We had a couple of meetings with Renault in Paris and a viewing of the new Twingo in Aubevoye. This region of France is about half way between Paris and Calais. It seemed more logical to make the journey by car and what better way to do the trip than in a Renault, a Grand Scenic to be more specific, perfect.

Renault sent us a “13” Plate car, with a few miles on the clock, but was the facelift model, with the new 1.6 dCi diesel engine. Would this engine be as good as Renault say and as economical?

The length of the name of the particular version is certainly a mouthful. But to sum up, it is a Grand Scenic Dynamique with TomTom Satellite Navigation. The TomTom system is not as intuitive as many others and takes quite a bit of understanding and getting used to. There were two of us in the car and at one stage we had to look for the handbook to see how it all worked. But there wasn’t a handbook in the car, so we had to work it out ourselves. We did nevertheless get there and back, although the satellite navigation could be made easier to operate.

The 1.6 litre engine produces 130 ps and accelerates from 0 to 62mph in 11.1 seconds, and has a top speed of 121mph. For the size of the car, and the fact it has seven seats the CO2 emission figure is relatively low at 114g/km. The official combined fuel consumption figure is 64.2mpg. But we only managed to achieve 46.7mpg driving from Huddersfield to Paris, and back. But much of the journey was on French motorways at speeds of 130kph, which is just over 80mph. Therefore overall we thought this was a good result.

The new facelift Grand Scenic has the new style Renault grille and badge, and an overhaul of the front end. It makes it look more modern and certainly an improvement. You can see from a distance that it has been refreshed and is different to the outgoing model. 

The interior has hardly changed, but it was already up to a reasonably high quality. All switches, buttons and levers are all in the right place, but unlike the satellite navigation it easy to work out what they do, so consequently it makes them easy to use.

The second row of seats fold down and back up again with a minimum amount of fuss. They can be operated using just one finger, all very simple. With the second row in the up position there is loads of room in the luggage area, for goods, shopping and some fairly large objects. Put them down and this car turns very quickly into a car with the load capacity of a small van. But with the 2nd and 3rd row of seats upright, the luggage area is very limited, with hardly any room for anything: maybe a couple of supermarket shopping bags. The third row has two seats and is ideal for children, but a couple of adults would not comfortable travelling in them for too long.

The Grand Scenic, was as the name suggests, Grand to drive, Grand to travel in, and has Grand comfort. We sat in that car for over 1,200 miles in two days. We drove on motorways in the UK, on motorways in France. We drove on the mad and busy, even chaotic roads of Paris. Through small French villages and through the glorious countryside of Normandy, and the Grand, was Grand, it did everything right and was so comfortable. After all that time in it, you still got out as fresh as you got in.

On the way back from Paris, we called in to Renault’s secret testing facility at Aubevoye. But it can clearly be seen using Google Earth, it’s there as clear as day. We had a quick look at the new Twingo, the forthcoming rear engine, rear wheel drive small five door hatch. We asked if frozen food put in the boot (on top of the engine) would thaw quickly, as it would get hot in there. The answer from the French product people was a very clear “non”. It did appear to have a good level of insulation, which keeps the heat from the interior of the car.

The one annoying thing about the Grand Scenic (and most other Renaults) is the “Keyless-Entry” key. This is about the same size as a credit card, and just a bit thicker. But you have a habit of losing the thing. You put it in a pocket, and as if by magic, it disappears, very annoying.  A normal key or something a bit larger would be oh so much nicer, and would stop you panicking quite as much.

The cost of the test car was £23,615.00 OTR. But add in a few options such as the Look pack, which contains 17 inch Plenum alloy wheels and roof bars and costs £410 or the very nice Panoramic sunroof at £900. You can soon take the price to over £25,000.00. But for a well built, 7 seater, with an economical engine and low CO2 emissions, it doesn’t look bad value.

We enjoyed every minute, every mile, and every kilometre we travelled in the Grand Scenic (except maybe, central Paris)

Martin Ward, Manufacturer Relationship Manager