I had a big Scenic before this so the Megane didn’t have much to live up to on the performance front. Shockingly, I think the Scenic was actually a better drive. There just seems to be very little power available and it always feels like you only ever make slow progress. I think the gear shift can be quite a bumpy experience too. The brakes, on the other hand, I actually think are quite good. So performance and handling actually leave quite a lot to be desired. A shame but nonetheless...
The interior is quite small, and it feels small as well. The roof is actually quite low which means that head room is a little hindered, particularly if you're six foot tall. I’ve never had three people in the back but I imagine it would be quite a squeeze if all were adults. On the upside, the boot is a good size and can swallow a decent amount of stuff. The one thing that almost brings our Megane back from the above is the high-quality interior and useful storage areas, these really do come in very handy.
There is no denying that the Megane is probably a safe car, it has loads of safety kit and the five star rating but until you actually have a crash, I think this is quite difficult to review.
The running costs however, are the highlight and this is why we have kept it despite all of its shortcomings. The insurance is cheap, as is the road tax, there are massive service internals and the economy really is very good indeed.
It might be a bit of a retirement-mobile I suppose, I do see some of my other friends of advanced years driving a Renault Megane, but it seems to be a family car too. Whoever buys it, they've made a good choice. I've found it to be mostly very good, with just a few little annoying points.
It's very comfy inside, which was one of the main things we were after as we were trading in quite a bone shaker of a Honda Civic. The Renault Megane 1.5 DCi has very supportive drivers seats, although we have recently found out that the back seats can be a little restrictive for taller passengers. It's the head room that is just a little lacking, the roof curves in a little too early. There's also a storage cubby hole that juts into the knees of the centre passenger in the back, which is quite silly.
I have to say the boot in the Renault Megane is an awful lot smaller than our old Civic, but then we never used much of the boot space anyway. It still easily fits our suitcases for hols, although it might be a bit of a squeeze if we still had kids with us and their stuff. Younger kids might be ok.
We never had a sat navigation thingy in previous cars, and didn't bother with that as an option. We saw some photos of it, and it just seemed to swallow the whole of the top of the dash. We may adventure into satnav land at some point, but only with a little separate one.
The sloping bonnet made parking a bit of a challenge to begin with. It's actually quite hard to judge where the front of the car is. You get used to it quite quickly, but take care at first.
In terms of reliability, the Megane 1.5 DCi has had a few things needing doing, but only very early on, which seemed like remedying lazy factory work more than anything. It's running fine now and we expect it to keep on going like this for some years to come.
Almost forgot something important: the side windows are a very silly design, which sprays rain in your face if you open them the tiniest amount. I almost forgot about that because as soon as I realised that I went and bought myself some after-market rain shields. They clip onto the door quite easily and they completely solve the problem. Ask your local car parts shop, they'll know what you mean. I can't imagine being without them. I can actually see people being quite annoyed with the Renault Megane as a result of this, which is a shame as it's very easily remedied.
The Renault Megane has been our best car so far. We have only had three cars between us but still, it's a great one. It's a big estate with roof bars and oodles of space inside, loads and loads of space, endless.
Actually the leg space in the back might be a bit short for adults. I suppose what I'm talking about is the length of the car overall, and the enormous boot. The back seats flip down easily as well, and we've been able to shoe horn all sorts of big furniture into it like that. Day to day the boot just keeps our dogs, or shopping, or sometimes both if it's stuff they won't mess about with.
We bought our Renault Megane second hand with a tiny bit of damage to the bodywork on the front and got a fantastic deal as a result. To be honest we could probably get it repaired for less than the saving we made, although maybe that shows how little I know about repairing bodywork, hmm..
The fuel use is just excellent. We must go about 3 or 4 weeks in between filling up, altho we don't do much more than driving round town, school run and occasional trip to my parents the other side of town. Anyway it must gets double what our old Fiat got. That also makes the tax really lovely and cheap, £95 for the year.
I don't tend to drive it very fast, but whenever I need to overtake it easily manages it, it's very easy to forget our Renault Megane is a diesel. And a 1.5 as well, it's great how they've managed to combine good fuel economy and power.
The space inside isn't just the boot either. There's loads of little spaces here and there in the car. Some of them are a bit too cleverly designed for their own good mind. Like there's a little storage spot in the door, next to the window control, but it's got this annoying little lid you have to lift up to get to it. It sort of looks nice, and you can see why a car maker might think it would be attractive, but day to day it's just silly. If I knew we weren't going to sell the car on at some point I might just tear that off. But really the car is generally well designed and lots of handy little spaces here and there.
The biggest selling point for the diesel Renault Megane is probably the good return it gets on diesel. It's a bit noisy at speed, but it gets up to about 60 miles a gallon on a nice straight journey. It's a bit lower in town driving, but still gets a really good return. That's a big plus with prices so stupidly high at the moment.
We've just got it taxed, which was pretty cheap, £130 for the year. It's fairly cheap to insure as well, so must be nice and safe generally. All those things make me happy with the Renault Megane generally speaking.
I'm less happy with how much time it spends in the garage. It's not all that bad, but we used to have a Yaris which honestly didn't need a thing doing in six years, apart from tyres. Fair enough our Renault Megane was second hand last year at five years old, but it's just needing too much done. The exhaust was a bit loose to begin with, and there was a weird problem with the panel lights. One of the back seatbelts took absolutely ages to extend, it kept catching. It's all been sorted under the used car warranty we got, which is nice, and hopefully this stuff will get sorted and then not come back, but it hardly makes me confident. These are minor things though, and the Renault Megane is a good car otherwise.
