FIRSTDRIVE: RENAULT SCENIC:The new Scenic may not get you a hot date, writes MARK NICHOL, but it does what it's supposed to with gusto
AN MPV really isn’t an MPV at all, is it? Its “people carrier” epithet alone tells you that, far from being a multi-purpose vehicle, the MPV is as unswervingly typecast as cars come: a people carrier carries people. And that’s it.
A people carrier can’t be a sports car or a luxury car, nor can it scale the Wicklow Mountains. And nor can it – let’s face it – make the socio-economic circumstance of its owner any more patently obvious: there’s arguably nothing worse to rock up to a first date in.
Step up the SUV. We’re all supposed to hate 4x4s, yes, but a quick juxtaposition against an MPV and most would agree the gas-guzzler wins hands down. Want a car that is all of the above? It must be an SUV.
That’s why BMW has three SUVs on its roster – soon to be four when the X1 hits the shelves. Renault, on the other hand, has one. And the French maker couldn’t even be bothered to develop it itself, asking Nissan to sort it out while it cobbled together a design.
But that’s probably because it had MPVs on its mind; Renault steadfastly refuses to relinquish its love affair with the people carrier. Not content with being credited as the inventor of the concept, Renault has even had a crack at making executive cars and, unsettlingly, coupés that look just like MPVs. Neither worked commercially.
Yet stuff like this, the new Scenic, does. Despite all that talk of SUVs and how super duper they are, Renault makes no less than seven MPVs, in various shapes and sizes. And it makes them because there are plenty of people who – believe it or not – just want to get somewhere in their car and have a bit of extra space for a few other people to go along too. How odd.
In fact, the C-segment that the Scenic occupies racked up 4.6 million sales in Europe last year, 30 per cent of which were MPVs. Of those, 14 per cent were Scenics which, by our calculations, means Renault shifted 190,000 of them in one year alone. Not bad.
So, if the new Scenic can’t be exciting, but has to appeal to plenty of folk, it should at least fulfil the basic tenets of a people carrier: spaciousness and comfort. It does, on both counts. For a start, Renault has liberated enough space at the rear of the cabin – the area that truly defines any passenger car’s spaciousness – to avoid even an adult torrent of “are we there yet” interrogations.
And if your cargo is of the more muted type that doesn’t require seats, the Scenic features a fairly flexible interior, with rear seats that slide fore and aft, as well as folding down or lifting out completely. The boot’s capacious too; the people-carrier doubles up as a rather handy little van then – multi-purpose, you might say.
Key to the Scenic’s success or failure, though, is how it handles life from the perspective of everyone sat inside it – assuming it’s full. Do the adults in the back have enough lateral space to avoid awkward thigh grazing? Can those in the front be accommodated without pressing against the steering wheel or glove box? Will child seats fit in and give the kids room to swing their legs, again without the parents succumbing to the last scenario? Is it easy enough to lose an iPod or two in there? And will the door handles and centre console resist three years of pre-adolescent kicking and punching?
The answer to all those questions is, it would seem, yes. On that last point – quality – Renault has often been patchy, but of late it seems to be cutting its cars from a better cloth. Dash coverings are squishy and there wasn’t a solitary rattle on the car we drove. There is, however, the intrusive gush of wind noise in the cabin at motorway speeds, which blunts its otherwise favourable refinement.
It even steers well too. It’s never going to be the last word in driver involvement, but the things you’d like to be right are, thankfully, right. Ride comfort is largely a given, though it can get a little too roly-poly at slower speeds on less than smooth roads: if cracks and potholes line your customary routes, you might want to take the Scenic for a quick jaunt across them before you sign on the dotted line.
The Irish market Scenic will get the 1.5-litre dCi unit in 86- and 106bhp guises, both of which are familiar to the Mégane range already, and perfectly suited to the Scenic.
It goes on sale in September, with prices and specification bettering its predecessor.
Factfile: Renault Scenic
Engine: 1.5-litre dCi diesel
Peak power: 108bhp
Peak torque: 240Nm
Transmission: six-speed manual
0-100km/h: 12.3 seconds
Emissions: 136g/km
Combined cycle fuel economy: 5.2l/100km