My girlfriend is Belgian and we have a house in the Ardenne region of Belgium and in the UK and do a lot of travelling between the two. Our car was a Mazda 626 2.0L supercharged diesel ( it was never imported into the UK so you will probably not have heard of it before ).
The Mazda was very fast, easily able to eat an Audi A4 130, and give the hot hatch brigade a run for thier money and also very ecomonical, average was 42 mpg but on a long run well over 55 mpg was easily achievable and it would pull 140 mph before hitting the rev limiter in top gear.
Anyway, one evening someonone pulled out on me on a dual carriageway in the UK and the Mazda became history as it was written off. Being Belgian registered and having Belgian insurance, we knew we would be in for a long wait for the insurance payout and not having cover for a replacement car whilst it was being sorted ( Belgian comprehensive insurance is very different to that in the UK ) we had to buy a replacement car very quickly and a friend of ours was selling his 1998 Renault Megane 1.6 RT for a good price so that how I ended up with mine. Our car had low milage and was well maintained with full services history and all bills and receipts, etc so we brought it.
First impressions were a distinct lack of power, I was used to nearly 300 ft lbs of torque where as the Renualt only has around 100 ft lbs so it did feel very slow, however, like all things you soon adapt and I quickly got used to the difference.
Whilst the Renault will never set the world alight with its torque it does have a useful surge of power from 3500 rpm up to 5500 rpm so as long as you are reving it, it does go, however, there is a penalty for this, high fuel consumption. If you take it easy and cruise around everywhere, it will do nearly 38 mpg, on a long run even more but around town and when driving it in the narrow power band the fuel consupmtion drops to the mid 20's, rarely tounching 30 mpg.
There are three main reasons for this, the first is the narrow power band on the engine, it is only an 8 valve 1.6 and to get 90 bhp Renault had fit a high lift cam and large valves so even with the electronics massaging the the power band, it only really comes alive above 3500 revs. This is the problem,
because it is very flat below that you get bored ( well I do ) and want some excitement so you stay in the lower gears and enjoy some reasonally good acceleration and then find you are using a lot of fuel.
The second reason is that the gearing is very short, the gearbox ratios are very close between 2nd, 3rd and 4th so if you go to max revs in 1st, you are then put straight into the power band for all the subsequent gears and it really flies and gets adictive but of course when you drive like this you are well into heavy fuel consumption territory.
The third reason is that when you are on the motorway or highway, you have to be travelling at 80 mph plus to have instant acceleration in top gear, as I dont want to get any points on my licence, this is not a good idea ( at least in the UK, in Belgium of course, its not a problem as everyone travels at 80 - 90 mph ) so to accelerate you have to drop down into 4th and again heavy fuel consumption results.
It does fly and for what it is, it is quite fast, especially in the lower gears but with a smallish fuel tank and the high consumption, the range between fill up's is only around 300 miles so it does get annoying on a long run sometimes.
Where the range really becomes a pain is when you are driving on the continent. I usually travel at night, catching the late ferry from Doverto drive to Belgium and if you have ever travelled on French and Belgian Motorways and filled up with fuel at night, you will know that you have to pay for your fuel first and then fill the car up and as you can never accurately calculate how much you need, you tend to put 30 euros worth in and then find you have to stop again before you get to your desitination, with my Mazda, 600 miles was possible before a refill was needed.
To be honest though, if you drove it sensibly the fuel consumption would probably be better and a lot of these are used as second cars for the wife and kids so its probably my driving but even so, I have yet to meet anyone who gets better than 30 mpg overall.
The gearbox is very sweet and clutch light and the power steering very good. The handling is actually very, very good and if you enter a bend or turn too fast, you can simply lift off the throttle until you are nearly through the bend and then hit the gas to pull yourself out, its very much like driving an original mini in this respect and it is very entertaining.
The only drawback to this is high tyre wear on the front and add the power steering into the equation and your front tyres soon start to wear. Again if you drove it sensibly this would probably not be a problem.
Still on the handling, there is minimal body roll and the ride is firm but not too hard. You do feel various blemishes and pot holes on the road but it is never intrusive and I have driven very long distances and always got out after wards feeling refreshed and okay.
In terms of interior space, it is very good. I am over 6ft tall and I have lots of head room. You can comfortably sit 5 adults in it, even on long journeys and I have a had 5 very tall Russian friends ( all over 6 ft and big with it ) in mine on a 400 mile trip and no one had any aches or pains after wards.
The 4 doors and hatch make it an ideal car for people with children and with the glass sunroof, its very light and airy inside. Only the front windows are electric and there is no aircon on this model, however, it does have an electric sunroof so when its hot you can cool down very quickly. In winter the heater is very good and blows out hot air within a few miles of travel.
The only thing I dont really like inside is the standard radio/cassette, it is build into the dash and because the dash is curved, its not easy to install a replacement system. You can of course leave the standard system in place and install a secondary CD player but who wants that?.
There are only a few cubby holes and they are not very big, but there are some long, deep storage areas in the front doors so you can put lots of things in it, although the glove box is very small and shallow.
The seats are very comfortable and you tend to sit up in this car rather than in it, so the visiblity is very good and as I have said, I have done a lot of long distances in this car and never get aches or pains, etc.
