Renault Megane RS Review

[Flenn.]

Overview
What is it?

It’s the latest iteration of one of the most iconic hot hatchbacks in the business. Yep, the Megane RS may not have decades of history like a Golf GTI, nor the motorsport lineage of a Ford RS, but since the late 2000s the fast Megane has been the absolute handling benchmark for hot hatches at any price point.

Thus the new one has rather a lot to live up to, but it doesn’t take too long prodding and poking around it to realise it’s different to the cars that came before. It has five doors for the first time (and five doors only), not to mention a huge infotainment screen, ambient lighting and the option of an automatic gearbox. It appears Renault Sport is growing up.

Given how many Golf GTIs that VW shifts, you can’t really blame the Megane’s makers for chasing a more mature corner of the market with much bigger sales potential, even if it comes at the expense of the ‘cut-price 911 GT3’ vibe the old RS simply oozed.

There’s still some serious hardware beneath the skin to prick up the ears of enthusiasts, though; you’ve a choice of 280 Sport, 280 Cup or 300 Trophy versions, the latter two getting stiffer suspension and a limited-slip differential on the driven front axle. All three get a four-wheel-steering system called 4Control, to increase agility in slower corners and stability in quicker corners.

All three use a 1.8-litre turbo engine, too, producing 276bhp in the Sport and Cup, and 296bhp in the Trophy. A six-speed manual gearbox remains standard – something of a U-turn after the outgoing Clio RS went automatic only – with a paddleshifting auto a stocky £1,700 option on all models.

Indeed, the options list is a little precarious. Kicking off at around £27,000, the Megane RS at its base is basically the cheapest full-size hot hatch on sale. Only an entry-level Hyundai i30N costs less, and that’s the 247bhp version (with the i30N you really want topping £29k). Problem is, many things standard on the Megane’s rivals are optional here, and if you manage to spec one for less than £30,000, we doff our cap to you.

Still, we’d argue it looks worth the money. Is there a hatchback on sale with better stance or more presence? It looks utterly fantastic and with a selection of yellows, oranges and reds among its paint palette, allows you to have a bold hot hatch without the overt aggression of, ooh, a Honda Civic Type R.

For some, that might be the only vindication they need to click ‘confirm’ on the Renault Sport configurator. But you? You’re more discerning than that, so click on to see what the Megane does well. Or not so well…

Driving
What is it like on the road?
Driving a brand new performance icon can be a desperately nervy process, as you wait on tenterhooks for it to reveal whether it’s kept the magic of its forebears alive. Unfortunately for the Megane RS, that moment doesn’t arrive in the first few miles. Or even first few hundred miles.

While the old RS was an instant-hitter, a car whose specialness coursed through every component, the new ‘un is different. It’s a broadly comfy, competent fast hatchback in the vein of a Golf GTI, but not a mesmeric back-road blaster like the car it replaces.

Evidencing its change of character is the fact the 280 Sport – i.e. the softest chassis option – is actually the one that feels most natural. Yeah, it’s basically like asking for Lemon & Herb in Nando’s, and much like the difficulty of daring to order the tamest spice in front of your mates, we’re not sure we’d actually let ourselves spec the base Megane owing to pangs of worry we’d regret our choice.

The Cup and Trophy are both notably firmer riding, but with their limited-slip differential, they’re notably sharper when you dig into the Megane’s deep reserves of grip and drive it with some vigour.

Indeed, its limits are higher than ever, especially with the four-wheel-steering system which adds complexity to its handling, but arguably no more fun. You can cover ground at ungodly pace here, but with less of a grin plastered across your face than in not only its key rivals, but the car that went before it. Hmm.

Its 1.8-litre turbo engine can be chalked up as a success, though. Perhaps no surprise when it’s related to the wonderful Alpine A110’s. The gearing is short enough that you can feel like you’re extracting a decent amount of its performance even at sane road speeds, while the sports exhaust makes you sound like a proper hooligan, but sounds heaps more natural than competitors’ equivalents, each pop and crackle different to the last. No choreography here.

