Renault Mégane ST
Will new turbocharged petrol engine take French car to the top of the class?
MODEL TESTED: Renault Mégane Sport Tourer TCe 140 GT Line PRICE: £22,050 ENGINE: 1.3-litre 4cyl, 138bhp
RENAULT ’S practical Mégane Sport Tourer gets a new turbo petrol engine to improve its appeal in a tough class. Here, we test the £22,050 GT Line model to see what it’s like.
Design & engineering
WHILE the Mégane has been around for more than four years now, it still looks slick. So Renault hasn’t altered the styling but has addressed one of the areas where it wasn’t so strong: the petrol engine line-up.
The diesel range is good, but with a swing towards petrol, this new TCe 140 engine should help inject some fresh appeal into the French estate.
It’s a Renault-Nissan unit that appears in the updated Nissan Qashqai SUV. We enjoyed the improvements there, so are hoping for similar gains in a lighter car like the Mégane Sport Tourer.
The 1.3-litre four-cylinder turbo unit makes 138bhp – exactly the same as the Kia – and 240Nm of torque, so is only 2Nm down on its Korean rival. However, the Mégane is 67kg heavier.
The rest of the package is familiar mechanically, with a six-speed manual gearbox. All three cars are available with auto boxes, but we wouldn’t recommend spending the extra £1,000-plus.
There haven’t been any changes to the Mégane’s CMF-C/D platform, which is again shared with Nissan. That’s no bad thing, because the packaging is okay, thanks to the rear suspension layout used in the Renault. This isn’t quite as sophisticated as the multi-link set-up in the
Kia, though. The trio here all use MacPherson struts at the front, which is conventional.
Like its exterior, the Mégane’s interior was a big step for Renault, but while the outside still looks great, some areas inside are showing their age.
Quality is acceptable though; there are a few more areas of hard plastic than in either the Skoda or the Kia, such as the glovebox lid, but then the Renault is the cheapest car and still gets a good level of kit.
GT Line trim sits towards the top of the Mégane range, whereas its rivals in the trims we’re testing sit nearer the middle of their respective line-ups.
The Renault gets an 8.7-inch portrait touchscreen tablet system with nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. You get sports seats, 18-inch alloys, lane departure warning and a seven-inch digital dash panel – but this doesn’t display the sat-nav map.
Driving
DESPITE having similar power and torque figures, the Renault was slower than its rivals in many of our in-gear tests. It was half a second behind the Octavia from 0-60mph, taking 9. 2 seconds, but was quicker than both rivals from 30-50mph in third, at 3.9 seconds.
The TCe 140 engine is definitely an improvement, because despite the slight performance disadvantage it’s smooth and refined, so it clips along at motorway speeds well. There’s good torque for overtaking, too. However, the six-speed box’s shift is the most vague, with a less precise feeling to how it goes into gear.
Even in GT Line spec on 18-inch alloys the Renault rides well. It has a similar level of fluidity to the Skoda in how it deals with bumps, and the steering offers just a little more in the way of communication, too – not that it’s particularly important here.
However, body control is looser than in either the Kia or the Skoda, so as you increase the pace, the Renault just starts to lose control and wallow around a little on undulating roads. But we still think the benefit in ride quality due to this set-up is worth it.
Practicality
WHILE we wouldn’t say the Renault’s 521 litres of boot space is inadequate, it’s the only car in this trio that doesn’t break the 600-litre mark with its rear seats in place, so it loses points for practicality on sheer space compared with its rivals. At least the rear of the cabin is roomy enough and comfortable, which is helped by the ride.
There aren’t quite as many clever touches when it comes to storage, either. But it does have the usual trays, cup-holders and bins so there’s plenty of space to store items. The main downside is the rearward visibility, because the Sport Tourer’s shallow rear window hampers your view out of the back. Headroom is a little tighter than in the Skoda too, due to the raked roofline at the rear.
Ownership
RENAULT ’S performance in the eyes of owners is pretty poor compared to the two brands it faces here. It took 19th place overall, while its dealer network finished considerably lower, in 27th – that’s 16 and
20 places behind Kia in each sector.
Modern Renaults have been known for safety, but while the Mégane received a five-star rating when it was tested by Euro NCAP in 2015, autonomous braking is part of a £400 pack that also adds adaptive cruise and distance warning. Lanedeparture warning and six airbags are standard.
Running costs
NONE of these models is particularly strong when it comes to their resistance to depreciation, but neither will they shed too much. Even so, for cash buyers the Mégane will be the most costly proposition.
That’s because our experts predict it will retain 40.7 per cent of its value, which equates to depreciation of £13,076 over three years or 36,000 miles. It’ll therefore be worth £8,974 after this period.
The Kia is a few percentage points higher, at a predicted 41.8 per cent, which means depreciation of £13, 285 and a residual value of £9,525. But it’s the Skoda that’ll resist this best, with a claimed residual value of 43.4 per cent (£9,882), so will lose £12,883.