Driving is testing the three key types of family car over the coming months: an SUV (Honda CR-V), an estate (Audi A4 Avant) and a people carrier (Renault Grand Scénic, below). Which will prove the most useful for parents?
- Model 2017 Renault Grand Scénic dCi 130 Dynamic S Nav
- Tested by James Mills (@squarejames)
- Test starts May 1, 2017
- Price excluding options £28,605
- Price with options £31,454
- Options fitted Metallic paint (£545); full LED headlights (£500); Parking Pack Premium, including hands-free parking, 360-degree parking sensors and blind spot warning (£500); Safety Pack Premium, including adaptive cruise control, safe distance warning and advanced emergency braking system (£500); Bose Pack (£500); emergency spare wheel (£90); QuickFix aluminium roof bars (£150); two tablet holders (£64).
May 4, 2017: Welcome to the family
MPVs might be a dying breed but in my view, the Renault Grand Scénic is the most interesting-looking car of the three family cars Driving currently has on long-term test. Laurens van den Acker, Renault’s chief designer, has said the new Scénic has to do more than just attract admiring glances:
“The old Scénic looked like Mum and Dad had grown bored with each other,” he told us at the latest model’s launch. “The new one looks like they are in love again.” The Dutch designer added that if this model doesn’t sell, “the MPV segment deserves to die”. No pressure, then.
Our car has a 1.6-litre four-cylinder diesel engine, which Renault says returns 61.4mpg and emits 119g/km of CO2. It has a manual gearbox, which wouldn’t be our first choice for this type of car, but we’ll see how the six-speed unit gets on.
The Dynamic S Nav trim includes enough goodies to fill the shelves of a John Lewis electrical department. Are they helpful, though, or just shiny stuff to entice drivers like magpies?
And would buyers of this car be wise to spend a small fortune on extras, including LED headlights, a hands-free parking system, adaptive cruise control and a fancy Bose audio system? Keep returning to this page over the coming months to find out.
Got a question about the Renault Grand Scénic? Contact me on Twitter @squarejames.
May 10, 2017: First report on living with a Renault Grand Scenic
THE RENAULT Scenic has an unlikely fan. A certain Jeremy Clarkson described it as good-looking, well-equipped, practical and economical. I bet Renault’s people couldn’t believe it when the nation’s toughest-talking car critic added that the Scenic was exceptional value for money.
It was with these findings in mind that I first approached Driving’s Grand Scenic. Surely there must be a chink in this family car’s plastic armour?
There’s no beef to be had with this car’s price. Compared to the Honda CR-V and Audi A4 Avant that Driving is also subjecting to an extended test this summer, the Grand Scenic is a bit of bargain, priced from £23,445, and the Dynamique S Nav dCi 130 costs £28,605.
It’s also the only one of our three family cars to feature seven seats. The Grand here means bigger, and by bigger, Renault doesn’t just mean that there’s an extra bit of bodywork bolted onto the back of the car, to make room for the third row of seats that comes as standard.
The engineers have been hard at work, physically extending the chassis structure so that the distance between the car’s front and rear wheels is increased by 7cm for the Grand. What’s more, the back of the body has been lengthened, meaning overall the Grand is almost 23cm longer nose to tail than the standard, five-seat Scenic.
“20-inch alloy wheels. Has someone in Renault’s design department has been watching reruns of Pimp My Ride?”
It may not sound like much but in a family car, where parents and children soon feel like they’re living on top of one another, every little helps.
Where the previous model appeared to have been styled with all the flair of a Little Tikes push car, this fourth-generation Scenic is a handsome beast. The roof is low, the ride height is raised (to mimic an SUV), there’s neat two-tone paintwork and the whole lot is finished off with a set of huge (and standard) 20-inch alloy wheels. Has someone in Renault’s design department has been watching reruns of Pimp My Ride?
This gives it a certain cool factor that this type of car has always lacked. “Yes, we’ve got kids,” it says to other drivers in the shopping centre car park, “but we haven’t given up on life.” It makes other seven-seaters, such as the BMW 2-series Active Tourer and Ford S-Max, look frumpy.
The interior is significantly different to the last generation Scenic. For starters, the driver’s dials and instruments are now dead ahead of the steering wheel, whereas they sat in the middle of the dashboard before, giving the person sat in the middle rear seat the clearest view of the speedo, for some unfathomable reason.
In the middle of the dashboard is a large, 8.7 inch touchscreen. It’s positioned quite high so it’s well within reach, and the screen is of reasonable resolution, but there’s no getting away from the fact exploring its many menus and sub-menus takes eyes off the road.
Helping redress the balance a little is a head-up display, which can show, amongst other things, speed, distance to the vehicle in front (in seconds) and navigation instructions.
The trump card played by the Grand Scenic, however, is its stowage space. My family and I keep discovering new hide-holes all over the place, and an official, final count will be delivered in due course.
One big change compared with the last generation Scenic is that the middle row of seats is now two seats made to look like three, whereas before it boasted three independent seats. This was ideal when you had three strapping teenagers in the back, as the middle person could slide their seat forward slightly so they didn’t have to hunch their shoulders.
It also means that the central middle seat lacks Isofix child seat mounts, so if you have a kiddie seat that requires Isofix, or you insist on using Isofix for safety reasons, it can only be placed on the outer chairs, or the front passenger seat (with the passenger airbag turned off, of course).
Another difference is that all five back seats can now be lowered at the touch of a button. A control panel in the boot lets you choose between each individual seat, or all five at once. It’s a handy feature.
Just how well the car’s interior stands up to the demands of a family of five remains to be seen. And getting the best from the car’s myriad gadgets and gizmos and safety and security features is not going to be the work of a moment.
One feature that has been turned off is the keyless card’s “hands-free walkaway and welcome function.” In plain English, it means that when activated, the driver can keep the key in their pocket and the car will lock itself when the walk away, and unlock as they approach it.
However, it’s all too eager to lock itself, such as when you remember you’ve left the house keys on the kitchen table and go back to the house, or walk back to pick up the kids’ school bags from the front hallway. In such cases, the Scenic locks itself, regardless of whether or not it’s full of passengers.
It’s not just plain annoying. Although unlikely, what if the doors then failed to unlock with everyone aboard? There’s also growing concern over security vulnerabilities of this type of keyless system.
Happily, Renault lets drivers choose whether or not they wish to use the convenience function. So switching it off was a simple matter. A pat on the back, then, for Renault and letting drivers choose for themselves.
Got a question about the Renault Grand Scénic? Contact me on Twitter @squarejames.
The post Extended test: 2017 Renault Grand Scénic 130 dCi appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.
source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/extended-test-2017-renault-grand-scenic-130-dci/
No comments:
Post a Comment