RARE SIGHT
RENAULT MÉGANE
If you are committed to straying from the herd, this is the obvious choice. Sighting a Mégane on local roads is a rare occasion — Renault earns the bulk of its sales in the compact spheres of the market. Many will remember the charismatic secondgeneration of the nameplate, with its generous derrière. Things took a conventional turn with the follow-up and now, as generation four, the French hatchback is pretty restrained in personality. Nightfall is particularly flattering to the Renault, with its distinctive rear light that spans the width of the tailgate. Which is not to say the cold light of day highlights deal-breaking deficiencies from a looks perspective: this is a handsome car. What else can we say about this slowselling French? It strikes us as a commendable effort, if somewhat middleof-the-road. Viewed in this company, one cannot say that there are any defining features that would pull one away from the edgy Toyota or the solidly hewn Volkswagen. Its dual-clutch gearbox simply cannot match the unit in the German
counterpart for smoothness. Still, you are unlikely to lose it in a crowd. Nor is it as likely to get stolen as the contender from Wolfsburg. If rarity is a crucial criteria then the Mégane is worth a gander.
PRICED FROM R279,900
THIS MODEL R354,900 (Dynamique EDC) ENGINE 1,197cc, four-cylinder, turbocharged, petrol POWER AND TORQUE 97kW and 205Nm CLAIMED CONSUMPTION 5.4l/100km TRANSMISSION Seven-speed, dual-clutch, automatic
UNITS SOLD (MARCH 2019) 17 WE LIKE Something different, rear lights WE DISLIKE Dual-clutch gearbox not the best, quite an average car
CONNECTIVITY “The overall menu on the Mégane was tricky to figure out, and took a few tries to find the right setting to go into for initial smartphone pairing. While it shows Apple CarPlay support once plugged to a cable, it wasn’t possible to go to the standard interface that is the default. It felt like an inconsistent experience, with Siri working for voice calls, but Maps wasn’t accessible, yet Spotify worked. The standard voice system required too many commands to skip a track, which is where Siri was useful. Once we unpaired the device from the vehicle, it still showed up on the dashboard, making it difficult to use with a previously paired iPhone. The overall design wasn’t user-friendly.”