There were squeaks of alarm in the CARkeys office when Renault first issued pictures of the new Megane. It seemed phenomenally risky for a major manufacturer to replace one of its top-selling models with a new version which looked quite unlike anything else in the class, particularly when the buyers in that class generally need something useful and practical, and might just be put off by an outlandish external appearance.But Renault's design team, led by the brilliant Patrick le Quément, can usually be assumed to know what they are doing. Sure enough, the strange shape of the new Megane works well in real life. I fully realised this when I came back to it after a bit of shopping; there were perhaps fifty vehicles in the car park at the time, and the Megane was the only one that looked up to date.Everything else - even cars that had been launched within the last five years - suddenly looked old-fashioned. They seemed to be products of a different century . . . which they were, of course, but it was almost as if someone had accidentally parked a modern car in a space reserved for classics.The level of daring in the specification is if anything even more pronounced. The test car came in Privilège trim (the highest of five possibilities) and was therefore packed with all manner of goodies. Among those not available on lesser models are part-leather upholstery, a six-CD multichanger, electrically folding door mirrors, the hands-free Renault card and front carpet mats.I mention the carpet mats only because I had to remove the one on the driver's side within the first ten minutes, after it got tangled up with the pedals and refused to allow the accelerator to release properly. Far more intriguing is the hands-free card. All Meganes have the now-common keyless ignition system, whereby you prod a button on a rather inconveniently large plastic card to lock and unlock the doors. In most versions you slip this card into a slot and then press a button to start and stop the engine.The hands-free card goes a step further. As long as the car senses that this card is in the vicinity, you can open the doors just by pulling on the handles, and you don't need to put the card in its slot to start the engine. Instead, a helpful notice on the dashboard tells you that you can just press the button (as long as you are also prodding either the brake or the clutch at the same time).Ingenious stuff, no? Perhaps a little too ingenious, I think. The most important thing about any complex system like this is how likely it is to go wrong, followed closely by what will happen if it does. I can't help imagining a situation, probably when the car is no longer in warranty, when it will allow you to open the doors and start the engine regardless of whether you have the key with you or not. In which case the Megane will be the most easily stealable car on the road.I'm sure Renault will say that this is completely and utterly impossible. But a couple of other systems had a brief case of the hiccups during the test - for example, the "intelligent" wiper system, which admitted (by means of a message on the display panel) that it had a problem, even though the wipers seemed to be working fine. A small problem which did not occur again during my time with the car, but it did create a slight suspicion in my mind. I'm all for progress in technology, but I also like to be convinced about reliability, and at the moment, in the case of the Megane, I'm not.So much for the electronics. This Megane has the four-cylinder 118bhp 1.9-litre turbo diesel engine which I first encountered (and was deeply impressed by) in a Laguna we tested some time ago. It's a splendid unit, perhaps the best of its kind available at the moment, and it has so much mid-range pull that the Megane performs well in even in the very high-ratio sixth gear. That gearing also allows for splendid economy; the on-board computer reported that, even including some pretty brisk motoring, I had achieved an average of more than 43mpg in the course of ten days, and while on-board computer figures are not to be taken as gospel, I can quite believe that this one was close to the mark.At the wheel you feel slightly remote from what is happening on the tarmac - something of a Renault characteristic these days - but grip levels are very high, and there's not much sense of having a heavy engine dominating the front suspension. It's very satisfying to be able to whisk round a corner in a fuss-free manner and then use the considerable amount of torque to fire yourself down the next straight, even with only a couple of thousand rpm on the clock.Inside the car you don't get much of the characteristic diesel rattle. Some very good NVH suppression has obviously been done here, and in fact the Megane's build quality seems to be generally very high indeed. French cars often have a feeling of flimsiness about them, certainly in comparison with ones built in Germany, but the Megane feels as solid as a very solid thing.There's plenty of room up front for tall passengers, though in fairness most manufacturers are able to provide this even in cars that are considerably smaller than the Megane. Things are not quite so good in the rear - there's a lot of headroom, as the roofline suggests, but not much knee space for people with long legs. And luggage space is only moderate compared with that of rival cars.I liked a couple of neat touches in particular: first the handbrake, which works like an aircraft throttle and is very comfortable to use, and second the fuel filler, which is pushed out of the way when you apply the nozzle so you don't have to mess about unlocking it. But again there's a slight worry here, in that mischievous passers-by could insert foreign substances into the fuel tank with great ease, which would less than fortunate.At £15,500, this is the second most expensive Megane in a competitively priced range with pleasantly low insurance costs. All models boast very high levels of safety equipment, and of course the Megane is one of the very few cars (the Laguna having been the first) to achieve five stars in the Euro NCAP crash tests.All in all, there are a great many plus points about the Megane. It's a splendid device, but there are also just enough negatives to give me some cause for concern about whether it's as good a buy as it appears. I hope I'm wrong.Second opinion: I'm no fan of the rear-end styling, and, being quite leery about French-car electrics, I'd prefer a Megane with a boring old metal key, and warning lights which seem to be connected with what's really going on. A dud, then? Absolutely not. The minor annoyances are heavily outweighed by the fact that this is a fine, sure-footed road car, with a dCi engine offering formidable pull. A high sixth gear means that it's a very relaxed and economical long-distance cruiser. The interior is well laid out and presented, and the Privilège specification is loaded with useful features. Apart from various warning light problems, and a certain difficulty in figuring out how to get all the doors rather than just the driver's unlocked, the car was far better than I'd been expecting. Ross Finlay. Engine 1870cc, 4 cylinders Power 118bhp Transmission 6-speed manual Fuel/CO2 52.3mpg / 144g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 10.5 seconds Top speed 122mph Price £15,500 Details correct at publication date
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