Renault Scenic 1.6 > Reviews (46)

Scenic wasn't the car I intended buying. I had a Vauxhall Vectra and my company said it was time to get a new car. I was happy with the Vectra, except rear vision is poor and thus reverse parking a pain.

I could have just reordered a Vectra but thought I ought to see what else was on offer. Perhaps I should make it clear now that I have no interest in cars. I just want an effective means of transport, I want it to start when I turn the key. I don't like going to car showrooms, or garages, I don't like checking oil, I don't talk about cars, I just don't care.

So I checked down the list the company sent me to see what else was in the same price bracket. I wondered about an Astra - it's like a Vectra but a bit smaller. The Renault Megane seemed comparable so down to the showrooms. A depressing experience, lots of people hanging around and all the sales people occupied. Then an older guy came out from a back office, one of the managers helping out. Showed me a Megane; it's a car, what else can you say? As we walked back to the showroom - he knew it'd be a company car and it wasn't likely it'd come from his showroom - he asked me "What about a Scenic?" "What's that?" I replied. "Let me show you" he said.

My first reaction when I saw it was that it is a people mover. But when I got in I saw that there was the normal set of seats, and although it was taller, it was about the same size cabin as the Vectra. It transpired the manager owned the car I was in, and he enthused about it.

I liked the higher seat and the good all round vision, especially rear view. With glee he showed me all the secret hiding places there are, including the two bottle sized holders in the rear. Ideal for the odd bottle of wine, I thought. And the weird cold drink container in front of the gear shift with its flap to the air-conditioner. Idea is you put in your cans, slide open the flap and the container is chilled so you always have cold drinks on tap.

I thanked him, took some brochures and left. I'd never ever noticed a Scenic before; now I began to see them everywhere. They're a good-looking vehicle.

It was difficult choosing a model, there's lots in the range with confusing names which seem to relate to the level of fittings.

I went for the one up from the basic, and just under the one with sunroofs. Shame, as I like a sunroof, but there's so much glass the car has lots of internal light and visibility.

Had a test drive and fell for it.

So now there's a Scenic Expression 1.6 Automatic parked on the drive as I type this.

Yes, automatic. A year before I got the car my employer moved my place of work. Getting there by train is difficult, and by car involves a 100 mile round trip on the M25 past Heathrow and along the M3. The journey takes anything from 1 hour 15 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes. Much of the journey is spent stop start creeping along the motorway,. Wiggling the darn gear stick on the Vectra was making my arm ache, it was constant work. One time I was loaned an automatic when the Vectra was being serviced and found the journey much easier.

The manager's car at the showroom was an automatic and so I took my test drive in one. I wanted to test the 1.6 engine could cope. It could.

Since having the Scenic I find I've become a much calmer driver. At traffic lights you just need to move your foot from the brake to the accelerator. There's none of that working the stick through the box till you get to 5th then relaxing, I'm relaxed from the off. Driving on a choked rush hour M25 is much less stressful without having to change gear every minute. But I guess you're thinking how fast it goes on a clear motorway. No problems, except its too easy to find you're exceeding the maximum speed limit as the car is so quiet.

There's a lot of features on the car I haven't made use of yet. The rear seats are easily removable, so it becomes like a van. For the rear passengers there's fold down tables - like on an aeroplane - with a hole to hold drink containers. There's also a power socket to plug incomputer games. Wish I'd got this car when the kids were smaller, what a boon that's been. To be honest, I keep finding odd nice features. For instance, if you have the windscreen wipers on, whenever you select reverse the rear wiper automatically starts. That's a really user friendly touch.

So let me list the things I like

1 - has to be the remote control radio. A control stalk by the steering wheel gives easy selection of volume, radio channels, tape and CD track. The standard for my model is a cassette player, I took the optional CD player. That's fitted in the drawer under the passenger seat and holds a cartridge for 6 CDs. It's an ideal solution as I have lots of cassettes built up over the years, especially comedy ones, plus loads of CDs. The remote control is incredible; you don't need to take your hands off the wheel to do any of the functions. When I think how I'd be pushing buttons on the dashboard of the Vectra to change channels and realise my eyes weren't on the road but looking at the radio display.

2 - Automatic gear, Wonderful

3 - Visibility - The extra height gives a much better view, and all round vision couldn't be better, especially appreciated when reversing.

And the things I don't like

1 - When summer time started the clock wasn't automatically reset even though its an RDS radio (The Vectra clock was always automatically corrected from the time signal via the RDS radio).

- ah, that's it.

Summary - Ideal good looking car, plenty of room, good level of fittings, good boot space, flexible seating and with good fuel consumption. What more can you ask for?

For all the boring technical details see www.renault.co.uk