The one thing that does drive you mad though is the immobliser system. You have to aim you key fob switch at a small area by the interior mirror to set and undo the central locking and it can only be done when you are right next to the car. This in itself is not a problem except when its raining, however the real problem is that you only have a few seconds to start the engine otherwise the immoboliser will come on and you cant start the engine until you reset it.
According to Renault, you should have 30 seconds to start the engine, but I have timed it and mine only gives around 15 seconds. When you open the car and sit in it and then see the little red light flashing on the dash, you knowm you have to click it again. Yes you can live with it but sometimes it is a real pain.
Now we come to the most important aspect of owning this car, the reliability and I have to say, it has fallen down big time on electrical faults, specifically with the Engine Management system and these are all very common faults.
The most frequent one has been the ECU wiring loom shorting out. What happens is that certain wires which connect the ECU to various enghine sensors that control the fuel injection system constantly get hot and then cold and eventually the wires burn out on the ECU connecter block. The only answer is to replace the engine wiring loom and this will cost you £90.00 each time. I say each time because mine has gone three times in 20,000 miles and according to my local Renault dealer it is a very common fault on the 1.6 enagine, although the 1.4 version doesnt seem to suffer so much.
When the fault occurs you at least get some kind of warning, it doesnt just go and leave you stranded. The first sign is an occasional miss-fire at low revs when you are in thrid gear accelerating out of a roundabout, etc, then occasionally, you will find the engine suddenly running on just 2 cylinders but it clears very quickly.
The next sign is very heavy fuel consumption, as its already heavy you dont always notice it but one day you will think to yourself, " hang on I put £20.00 in that yesterday and now its empty ", you will also notice when this is happening that the car suddenly seems to have a lot more power, the reason for this is that the fuel injection system has gone into full enrichment mode and yes it does produce more power and response but only becuase of the extra fuel.
Eventually, the car will start chugging at low revs and will be difficult to start when hot and eventually it will start cutting out when you come to a halt and also when its really bad, it will kick and hold back at mid revs when your driving it. When this happens, or preferably before, get it into your Renault garage.
Other electrical faults have been both head light bulbs blowing, no not an alternator fault, these were the original bulbs and seem to have a shelf life of 7 - 8 years and both blew within days of each other. I have had a few problems with the connections on the rear light clusters, i.e. your brake light flashes instead of the indicator, etc but this was easily fixed by adjusting the contact points in the connector.
The other problem I have had, and this is a design fault with the car , is that sometimes when you get out of the front, the seat belt comes out with you and hangs down in the door frame at the rear where the door closes. When you close the door the metal part of the seat belt smashes against the switch that turns the interior light on and damages it. The first you know about it is when you next get in the car and find that the dash light that tells you one of the doors is still open stays illuminated even when they are all shut and the interior light stays on or flickers on when your driving.
The fix is easy, you just have to pull the switch out of the door frame and bend the contact away from each other but as it becomes a regular occurance, I dont bother now, I just switch the interior light off and accept that w red light is going to flash at me.
The Engine Management system fault has been the worst as this affects the driving of the car but that aside it is a nice car to own and drive but it is only really for sensible people who like to let go every so often.
In terms of looks, it looks very mean from the front. Mine is a dark green metallic colour with a deep from spoiler and it does look good but from the side and rear, its not so pleasing to the eye, but at the end of the day, it is just a normal, everyday car, not something special so as it serves its function of getting you from A to B and provides easy access and a good sized trunk, the looks are not that important. Having said that though, for me it is just too boring.
Other points worth noting are that the insurance is very cheap, mine is around £160 per year and apart from fuel costs and the occasional visit to get the wiring replaced , it is cheap to run and sporty to drive and I think it would suit a young driver or wife and family very well.
Would I buy another one?...........no, now our insurance has been sorted, I have just placed an order to import a new Ford Mustang, yes I will have worse fuel consumption than the Renault and only 2 doors but you know what?........I dont care I would rather drive a real car than a sensible one, but thats just me.
As a car, I would recommend the Renault as they are very cheap these days and much better than anything else of similar size and type for the money. It is easy to live with and does its job reasonably well. Just drive it sensibly and you will get reasonable fuel consumption and when you get the red mist in your head, it does let you play so its kind of two cars in one in that respect but for me it is just too sensible.
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Great review! I turned down the chance for one of these a couple of years ago, and although I still think it's a lovely car (and so much nicer than the new models with the ugly rear end!) I'd rather stick with my Mazda.
Claiiiree 09.04.2006 17:21
I didnt realise that was what meganes looked like. I must be mixing it up with another model
Sgathach 04.04.2006 14:37
Great review, loads of info and easy to read. We test drove a megane sport and expected it to be nifty but it was sluggish. We bought a Laguna Sport instead. Sensible and boring. Ah well, maybe one of these days I'll convince the Hubby to buy a nice sports car. S
Advantages: Cool, classic looking car, very rare and different in the UK, speed, once the engine was sorted out and long distance cruising potential Disadvantages: Heavy fuel consumption, only drum brakes all round with no servo, automatic gearbox
Blackcat01 04.04.2006 ·
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