Renault Megane Sport Tourer 1.9 dCi

...for me there is a Renault dealer about 500 metres from where I live, so it made sense to have a look there.

** What did I want? **

Well as I have dogs - 3 of them to be precise, an estate car was a must, I also wanted something that was fuel efficient, and economical to run.

Looking round the showroom, I came across the Renault Megane, I liked the look and feel of it, I could see myself in this!! (I'd ...
...the forecourt it was a Renault Megane Sports Tourer Dynamique 1.9 Dci 120, in a wonderful deep metallic blue, this one was just under 6 months old. It was marked up as £13,000, which considering a new one costs around £16,000 didn't seem too bad a deal.

So in I went, and ummed and ahed about it. I went back two weeks later, and the dealer was having a sale, and they had knocked £500 off. Too good an opportunity I thought, so in I went, ... more

In my previous job, I had the luxury (if you can call being taxed to hell and back) of a company car, it was an Audi A4 which I did a review on, and vowed never to get rid of it!! So redundancy struck me, and I needed a car. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Renault, as my 1st three cars were Renaults (a 5GTS, and 18 and a Feugo) Fortunately for me there is a Renault dealer about 500 metres from where I live, so it made sense to have a look there.

** What did I want? **

Well as I have dogs - 3 of them to be precise, an estate car was a must, I also wanted something that was fuel efficient, and economical to run.

Looking round the showroom, I came across the Renault Megane, I liked the look and feel of it, I could see myself in this!! (I'd also rented a couple of Meganes when I was in Italy last year, and liked the feel of the car.)

The dealer also had one on the forecourt it was a Renault Megane Sports Tourer Dynamique 1.9 Dci 120, in a wonderful deep metallic blue, this one was just under 6 months old. It was marked up as £13,000, which considering a new one costs around £16,000 didn't seem too bad a deal.

So in I went, and ummed and ahed about it. I went back two weeks later, and the dealer was having a sale, and they had knocked £500 off. Too good an opportunity I thought, so in I went, and got another discount, because I paid cash (It is always worth asking for a cash discount - I've always found garages will give it to you!) I also wanted some "extras", so they put mud flaps on, fitted a dog guard, and gave me 1 years road tax!

** What no Ass? **

I'm sure you have all seen the advert "shaking that ass", well this car has no ass (only me as a driver!), as it is an estate, it has a flat tailgate, the lines of the car are quite sleek, not in the sports car sense, but it is quite compact, everything is in proportion, so the bonnet is not too long, the roof not too high.

The roof dips down slightly towards the back, but I don't think you loose too much space. The roof has rails mounted on for adding cross bars for cycle carriers and such like.

** Getting in **

The first thing is you don't have a key!! What you have is a "card" which has buttons on to unlock the car, open the rear tailgate, and to lock/immobilise the car.

To start the car, the card is placed in a slot in the central console, you take the car out of gear, put your foot on the brake, and press the "start/stop" button. To stop the car, press the "start/stop" button, and then remove the card.

The doors are not too heavy, and they open easily. When you close the door, there is a reassuring click as it shuts.

On the drivers display, there is an indication of which doors are open.

Opening the doors switches on the interior lighting, and there is a lot of it! There are lights in the ceiling at the front and back, there are floor level lights in the passenger compartments, and there are lights in the boot area. I have found that they give plenty of light at night.

** Please be seated **

All the seats have ISOFIX mountings on the front passenger seat, and the rear outer seats, so if you need to put child seats in, they can be fitted (although in the manual it does say that only special Renault seats are approved for this vehicle.

The seats are a nice semi-sports type seat, I find that they give me plenty of support. All the controls for the seats are located between your legs, so they are easy to reach, there is also a lumbar support adjuster on the side of the seat.

All seats also have a headrest (which should be correctly adjusted for maximum safety)

The rear seats give you a 60/40 split option. To lower the seat is straightforward, just lift the bit you sit on, and push it forward, press the buttons on the top of the back rest, job done!

You can get a heated seat option, for some bizarre reason I quite like cold seats!!

If you do drive off without a seat belt on, a warning light comes on, with a beeper, which gets progressively louder.

One thing I have noticed, is how safe I feel, the car feels solid.

I have done a few quite long journeys in this car, and it really does feel very comfortable, no aches and pains at the far end!

** What can I reach? **

Sitting in the drivers position, all controls are to my mind really well thought out. Everything can be seen, and everything can be reached without having to move too far.

