• Full five-star Euro NCAP rating
• Wide array of safety tech available
• Oneof the safest seven-seaters on sale

As evidenced by its five-star Euro NCAP crash test rating, the Renault Grand Scenic wants for little in the domains of safety and driver assistance, with an acronym-heavy checklist of features best explored in the Parkers Glossary.

Under the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) umbrella, the elements include Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC); the Active Emergency Braking System (AEBS) – this can activate of speeds between 5mph and 37mph; Lane Departure Warning (LDW) – making itself known with a vibration through the steering wheel rather than an audible warning; Safe Distance Warning (SDW); Traffic Sign Recognition with Over Speed Prevention (TSR with OSP); Blind Spot warning (BSW); a reversing camera; automatic main beam for the headlights; front, rear and side parking sensors

Adding to that impressive tally of systems, the Grand Scenic also sees the Renault debut of:

• Active Emergency Braking System (AEBS) incorporating Pedestrian Detection: between speeds of 5mph and 37mph, the package alerts the driver to the risk of a collision with a pedestrian, automatically bringing the car to a full stop should warnings fail to trigger a response from the driver
• Lane Keeping Assist: active between 44mph and 100mph, the car will automatically steer itself back between the white lines if the driver veers out of them without indicating
• Fatigue Alert: tiredness kills and this Bosch-developed system uses algorithms to monitor the vehicle’s movements to identify if the driver appears to be falling asleep. Once triggered, visual and audible alerts are presented to the driver

• No longer individual seats in the middle row
• Storage space abounds around the cabin
• Modest boot in seven-seater mode

As a spacious seven-seater, it’s difficult for the Renault Grand Scenic to be anything other than practical, but some features of the first two generations have been consigned to the bin.

Both second and third row seats may be lowered at the touch of a loadspace wall-mounted button (third row headrests simultaneously diving for cover), or via one of the multimedia system’s endless menus, to give a flat floor. Predictably, loadspace with all seven seats in use is modest at 233 litres.

Excellent storage abounds throughout, including the both the floor bins from Scenics of yore, and the sliding centre console – which can either mate with the base of the dashboard console, or slide aft to separate squabbling offspring. A capacious glovebox pops out at you like the Arkwright’s corner shop till, and the seatback tables are supported by elastic which will inevitably be enthusiastically twanged by kids sat immediately behind.