You can turn it off, of course, which means delving into one of the most befuddling drive select systems on the market. There are four set modes (Comfort, Normal, Sport, Race) and one customisable mode (Perso), yet you can also fiddle with the preset modes, which are fixed in rivals. Everything is adjustable – right down to the colour of the dials – save for the suspension. You make your choice of how stiff you’d like the suspension when you spec between Sport, Cup and Trophy in the showroom.

Tech getting in the way of good old-fashioned fun? Perhaps, though the Megane does at least keep you in your previous selection when you restart the car after parking up, which is rare, and a sign the driving nerds still got to have some say in the development meetings.

On the inside
Layout, finish and space
Fast Renaults have never been particularly strong in material quality or tech, but always nailed the essentials of a real driver’s car; the steering wheel, seat and pedals were all positioned perfectly, and the gearknob was wonderful to hold and slick to operate. The new one turns all that on its head.

In the centre of the dashboard there’s a new, portrait infotainment screen with track telemetry at one end of the scale, and a choice of which colour of the rainbow you’d like the interior ambient lighting at the other. Very fancy.

The steering wheel has its Alcantara in the wrong places, however, and the gearknob is interesting to look at, but awkward to hold and notchy to operate. And it’s tricky to get a satisfying driving position. But there are roomy back seats and a big boot. There’s still appeal, you’ll just find it in different places to before.

You’ve numerous seat options up front, but the standard chairs are so hugging, the optional Recaros are no longer the must-have they used to be, especially now they come only in leather/Alcantara and thus cost £1,500. You could have a whole Clio 172 as track toy for that.

The dials are now entirely digital, with four different visuals available, one of which doesn’t even include a rev counter. Blasphemy. They’re adjusted via the drive select system, which sits in that new touchscreen. It looks cool but these things just work better with a landscape layout; perhaps the biggest indictment of its flawed design is that when you plug your phone in to use Apple CarPlay, the display is a horizontal strip across the screen, akin to watching a YouTube video while still holding your phone upright.

The air con controls remain physical though (hurrah!) and you can spec some properly boomy Bose audio while the sat nav is a TomTom system, so it ought to work nearly as well as your phone.

Owning
Running costs and reliability

This is the section where the old Megane RS would have slipped up, but the new one aims to whip the rug from beneath its rivals with some flexibility; it comes with a choice of manual and paddleshift automatic gearboxes, and three different levels of chassis stiffness (Sport, Cup and Trophy). All have five doors and the base price, at a whisker over £27,000, is very tempting.

But start adding the kind of options that match its rivals – something like a Hyundai i30N Performance packs a limited-slip diff and lots of active safety tech as standard, for instance – and the Megane easily sails past £30,000. Or £34k, in the photographed car’s case, which is a manual Cup that still manages to have less tech inside than a £5k-cheaper Hyundai. Eek.

Of course, many people lease cars rather than buy them outright, but the Hyundai’s £50 a month cheaper here, too. A basic Megane RS will set you back around £400 a month over three years, (with a six-month deposit and 10,000 miles per year). You’ll add around £25 to that figure if you want the Cup chassis, and £30 if you want a paddleshift gearbox.

Verdict
Final thoughts and pick of the range

The Megane RS has a newfound maturity. Better for tackling the Golf GTI, worse for tackling your local trackday
The Megane RS will undoubtedly be much simpler to live with than before, and on tricky roads it still exhibits the world class damping and body control we know and love from Renault Sport.

But it’s not as much fun as we’d hoped, and our suspicion is the softer, Sport-chassis car is the car more comfortable in its own skin. Which is a damning judgement if you’ve ever experienced the euphoric highs of an old Megane Cup driven at its limit.

It’s hard to deny Renault’s logic in chasing a more mature market, though, it’s just thanks to Peugeot’s return to form, Honda’s coming of age and Hyundai’s startling arrival on the hot hatch scene, the Megane suddenly faces a more exciting, more diverse bunch of rivals than ever. And beyond its more glamorous looks, the RS struggles for an irresistible, must-have-it USP when battling them.