Straight in front of you is the full adjustable steering wheel, looking through that you see the instrument panel, speedo to the left, which has the temperature gauge and a number of warning lights, rev counter to the right, which has the fuel gauge and more warning lights.

The indicator stalk is to the left, this also controls the lights, a nice feature is an "auto" button, which automatically turns the lights on or off. Just yesterday I was driving round the M25, there is a tunnel, as soon as I got in the tunnel the lights came on, as soon as I was out of it off they went, neat!

The windscreen wipers are on the right stalk, and they have a neat "auto" function, where the wiper speed automatically changes depending upon the volume of water hitting the car!! Great for going past lorries.

On the end of the wiper stalk is a button for scrolling through the computer read outs.

On the drivers door arm rest are the electric window controls, for all four windows. A neat feature is a button to "childlock" the rear doors and windows.

On the central console are the air conditioning controls, these again are within easy reach. The heating system is very efficient, and seems to warm the car up in no time. I've not used the air conditioning in this one, but the one rented in Italy, kept the temperature down and constant.

On the central display is a graphic of the car, with tyre pressure monitors, which indicate if you need to inflate tyres, I check mine regularly, so I've not seen this go off yet!

** What can I get in it? **

The boot space is really quite large!! Again published figures say you can get 1600 volume of carrying capacity (that is with rear seats down.) When the seat are down, you get 1.7m of length.

In the front foot wells there are two storage bins, which are useful to hide things out of the way.
The central console/arm rest has a massive storage bin, probably a bit too deep, as you will loose anything at the bottom.

There are also storage areas on drivers and passengers doors. The glove compartment is quite spacious too.

As to carrying I had to pick up a 6 foot bed and mattress, I got it on the car, with no problems at all.

** Does it go then? **

Oh yes. One of the things I like about this car is that it has a 6 speed gear box. So I can drive at 70 mph at just under 1900 rpm, which really helps with the fuel efficiency.

I always like to see how a car can go, and this one is no slouch, I'm not worried about 0-60 published figures (0-60 in 10.8 seconds, max speed 121mph), what I can tell you is that is does have very good acceleration, and in no time at all you are cruising at 70. As it is a diesel, the low speed torque is very good, and the car pulls away quickly at whatever speed you put your foot down.

Another feature of this car is traction control - those that follow Formula One will know that Renault have the best traction control on the race track, so it is no surprise that it is fitted onto the Megane. This comes into it's own when driving on slippery country lanes.

The Megane is also fitted with anti-lock braking systems, to help prevent skidding and maintain directional control, in the event of heavy braking. I have had to use this only once so far, and it effectively allowed me to steer and slow the car down.
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** What about the sounds? **

This came with a central console mounted CD/radio, with all round speakers. I must say that the sound quality is really good (there was a Lightening Seeds cd left in the car when I got it!)

I find that the road noise from the car is fairly negligible, and as such you really don't need the volume of the CD/radio up too high.

The sound system has 4x 15 watt with 6 speakers, I have turned it up to see what effect it has, I found no noticeable distortion although my ears did hurt a bit afterwards!

In these days of safety, Renault have come to the rescue by having fingertip controls on the steering column, these controls allow you to change the volume, change the radio station and switch between radio and cd, which to my mind is great, as you don't have to take your hands off the wheel to play with the radio!

** Fill it up! **

To fill the tank cost about £37 in Sainsbury’s (79 pence/litre)

This car is really economical, I recently had to go to my new office, which is near Stanstead Airport, the trip is 242 miles, using the trip counter and on board computer, I averaged 83 miles per hour (oops) and got an average of 48 miles per gallon, so by my reckoning if I kept to a steady 56 mph I would get in excess of 50mpg out it!

Reading the published specification, according to Renault on the extra-urban cycle you should get to near 64 mpg.

On a full tank approx 60 litres I can generally get around 5-600 miles

** Servicing and warranty **

The Megane comes with a 60,000 mile or three year warranty, and three year road side assistance, so it is worth having just for that!

Servicing on this car is at 18,000 mile intervals, between servicing, you only need to regularly check the fluids, lights, tyres etc.

I have had the car since Xmas, and done just over 2000 miles in it. I have had no problems, and it runs like a dream.

Thanks for reading this, and if you are in the market for a good looking economical estate car, you can't do any worse than this, OK it is not an AUDI, but price wise I think this is really good value, you actually do get a lot of car for your money.

Larry
 

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