Price as tested: €25,000
In brief: The most satisfying Megane yet, with decent poise and lots of toys. Post-scrappage price too high, though.
I must admit I was mildly bemused that the Renault Megane became the best-selling car in Ireland in 2010. Having driven previously, I knew it was a decent car, an OK car, an average car. Not a best-seller in any obvious way, aside from the scrappge-offer price which made it as affordable as a much smaller car, and still stuffed with equipment. Clearly, Irish car buyers buy with the bottom line in mind (although possibly not with depreciation at the forefront).
And I just couldn’t figure it out. Could so many buyers be blinded by price advantage to the likes of the Focus, the Golf, the Astra or the 308? Or was there something that I had missed? Was there a secret Megane trait that I just hadn’t noticed first time out?
No, there wasn’t. I just hadn’t been driving the right version.
This is the right version.
Whether you want to call it GT Line (its pan-European designation) or Irish Edition, the Megane Coupe that I have just stepped out of is, without question, the best version of the current Megane range I have yet driven. Not perfect, nor do I think it yet quite as good as the aforementioned rivals, but now I can at last see what everyone else apparently did.
To start with, the Coupe is the best looking Megane (with the Grand Megane estate a close second and the ill-proportioned five-door hatch a distant, distant third) and the GT line, with its extra body kit and sexy black-surround lights, looks even better. There’s the slight whiff of a Saturday night Halford’s special about it, but on the whole; nice.
Nice inside too, and that’s the first time I’ve been able to say that about any current Megane. Gone is the cheap-and-nasty digital speedo and in comes a decent looking main dial. Gone too (thankfully) are the flat-and-hard-as-a-church-pew seats and in come nicely supportive and comfy buckets. The driving position still isn’t quite right (you have to sit too low down and laid back relative to the steering wheel) but at least you won’t get numb bum after half an hour now.
There are some cabin caveats though. There’s far too much cheap plastic on display, even if the overall quality and fit and finish look and feel reasonably good. And the control system for the TomTom-derived sat-nav is so over-complicated and ill-thought-out that you really do just not bother to use it. I’d rather get lost, thanks. It took me 20 minutes of fiddling just to get my phone to connect to the Bluetooth system.
There is good space in there though, and in spite of that sloping rear roofline, there’s useable room in the back seats too. Certainly kids are comfy back there, and even adults would be OK for a short-ish journey. The boot is a decent size, but the rear styling robs some of the opening when you have the hatch up, meaning that bulky items will go in, but only if you think about it a bit.
To drive, the Megane Coupe GT Line (or Irish Edition etc etc) is... OK. It’s not brilliant, it lacks the fluency of a Focus or the Germanic perfection of a Golf, but it’s good enough to keep its head above water, dynamically speaking.
The steering is well set up. It feels weighty and meaty in your palms, even if there’s no actual proper road feel coming back up from the front tyres. Turn in is quick and reasonably enthusiastic, and even without that proper road feel, you soon get confident enough in the Megane’s responses to enjoy pressing on.
Smooth roads are its forte though. It doesn’t like bumps, especially small, short-wave ripples that really upset the composure and send rumbling shudders up through the bodyshell. Actually, for a supposedly sporty coupe, it’s a good cruiser, ambling along nicely in sixth at 120kmh, with that always-excellent 1.5 dCi diesel engine thrumming away quietly in the background.
You won’t be using much fuel, whatever you do. Even at maximum attack, and with the aircon going, we couldn’t get the Megane’s average fuel consumption above 6.0-litres per 100km, so matching the claimed 4.4-litres per 100km figure shouldn’t be too hard. 114g/km emissions means that, in spite of 110bhp and a hefty 240Nm of torque, you’ll still be firmly in the lowest road tax bracket, even without standard-fit stop-start.
Equipment levels are high too, with that TomTom sat-nav, burnished chrome trim, half-leather seats, unique 17” alloy wheels, climate control and more. And this being a Renault, a five-star EuroNCAP safety rating is merely what you were expecting.
So, finally, I can see what everyone loves about the Megane and how it had managed to climb so high in the Irish sales charts. A tempting scrappage price, and a relentless marketing campaign, certainly drove those sales, but at last, I’ve found a Megane that I’m quite happy to drive.
Facts & Figures
Renault Megane Coupe 1.5 dCi 110 GT Line
Price as tested: €25,000
Price range: €19,490 to €26,500
Capacity: 1,461cc
Power: 110bhp
Torque: 240Nm
Top speed: 190kmh
0-100kmh: 10.5sec
Economy: 4.4l-100km (62.0mpg)
CO2 emissions: 114g/km
Road Tax Band: A €104
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star adult, 4-star child, 2-star pedestrian
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