A Grand view from this Scenic

I’LL begin with a
true story. When I switched from a Ford Focus to a Renault Scenic 13 years ago
a senior mechanic in my local Ford garage told me that I would have problems
with the electrics in a Renault.

I thought he was just bad mouthing the opposition, but
the mechanic proved to be correct. Yes, I had a small electrics problem with
the Scenic, but they were easily fixed. In the intervening years I have driven
some beautiful trouble-free Renault cars, but that incident lingers on my mind.

When it was introduced in 1996 the Scenic was dubbed
the first compact MPV; it was hugely popular and was named European Car of the
Year for 1997.

Over the years several other car companies have tried
to emulate Renault’s successful MPV with the Nissan Qashqai probably the only
one to come close.

The Scenic is based on the excellent Megane and
Renault has now added two extra seats to give us the Grand Scenic. With seven
seats the Grand Scenic is truly a family MPV and it would be ideal if you
wanted to start your own soccer team. If your assistant manager and
yourself both owned a Grand Scenic you
could ferry the team around yourselves. Unless you are ferrying children to a
game the likelihood is that the third row of seats will be left folded down as families
seem to be getting smaller. And if you have children sitting in the middle row
they can use the fold-up trays attached to the two front seats to hold games or
drinks on a long journey.

This is a massive motor and you will appreciate the
reversing sensors. From the driver’s perspective the first thing you notice is
that you don’t have a regular speedometer. Instead you get a digital speed
display bang in the centre of the dash as you keep a look out for the dreaded
white van parked on the side of what is possibly a dual carriageway. The display
area on the dash is very narrow, but it’s clearly visible to everybody in the
car. And the driver also gets neat slave controls on the steering wheel. Just
the left of the display unit is the built-in Tomtom sat nav.

The seating position for the driver is comfortable and
naturally high, but not too high. And with a massive windscreen in your line of
vision you do get the impression that the road ahead is all yours. There is a
big console for holding drinks or other items located between the driver and
the front seat passengers. It slides back and forth and you need to be careful
as you could do damage to one of the back seat passenger’s knees if you slide
it back very quickly.

To sum up, this is a spacious, comfortable motor and
would be ideal for anybody who has a large family. I really liked the keyless
entry. Once the key is on your person you can just walk away from the car and
it locks itself; you get a

?¬26,790.