Renault Megane Review (2016-2022)

Why would you opt for a Renault Megane instead of a Ford Focus or a Volkswagen Golf? It’s a good question, and one that quite a few buyers have struggled to find answers for. That could be one reason this French family hatchback is a relatively rare sight on our roads, but does it deserve to be?

On the outside, it’s certainly stylish enough, in an unassuming way, with its big LED running lights cutting into the bumper and near-full-width tail light clusters. Inside, there’s quite a bit of drab grey plastic, but the majority of it feels robust enough, and the design is pretty easy on the eye.

The rear seats in the Megane aren’t quite as spacious as they are in the best family cars, but neither are they cramped. There's more room than you'll find in a Peugeot 308, for example, but nowhere near as much as is offered in a Mk4 Ford Focus or Skoda Octavia.

Boot space is fairly generous, too, although again, not outstanding. There’s an estate version if you want more practicality, and once again, this is plenty capacious enough, if again not quite up there with the Ford Focus and Skoda Octavia.

The Megane drives in quite a relaxed manner. On faster, more flowing roads with more gentle direction changes it feels stable and secure, which makes it quite satisfying to drive, but sporty it ain't; get it onto anything more challenging and you’ll notice the unevenly weighted steering, and the way the soft suspension allows the car to stumble over onto its outer front tyre.

Having said that, that soft suspension results in a pretty comfortable ride; the Megane glosses over even fairly lumpy sections of churned-up Tarmac, and it’s quiet, too, which makes it a good motorway cruiser.

Performance versions of the Megane became world-renowned for their exceptional agility in the 2000s, and Renault still made them into this generation of Megane. While they’re no longer quite the cream of the crop as rivals have caught and surpassed them, the Megane Renaultsport, or RS for short, is still a terrific hot hatch that’s a lot of fun to drive. You can have it in its standard form, as the harder-edged Trophy, or if you’re willing to pay the eye-watering price tag, there’s also the Trophy-R which, with its carbon fibre wheels and ceramic brakes, is very extreme, even by hot hatch standards.

Until the 2020 facelift, you could choose from five different trim levels in the Megane range, from Expression- and Dynamique at the lower end right up to the top-spec GT. However, newer Meganes come in just two variants: entry-level Iconic and upscale RS Line.

You get a nice, crisp touchscreen infotainment display in both versions – a seven-inch item in the Iconic, or a 9.3-inch one in the RS Line – though while this looks good, it can be a bit fiddly to use. There’s no physical volume knob, for example, so each time you want to adjust the radio’s volume, you have to press the display, then press on-screen buttons to make your changes, all of which can be quite distracting.

Iconic gets a good specification for the price, mind you, with Apple Carplay and Android Auto, as well as LED headlights, cruise control, ambient lighting, parking sensors and dual-zone climate control all coming as standard. The RS Line then adds sports seats, more aggressive body styling and larger alloy wheels.

Choose the petrol Megane, and you can expect to see around 40-45mpg on average. Go for the diesel, on the other hand, and you’ll see around 55mpg. As we’ve just mentioned, opting for the automatic gearbox will shave 1-2 mpg off both of those figures.

That might make the diesel seem like the most cost-conscious option, but you’ll have to weigh up those fuel savings against both the higher list price of the diesel – it’s almost £2,000 more than the petrol – and the steeper depreciation.

You’ll need to take the plug-in hybrid E-Tech’s official figures with a very large pinch of salt – the official fuel consumption test favours plug-in hybrids of its ilk – and the actual efficiency figures you’ll see will vary wildly depending on how frequently you can plug it in, and how much of your mileage is done on electric power. But it should still be a little easier on fuel than most of its plug-in rivals.

As a company car, the E-Tech makes a lot of sense thanks to its low CO2 emissions figures. However, as a private buy it’s less impressive, as it’s predicted to lose a huge chunk of its value when resale time comes along.

The petrol and diesel versions of the Megane suffer less from this phenomenon, as their prices are pretty low to start with, but don’t escape it completely. As a result, no Megane is particularly cost-effective to own. In fact, the lower price, better residual values and higher fuel economy of the Seat Leon will make it quite a bit more cost-effective to own.

The Megane’s diesel engine will require a timing belt change every six years or 90,000 miles, whichever comes up sooner, and that’s an additional expense you’ll have to factor in. The petrol-engined version has a metal timing chain instead, which shouldn’t need changing for the life of the car.

Unfortunately we don’t have all that much reliability data for the Megane, as it hasn’t sold in significant enough numbers to have been featured in any recent reliability surveys.

However, Renault as a manufacturer finished below the industry average in the 2019 JD Power Vehicle Dependability Study, while in the 2020 What Car? Reliability Survey, Renault did even worse, finishing second-from-bottom with a poor average score of 87.6%. In short, the signs are not promising.

That said, as we’ve already discussed, new Meganes come with a five-year, 100,000-mile warranty, which should set your mind at ease somewhat if you’re planning to buy brand-new.