, plugged in the computer and said we were going nowhere further in that car that day. There was no measurable oil level in the engine, and they had to put 3 litres in before they got a dab on the very bottom of the dip stick. Thanks to a very good friend and a very helpful insurance company we managed to get away the next day in a Chrysler Voyager, but the Espace had to be towed to Calais, towed onto the ferry, towed off the ferry, and picked up by the AA and taken to my local Renault dealer, where I bought the car in 2007. They are now looking at it and I've heard nothing since Thursday last week when they asked for authority to spend £199 to do investigative work. Interestingly the Belgian dealer said that if you push Renault Belgium, letters to the CEO, that sort of thing, they are regularly paying 80% of the replacement engine costs. How about Renault UK stepping up to that level of responsibility?