Renault Scenic/Grand Scenic

We know the new seven-seater Grand Scenic is good. This, however, is our first go in the five-seat Scenic (the un-Grand, maybe?), and here's the news: model for model, it's £2k cheaper than the outgoing Scenic.

Two grand. And about the same amount cheaper than the equivalent Ford C-Max or Citroen C4 Picasso. This is impressive stuff, as the new Scenic is a fine all-round car: nicely-kitted, spacious and decent to drive.

Surprisingly decent to drive, in fact: the Scenic shares its chassis with the Megane estate on p76 and, though we're not talking Focus RS-style puntability here, it ain't half bad on a decent road. We drove the 106bhp 1.5-litre diesel engine, and it's good: quiet and just quick enough, but if you're planning on loading your Scenic high, you wouldn't want anything with less power.

The trade-off, maybe inevitably, is that the Scenic's interior isn't quite as smart as Citroen's C4 Picasso or the Toyota Verso. Yes, your offspring sit nice and high on the rear seats, in a glassy, airy cabin, but the storage bins are narrow and tricky to access, while the folding tray tables don't feel as if they'd last 10 minutes in the grasp of a Haribo-high tween. That two grand should buy you a few replacement parts, though...

Sam Philip