I love the air conditioning, we've never had that before and it's been fab over this summer. It's not very spacious in the back but it's only the kids back there most of the time. It being a bit cramped has made them a bit more fighty especially when it's hot and uncomfortable, but the aircon soon helps with that. And the glove box is a fridge too, I think it works with the aircon and keeps your drinks cool, very nice indeed.
The boot is a pretty good size. We've got 3 little ones and we can usually get all their huge amounts of gumph in there. It's a bit tight to get things in and out though, I mean the edge of the boot, it could just be a bit wider.
We got a second hand Megane, I think it was one of the originals, back in the early 2000s. It was one of the basic trim models, and we were just after a reliable family car on a budget so it didn't really matter what it looked like. That was handy! It's not the best looking car, looks a bit old these days I suppose, haven't actually seen many on the roads for a few years. We had ours for about five years before we sold up. Maybe they develop problems later in life?? Actually there won't be any younger than ten years so I suppose that's about as long as cars last nowadays.
Anyway it was an alright car for what it was. At the time we were pretty impressed with the fuel economy, can't remember what it was, I seem to recall somewhere just below 40mpg but that might have just been on paper. It was pretty good at the time, but we've just got ourselves a little Skoda and it's doing much better than that.
The main gripe was the seats though. Really not that comfy, and if you wanted to drive more than about 100 miles then you were in for stops every hour or so just to stretch your legs, and a good comfy sit down wherever it was you were going to. I seem to recall the gearbox was pretty uncooperative as well.
I don't recall many repairs needing doing. The shocks needed attention on the bushes. That was a bit of a sting. It did well on its MOT each year, no big problems there. Seemed to get through tyres at a manageable rate, and it didn't kick up any trouble with other things like radiators or electricals that I hear going wrong on other cars. It needed a head gasket doing just before we sold it, that was when we thought we should sell up and move on. In fairness I reckon it probably had a good few years left, and if you find one with reasonably low mileage you could get a reliable bargain.
We bought our Megane as our “second” family car (school runs etc). The main reason we bought it was safety (5/5 stars from Euro NCAP) but we liked the look of the car too. Ironically, after owning the car for a couple of month I started to realise how good it was. There was lots of “extras” – little touches that helps to explain why the Megane are slightly more than others in their class. The drive is smooth, although it makes more noise in 5th gear than I think it should. It’s not that comfortable on long journeys, although that’s not what we often us it for. With a large boot and lots of little extra storage compartments, it’s a great car for families. Good car, would recommend seriously considering if you are looking for a family car.
I traded in my VW Golf for a Renault Megane and most people think that this was a bit of a strange decision. In fact the trader (after I’d done the deal, I must say) told me that most people do it the other way round. Why? They prefer how the Golf looks, and they know that the Golf has a great reputation and think it’s better built and more reliable.
Not me! I love how the Renault Megane looks, and I had NO END of trouble from my Golf. I’ve had no problems at all with the Megane so far, it’s comfortable, performs well, has a nice drive and feels well built.
Any complaints? Well there’s not much room. I could do with a bigger boot and more room for the kids in the back. This is a common complaint, as far as I can tell. But there’s tons of equipment, the mpg is pretty good, and I don’t regret swapping from the Golf to the Megane for a second. Bravo!
I had a Megane before, some time in the mid nineties, and I think it's a testament to the model that the Renault Megane is STILL in production after all these years. So I bought one of the more recent models and I was pleased that I found it to be just as good as my old one.
So Renault must be doing something right with this car. The trouble is I'm not exactly sure what it is. The price is one thing, you can pick up old ones at superb prices, and even the brand new editions don't exactly break the bank. Just about everything else is pretty average, however.
Perhaps that's it: if you want a reasonable car in every regard then buy a Renault Megane. The performance is average, the handling is normal, it's fairly reliable and it's reasonably priced. I suppose some people might call this all pretty boring. In my opinion, though, it's just sensible.
What can I say about a car with so many plus points, so many thumbs ups and so many attributes? Well, I could say it's bloody perfect - but I'd be lying. The Megane Sport 2.0 T 16v isn't perfect - but it's not far off. The issues reside purely with the interior and the plastics. The new Megane has definetely stepped its game up but it's far from the quality in an Audi or BMW.
Now, the good bits. The performance is blistering, painful, beautiful, poetic, inspring and exhilarting. It's so fast you'd struggle to keep up unless you're in something with over 300bhp. The chassis just demands more and more, and when you pass the limit, it rewards you.
I don't care about mpg and running cost because that's not why I bought this Megane 2.0 T 16v Sport; i bought it because it's one of the finest hot hatches available and it is quicker than Gandhi with slippers.
I used this car for a couple of months after a crash in my Focus.
It had been in the family for years and everyone have all driven it at some point, it was bought new from a local Renault dealership by my parents.
In the 8 years we had it we did have a few problems with it, we had to replace the clutch, cam belt and had a problem with the electrics at one point, but as the car was regularly serviced all the problems were picked up before they became a major headache. Apart from that it was a great car that I didn't mind driving. It was nice and easy to drive, the steering and handling were both better than adequate.
It didn't fault on performance either, at the time I was mainly driving in the city and this car was perfect for that, nice and nippy and easy to park. The interior was ok, lots of little storage spaces and a boot big enough for a few suitcases. Was a really smart car when it was new but looked really dated when my parents sold it.
If your looking to buy one that old I would make sure it had a full service history and has been well looked after otherwise its just going to cause you problems.