You’ve got to love these guys – they would dearly love to build plain, sensible cars like Volkswagen does, but they cannot suppress their Gallic creative streak. The result is a history of oddly attractive but badly flawed cars, but the new models are in a different class. Style, reliability and value all in one? Yes, you can.
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Espace/Grand Espace
Or you could practice birth control, that’s the other option. Just kidding – the Espace is vast, stylish and clever, and it’s a fab idea if you’ve got both kids and money.
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Kangoo
£9,440 - £13,790
Perfect if you make no distinction between children, chickens or cardboard boxes in terms of comfortable transport. All the trappings of a small van, with some chairs.
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Koleos
£17,170 - £24,720
Renault might be late to the SUV party, but this is a car that can happily leave the tarmac. Even so, it’s a confused package.
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Laguna
£15,190 - £27,705
Sees itself as a superhero with a mandate to bring style where there is dullness. But its nemesis, Dr Vectra, is vanquished, leaving the spangly suit looking a bit silly.
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Laguna Sport Tourer
Proves the immortal truth that big estates are slightly cooler than big hatches or big saloons. Sadly in the case of the Laguna, this means the Sport Tourer is still very uncool.
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Megane
£11,735 - £23,150
Lard-arsed Golf-rival looking a bit on the saggy side after a year or two too many on the market, but still an absolute hoot to drive and probably now a monster bargain.
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Megane 225
The donor car may be ageing, but its hooligan offspring is alive and kicking very hard. Scintillating handling and a ride so hard it makes Vinnie Jones cry.
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Megane CC
£16,310 - £22,585
The second-generation Megane was hardly the smallest in the posterior department, so with the even-more-generously-arsed CC it’s a wonder the thing can keep its nose on the ground. There are better coupe-cabriolets around nowadays...
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Scenic/Grand Scenic
In its old guise as the Megane Scenic it invented the MPV, and still features near the top of the chart against the many impressive Johnny-come-latelys. A parental rite







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