I like the look and idea of having the petrol 225 megane but im not gonna be best pleased with the fuel Economy. I have found these online and didnt even know they exist.

Does anyone have one that can re-assure me that its a good alternative to a hot hatch.

It’s not an alternative is is a hot hatch, you just fill up at the black pumps.

I’ve got one and wile there’s a lot to go wrong (it’s a Renault and a Megane at that so buyer beware) it’s not a bad place to be.

I’ve only had mine a couple of weeks and I’ve found a few things wrong with it post private purchase but these are down to me getting a bit too excited and there not being many about. Once it’s sorted with the geo done and decent tyres I think it’ll be quite a car.

I did get accused of a mid life crisis by the neighbours yesterday though so maybe I should have bought the Golf instead.

Oh and 40-42mpg so far (2 tanks of fuel) though that’s a lot of motorway miles.

Any questions just ask and I’ll try to answer.

Here’s some interesting reading

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=26641

http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evolongtermtests/223446/renaultsport_megane_dci_175.html

http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evolongtermtests/227367/renaultsport_mgane_dci_175.html

http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evolongtermtests/229950/renaultsport_megane_dci_175.html

http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evolongtermtests/233545/renaultsport_megane_dci_175.html

Saw a thing on Fifth Gear this morning where it took an AA man over 50 minutes just to replace the front headlight bulb. He had to remove the wheel to do so.

A Renault garage will charge you over £50 + VAT to do this for you.

It took the presenter 30 seconds to change the bulb in a Golf.

But the golf bulb cost over £50 + VAT, right? Anyone saying anything is expensive to service compared with VAG should not be taken seriously. I can’t remember what a neighbour paid to have the window mech changed on her Golf but do remember wondering if they’d changed the whole door.

Speeder. Cheers for the links. There really is no info on this car and only 3 for sale in the uk as far as I can see. I’m not buying for a few months so maybe one will pop up.

What problems have you had? Did you find it difficult to find one to buy?

Headlamp bulbs are a nightmare, I have a 1.5dci megane estate, and it’s ok at what it does, you just have to expect random faults and bills.
Oh and door pockets that fill up with water…… “They all do that sir”

Don’t trust the Renault service intervals, use decent oil and change often, keep the egr valve clean, and the same engine in my van seems very picky on fuel and air filters, use genuine rather than pattern parts for these I’ve found.
HTH

What’s the price difference between the petrol and oil burners? Always worth getting the long-term price down on a piece of paper, helped justify my wee Renaultsport purchase 🙂

But the golf bulb cost over £50 + VAT, right? Anyone saying anything is expensive to service compared with VAG should not be taken seriously. I can’t remember what a neighbour paid to have the window mech changed on her Golf but do remember wondering if they’d changed the whole door.

I think you are getting too hung-up on the fact the other car was a Golf: It was just used as an example to show how bad the Megane was. It could probably have been many many cars. My Focus, for example, only takes a minute to change the headlight bulb; not over 50 minutes.

New car or second hand?

If second hand, have a look at the Ibiza Cupra TDi…

160bhp 1.9TDi, 0-60 in 7.5s or so. It’s built for the job too. Compared to the 130bhp version (that I’ve got) it’s got bigger brakes, injectors, intercooler & turbo….I keep looking at them, but next car is gonna have to be an estate.

I like the look and idea of having the petrol 225 megane but im not gonna be best pleased with the fuel Economy.

I get nearly 40mpg from my clio 182 (mostly on a shortish hilly commute).
I guess part of the reason for that is that it’s a fairly light car though. Do you need the space of the megane?

Glen, 225s (and 197s and 200s) dont get anywhere near as good fuel economy as 182s – suckers 😉

Speeder. Cheers for the links. There really is no info on this car and only 3 for sale in the uk as far as I can see. I’m not buying for a few months so maybe one will pop up.

What problems have you had? Did you find it difficult to find one to buy?

First off do you want a 3 or 5 door and how many miles are you prepared to put up with and what spec?

There’s not many 5s it has to be said – I’ve been idly looking for a few years now and I ended buying the first one I saw which in hindsight may have been a mistake as I’m having to invest a few quid to get it sorted but it seems to only be standard stuff. As far as I can tell mine was the last to come up in the obvious places and had the best spec vs price vs mileage combination. Unfortunately while I negotiated on the obvious things I didn’t see a couple of things I should have and it’s going to cost a few quid to get sorted.

I’ve either got a dodgy steering sensor or similar and it’s setting off the stability control in medium fast Rh corners but I think it’s a simple recalibration job. Either that or the shite badly matched tyres which are being replaced are screwing with the wheel speed sensors.

Prices are good because it’s a very rare car and it’s likely to become a cult classic, especially in 5 door spec. there’s nothing like it out there that combines a proper sport hatch chassis and an oil burner. Just don’t be suckered by 50mpg claims though, I’ve been fairly restrained with the right foot and done mostly motorway miles at a GPS indicated 72mph and it’s struggled to get much more than 40mpg when combined with a bit of town/cross country.

They come up every so often, but there’s about 3 as you say right now – no idea where they’ve all gone maybe they’re like busses.

I don’t care about eh head light bulbs, my old Focus took an hour to do one bulb in the end with the amount of plastic that needed removing.