Renault Megane Hatchback (2008 - 2016) 2.0 dCi (160bhp) GT 5d Owner Review

I’ve had this Megane 2.0 dci GT for 2 years now. To be honest it’s been 2 years of trouble free motoring. Averaging 41-42mpg on nearly exclusively my daily commute (commute is pretty evenly distributed of town/motorway/A road) 15-20 miles each way. Around town you’ll feel the suspension is too hard and it does crash around quite a bit. 2 years in I’m used to it however for the first few months I was wondering if I’d made a mistake. Motorway driving is fine, just fine. Ride is ok, that hard suspension is ok at speed however you wouldn’t discribe it as a cruiser. I should stress it’s perfectly acceptable. The engine is nice and touquey low down meaning slip roads are either lots of fun or a smooth breeze up to speed (which ever you prefer). It’ll cruise quite happily at whatever speed you want really, wind and tyre noise increases as you push on but that’s to be expected from a car of this budget. A roads are it’s best fit, that hard suspension in towns is suddenly the best part about it on an A road. It’ll hang on through the corners and there’s lots and lots of grip which means you really can carry more than enough speed through the corners as you’d want to on the public highway. The only small consideration is the heavy diesel engine up front, unless you’re a keen driver you won’t notice it. Overtaking is easy although this is a diesel engine it actually revs nicely, it doesn’t top out and feel weak at the top of the rev range like most diesels do. I’m not going to call it “quick” but the 160bhp & 280lb/ft of tourque means it’s enough for the real world in nearly every situation. Interior is about par for this class, I do think that it’s equipped rather well for this type of budget. Satnav is solid, very rarely it gets caught out but it’s 8 years old now and I know I haven’t updated it like I should. Lots of good points from me although I wouldn’t buy something with suspension this hard again, loads of grip when needed but crashing around on the way to work at 5:30am wears thin after a while.