Renault Megane review

There are just the two trim levels now available for the Megane in the UK – Iconic and R.S. Line, which will set you back £29,495 and £31,495 respectively. Add another £1,500 to that and you can get yourself the estate version of the car. 

If you were looking to lease a Megane, you could expect to pay £485 a month for the Iconic trim and £526 a month for the R.S. Line. Add £35 to both of those and you can get yourself… well, you know. The real (pun intended) benefit of the Megane is its low BIK rate – 11 per cent for the hatch is catnip to company car drivers, rising to 13 per cent for the estate. 

On the Iconic trim you get 16in wheels, front and rear parking sensors, LED headlights, loads of airbags, auto climate control, ambient lighting and smartphone integration. Upgrading to R.S. Line trim bags you 17in alloys, rear parking camera, better upholstery and two inches more on your central touchscreen (9.3in vs 7in). The one stingy bit is that auto emergency braking only comes as standard on the upper trim level. 

Will I save loads of money with a PHEV?

Official fuel consumption figures for all versions of the car are significantly north of 200mpg, but these numbers for plug-in hybrid cars are all but meaningless. For illustration, we took an almost fully charged hatch out for 120 miles or so of mixed driving and averaged 80mpg, which is very respectable. You’ll want to get a charger installed at home to run your Megane PHEV – its 3.6kW onboard charger makes it all but pointless on paid public chargers, which will pump out a heady 7kW.

Renault offers a five-year warranty on its cars – unlimited miles for the first two years and then 100,000 miles for the three years after that. The batteries on the hybrid and plug-in models get warranty protection for eight years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. So that’s nice. A service package is also available for a one-off £499 or £749 to cover three or four years’ worth of servicing. That’s also nice.