14 Nov 07
So handy was the modest Partner that it made her think that she'd be better off with a small panel van rather than the Roomster or the Peugeot equivalent, the Partner Combi. She has a point, given that she rarely takes rear-seat passengers anywhere but tends to make good use of a load bay.
The Partner is available with a 1.4 petrol engine or a 1.6 diesel, and has two seats up the front, one or two sliding doors on the side - and not much else. It looks very humble next to the rather startling looking Bipper heading our way from Peugeot, but real van drivers don't want to draw attention to themselves.
Meanwhile, I've had my head turned by something almost as odd-looking as the Roomster, in a rather more macho, aggressive way. The Renault Scenic Conquest is a butched-up Scenic, in the not particularly honourable tradition of pseudo off-roaders like the Rover Streetwise, Citroen C3 XTR and Skoda's own Scouts.
The Conquest involves some hideous body cladding and brightly coloured seatbelts (boo!) but it also has firmer suspension, which reduces the body roll and turns the Scenic from a decent car to drive into a very good car to drive (yay!), certainly with the 1.9 diesel engine. It's also offered with a smaller diesel engine and a choice of petrols.
The Conquest sticks to front-wheel drive, which means you wouldn't want to take it any further off-road than a regular Scenic, although the 20mm of extra ground clearance makes life easier over speed bumps.
Renault describes it as MPV meets SUV, but that doesn't do the Conquest justice - this is the monster truck of family hatches. It's bigger and more expensive than a Roomster, but has the same sort of rugged, quirky charm.
