Category: Small Family 
Price Range: No data available
Efficient engines, more upmarket cabin, competitively priced.
Bland looks, dull drive, not as spacious as some rivals.
A competent family car with frugal diesel engines, but it's pretty uninspiring and certainly not a class leader.
Renault identified the last Megane Estate's poor dynamic performance as a major area for improvement. But as the same chassis underpins this car, the French firm has a real job on its hands to make it drive as well as the VW Golf Estate or Ford Focus Estate.
And it hasn't done badly. Body roll is kept in check and the Megane corners flatly, with minimal fuss thanks to a new subframe. The power steering is also much better, losing the vagueness that blighted the previous version's performance and giving the driver more confidence in the car at speed.
This is by no means an enthusiastic driver's car though, and it won't ever satisfy on a twisty B-road. But it is safe and balanced, behaves predictably during hard cornering, and the Estate's extra bulk is hidden reasonably well.
With five different dCi diesel engines and five petrol units, performance varies massively. The pokiest version is the 2.0-litre TCe petrol - a 178bhp engine that enables a 0-62mph sprint of 8 seconds and a 139mph top speed.
But the majority of buyers will want a diesel, where the pick of the bunch is the 2.0-litre dCi 160 which best blends performance and economy. It offers a respectable 158bhp and is a smooth, torquey unit that is flexible enough to be comfortable on the motorway. Top speed is 133mph, while 0-62mph can be dismissed in 8.8 seconds, thanks to the diesel's decent mid-range punch.
There's also a cheaper-to-run 1.5-litre dCi, available with either 85bhp or 104bhp, but neither of these is likely to offer enough go to make them useful on the kinds of longer-distance jaunts estates are often bought to tackle.
