Price: £1995
Mileage: 48,000
Condition: Too good to risk taking to Paris
Advert: Car & Classic
The five-door family hatchback may never have progressed at such a rate as it did in the 1990s. The decade started inauspiciously with the fifth-generation Ford Escort, but after that barely a year went by without a new challenger for the best car in class: Read through old car mags and test winners at one stage or another included 1991’s Citroën ZX, 1993’s Peugeot 306, 1995’s Fiat Bravo and Brava, 1998’s Ford Focus, the fourth-gen Vauxhall Astra, and the Volkswagen Golf Mk4.
Another to make headlines, and take a few C-segment scalps along the way, was Renault’s replacement for the sturdy but ageing 19 – the 1995 Megane. Loosely related to the 19 and taking its name from a 1998 Renault concept car, the Megane was part of the brand’s 1990s effort to shed its slightly staid image, as models such as the 19, 21, and 25 made way for curvier and more inviting shapes.
The main motivation behind these curves was Patrick Le Quément, who along with Michel Jardin is credited with the Megane’s design. Very much from the same family as 1993’s Laguna, the Megane was distinctive where its predecessor was reserved, with an almost egg-shaped roofline, a beak-like grille treatment, and sultry smoked rear lamps. The ovoid theme continued inside where the Megane’s dash was as rounded as the 19’s was geometric.
Power initially came from 1.4-, 1.6-, and 2-litre eight-valve four-cylinder engines, many of which were lifted or adapted from the 19 and Renault’s other models, but the real goal behind this new family car was to spawn its own family of models.
The five-door hatch was soon joined by a four-door saloon badged Classic, a two-door Coupe, a two-door Convertible, and most notably of all, the five-door Scenic, a five-seat MPV that turned out to be as significant in the C-segment as the Espace had been in the 1980s. Like the Espace, the Megane Scenic quickly spawned a series of imitators, and the small family MPV was as common a sight for a while as SUVs are today.
In many ways, the Megane played it safe; read Autocar’s 1995 road test of a 1.6-litre RT-spec car and you’ll find a solid four-out-of-five star rating, with high marks for ride comfort, braking, build quality, and safety, class-leading comfort and space, but only average scores for performance and handling. The mag deemed the Peugeot 306 still its favourite in the class thanks to its driver appeal, but commended the Renault as perhaps the most sensible family car of the bunch.
The Megane sold well too, though time apparently hasn’t been kind to Renault’s mid-’90s family car, since pre-facelift models in particular are exceedingly rare today.
Which is why this 1998 Megane in jazzed-up base-level trim, on sale via Car & Classic, caught our eye. RN spec kicked off the Megane range but as was often the case back then, manufacturers would punt out a special edition now and then, based on lower-spec cars but offering just a little extra kit, that helped move these bargain-basement models from showroom floors.
So the car for sale here is not just an RN, but an RN Paris. If the tag sounds a little glamorous then consider how useful those unpainted bumpers would be for shrugging off scrapes in the City of Light (…Contact When Parking). Helping further is standard power-assisted steering, which wasn’t a given on the regular RN; you’ll note in the interior pic that the RN was otherwise low-spec enough that you didn’t even get a rev counter, and had to wind your own windows both front and back.
It’s the condition of this car that really stands out, though. Not only is the mileage low at 48,000, but the ad says it’s been both rustproofed and garaged from new, and has a massive folder of bills and documents. We suspect this is one case where the photos don’t quite do the car justice, though we do just about spot a ripple in the bodywork below the nearside rear light, near the Renault badge – something to sort if you really cared.
Renault’s early Megane advertisements claimed the new car “Talked your language.” Our French isn’t as good as it should be, but whatever language you speak, this is one French family favourite we’d happily say “oui” to.
