Renault Scenic 1.6

One cannot be blamed for thinking that, despite Renault's latest avant-garde turn in design statements (viz Vel Satis, Avantime and Megane), the manufacturer is a fairly pragmatic one. It designs bread-and-butter cars that are good for the cross-section of society. My old Scenic (I must admit I had the 1.8 but there was no entry for it) was a good old work-horse, but it was quite eminently flawed.

PRACTICALITY
It has it in spades. There are multiple storage spaces in the front and under the rear seats. The boot space comes with its own ech and has extra storage spaces there too. My RXE came with free roof bars (never used, unfortunately) and was a veritable "portable hole" when it came to swallowing my dive kit. It went everywhere and was able to deal with heavy loads with aplomb.

ENGINE
As I've intimated above, I didn't have the 1.6. I did drive one during my testing of the car, but found it too noisy when at motorway speeds. The 1.8 has a good acceleration and was reasonably quiet. The higher torque of the engine made for dealing well when the car was laden. That said, it returned about 36mpg on average runs which makes it reasonably fuel-efficient. It liked Shell's Optimax fuel, as I noticed a positive impact on its acceleration and economy, but that's another story!

STYLE
I liked the look of the car - the dual headlamps were nicer than the old style and the car didn't look too humpbacked. I had a silver one, which hid the dirt well and the alloy wheels did not look out of place. I was not too chuffed with the velour interior though as I'd have preferred leather in retrospect. However, having seen the awful tacky, thin, brown leather that Renault sells with the green cars, I'm rather glad I didn't!

COMFORT
Now this is where the wheels fall off (no pun intended). I found it a terrible car to get on with. There was not enough height adjustment in the seat to make me comfortable (I'm 6') and the steering wheel lacked reach adjustment, which kept it at an odd angle. There was a centre arm-rest, but there was nowhere to rest your right arm comfortably on a long, boring motorway cruise. I realise the IAM and RoSPA would have us holding the wheel in a classic "ten to two" position while driving at all times, but I'm a realist... I developed no end of back pain through long journeys in this car. I'm glad to have finally sold it, to be honest. In fact, I no longer own a car: I prefer to commute by motorbike now!

BUILD QUALITY
I enjoyed a 3-year warranty, which is just as well. The car suffered some electrical problems both in the engine and with the tail lights. Both were eventually fixed at the dealer, after much wrangling and arguing. I noticed all manner of squeaks and rattles while driving that became more annoying the more I drove. The one rattle under the front left speaker on the top of the dashboard has to have been the all-time most annoying noise I have ever experienced! The finish inside was terribly plasticky and cheap. I'm not entirely convinced by the manufacturer's workmanship and won't buy another Renault as a result.

OVERALL
Indeed it was not a car, as my title suggests, perhaps rather obscurely. A car should be... a car! It did what it said on the tin and no-one managed to break it or even break in. It was a workhorse, maybe, but I'd rather have enjoyed the whole ownership experience... Sorry, Renault!