Smart and desirable but Renault’s latest Megane lacking drive
I WAS approached by a very smart and with-it young lady recently who shocked me with her blunt opening gambit.
“You’re driving my car,” she told me.
“I’m sorry,” I replied, somewhat taken aback. “But the car I’m driving most certainly doesn’t belong to you. It doesn’t belong to me either, but it’s definitely not yours.”
“No, no,” she said. “I don’t own it, but it is still my car.”
Now I’ve met many people during my tenure writing about cars — nice ones and nut-jobs in equal proportion — but never anyone who claimed some other-worldly possession of any of the test cars I’ve ever had.
The young lady looked at my quizzical expression at her claim and smiled at my difficulty in assimilating this specious entitlement.
“My name is Megan and you’re driving a Megane, so it’s my car,” she exclaimed by way of explanation.
“Nice car too,” she said as she turned on her heel and bade me farewell. “I could well live with that.” She smiled and went on her way.
Megan was not wrong. Her car is indeed a pretty thing and one which should have no difficulty in luring young, smart whippets into its embrace. Indeed in the GT-Line specification as tested, Megan’s Megane is a very smart car, both in appearance and in ability.
Surprisingly, especially given the latter assertion, the Megane was only the 23rd best-selling car in Ireland to the end of June, racking up some 1,154 registrations and only being the third best-selling Renault sold here, behind both the Clio and the Captur.
Slightly worrying for Renault perhaps, is that three cars from its manufacturing minions — Nissan and Dacia — each outsells its best performing car. They are the Qashqai and Micra and the bargain-basement Duster,
And, sadly, for the French company, even though the Megane nameplate is older than the Ford Focus, but not quite as patrician as the Golf, the car has never sold in the same numbers as either the Ford or the VW.
Interestingly, we tested the new version of the Focus in these columns a couple of weeks ago and it is undoubtedly the bullseye every other manufacturer in the segment is aiming for, but the Renault has never achieved the same sort of sales domination as the Blue Oval product.
Although technologically well up to the opposition and well in the hunt in terms of space, comfort and practicality, the bottom line with the Megane is that it never had the driving chops of the Ford — or the VW Golf for that matter.
It was always therefore in the realm of a car which fought for the ‘best of the rest’ title and/or depended on brand loyalty to find buyers.
This is a bit of a pity because so much about the car is spot-on and well up there with the best in class.
But in certain critical areas Renault seems to have reeled back the budget and deprived the Megane of the necessary elements to make it the winner it should be.
Quite why this should be the case is nothing short of a mystery. Renault have been around the block once or twice and are top three in terms of sales in Europe, so why would they not engineer it to a standard which had already been achieved by the opposition. I wish I knew the answer.
As I’ve said though, there are aspects of the car which are right up there with the best in class and the engine is one such feature.
It has a small capacity petrol engine of the kind I’ve been saying for ages is set for its day in the sun across practically every car maker’s range. It is refined, capable and economic.
In this case it is a 1,198cc four-cylinder, turbo and undoubtedly some of Renault’s Formula One ingenuity and experience has been incorporated into this unit. While this might not be immediately obvious to anyone driving it, it is certainly there.
A simple 1.2-litre engine might not seem like anything that will set the world on fire, but it is a really useful tool and, in its own quietly unobtrusive way, is something that will grow upon you quite quickly. The performance figures are not startling, but they do indicate a level of effectiveness that is surprising.
The 0-100 kph dash takes just under 10 seconds and the top speed is just over 200 kph. But, having allied it to a six-speed gearbox, the Renault engineers have certainly extracted a lot from this engine.
There’s 205 kW of torque on offer and, if driven reasonably judiciously but not necessarily with overdue caution, it will still return 5.7 l/100 km — or just shy of 50 mpg in old money.
It is a really nice thing to drive and live with and is certainly one of the highlights on offer here.
So too the interior which, even if there is an overabundance of scratchy plastics utilised in places, is one of the most comfortable and driver and passenger friendly in the segment.
The infotainment system is great to work and terribly intuitive; in fact, it has all the sophistication you’d expect in a much dearer car.
THE remote stereo controls are great too, but the car is let down by the cruise control on/off button being hidden away — a la Dacia, it has to be said — towards the back of the centre console, making it terribly hard to find.
Sure once you do find it, you know where it is for ever more, but the initial search for it was head-scratching.
Like most of its counterparts, the Megane is front wheel drive, but unlike the Focus and the Golf, it is not a top-of-the-class drive.
We know that some of the performance models handle and ride really well (and can’t wait to get our hands on the RS later in the year), but this one does not.
Renault really should have made it a mission statement that the on-road traits were top-notch across the board.
They haven’t and that lets what is otherwise a very appealing buying prospect down quite badly.
And so Megan Endersen, that’s your Megane.
And you’re right — it is a very good looking and desirable machine which is quite good value for the money.
Sadly it just lacks that little bit of added engineering which would have made it a true contender against the class leaders.
Colley's Verdict
From €20,740 —€25,815 as tested.
A really nice small capacity petrol.
Startlingly good.
Nearly never won a race.
