Renault Mégane
FINAL REPORT Fond farewell to pretty hatch after six months on fleet
AFTER six months on the Auto Express fleet, we’re saying farewell to our Renault Mégane. It has proven a great family car over that time, and while I’m excited about what’s coming next, I’m still sad to see the trusty hatchback go.
As I don’t often drive to work, I mainly used the Mégane for weekends away – it came into its own in particular on trips to Dorset and Wiltshire (below) in recent months. On both occasions, the Renault was nice and quiet on the motorway journey out of London, and the adaptive cruise control meant some busy main roads were much more relaxed, as I didn’t need to keep adjusting my speed manually.
Once we’d reached each destination, the Mégane proved fun to drive on twistier roads, too, with Sport mode firming up the steering and helping the car feel a bit more engaging. But it’s still at its best on motorways, with the suspension set up more for comfort.
The car was also used for some airport runs, bringing my daughter Tasha to and from some flights to Spain, as well as collecting my dad, aunties and an uncle from Gatwick after a holiday in Portugal. With five adults and plenty of luggage on board, the Mégane was still as good as ever.
One of my favourite things was the neat Safe distance warning feature, which uses a traffic light system on the dash to switch between green, amber and red, and give you a constant reminder about how safe the gap is between you and the vehicle in front.
I was also a big fan of the car’s styling and especially its special, head-turning i.d. metallic paint. A few strangers even came up to me to comment on the attractive design. The alloy wheels were a lovely touch on our model – the 17-inch diamond-cut rims are standard on Dynamique S versions.
During our time with the car we did have a couple of issues relating to Renault’s R-link 2 system, though. For a couple of months the home screen stopped working, but because you can work around this, I didn’t worry too much about sorting it – especially as it suddenly came back to life and started working as expected anyway.
We also had some small bugs with the sat-nav and rear-view camera, but both also cleared up before they became a problem.
Hiccups aside, the Mégane has been great for six months, and we’ll miss its blend of practicality, comfort and driving dynamics.