Has anyone driven/ridden in a Renault Megane R26? (Has to be the R26, don't care about the 225 or the Cup)

I know its bloody rapid, but I need to know if the ride is as bad as reviews say?

Thing is, I like a bit of a harder ride (ha ha, settle down pkc) but I'd like to know whether its too hard

No I can't test drive one and find out for myself, theres only 6 in Adelaide and Renault won't give anyone a test drive without money on the table.

Its this, a Golf GTI (driven, nice, its in front at the moment), keep my money for frivolity, or buy a house.............

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**Man I'm Pretty**

how about the 225? theyre awesome

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i prefer the cup, you should take that one!

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new set online, Summer Journeys

Buy a house!

Its a 2L turbo front wheel drive throwing probably a fair bit of horsepower through there, that means it torque steers horribly off the line and has the turning circle of an oil tanker.
Aside from that, no one takes young men in ricey hatchbacks seriously hehe

230hp, but its got an LSD on the front. Handles insanely well, no torque steer, huge amounts of grip, everything I've ever read says its by far the quickest small car out there, the best handling and the best driving experience.

Plus it doesn't look that outlandish if you get rid of the F1 Team decals (not like the Civic Type-R which looks stupid, the interior is even worse). You can easily potter around and no one will look twice.

Its problem is the ride (hence the question), which one mag said "is like being kicked in the kidneys over every bump" and later said "if you don't mind blood in your urine, its great".


Like i said, if (and it is still only an if) I do get a new car its likely to be the Golf, its just great all round and looks pretty good

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**Man I'm Pretty**

Last edited by Trance Nutter on Aug-09-2007 at 14:32

What kind of LSD? There's a few of them out there and mechanically they're all quite different in their effectiveness and unless it's got some kind of traction control, I doubt you'll get rid of torque steer completely. Dunno about 'fastest' either, get a ride in a Pulsar GTiR if you want a scary fast hatchback. Renault will cost a lot to fix as well for parts after the warranty goes too.

Oh
Buy the house first, you can play with cars later when you have the spare dollars

ok, how easy is it to buy a Pulsar GTi-R today?
Pretty bloody difficult.

Thats 0-100 in 6 flat, R26 is 6.2 (ie, nothing).
Of any hot hatch you can go into a dealer and buy today, this is considered faster point to point.

But then heres the point, I'm not necessarily looking for the fastest car, but the one which will excite me when I need, cosset me when i need, look good when I need and be light on fuel when I need - ie, probably the Golf GTI which does everything at a high level (for reference, 0-100 in 6.9, quick enough). I may be able to find a car which does one or two of those, but all four? Probably not. You talk about looking ricey, have you seen the GTi-R? I've seen less ricey Hyundai's in my local Macca's carpark..........


ok, the house will seriously stretch me out beyond my means, a viable option? Not yet.
Its basically, keep my current car and enjoy shennanigans (a return to the Nurburgring sounds dandy), or buy a new car and cut down on frivolity




Actually stuff this, it seems no one has experienced the Megane (if you have, pm me), and I've just come to the decision (just then, like 2 minutes ago) that the Golf was more comfortable just even to sit in and a bit nicer built and its got a few other things which would make life a little nicer day to day. If (and as I said before, it is only still an if) I do go ahead, I think the Golf is the way to go

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**Man I'm Pretty**

Last edited by Trance Nutter on Aug-09-2007 at 14:58

They're not that hard to find and about 1/3-1/4 of the price, much cheaper on parts, I'd thought about getting one some time ago but bought a GT4 instead. Just about every 2L turbo I ever owned was awful on fuel for the simple reason they're unbearably awful to live with 'puttering' around like Nanna in a Camry
I mean unless you intend to do motorkhana or amateur rally, there's no where to use the 'speedy' bits legally anywhere, so you're just stuck with an over-priced, over-engineered car you could do the same things 90% of the time with just some baseline hatch or small sedan.

Then you're going to find the joys of servicing. Every 5000k's, have to use top of the line oils like Motul or Redline which cost the earth, then you're also going to find a lot of mechanics just simply will not work on a lot of european cars like Peugots and Renaults.
Which just leaves the dealer to do it and they'll have you by the short and curleys when it comes to warranty servicing!
God help you if you break it... insurance is going to be savage as well.




Buy the house. It's a good investment rather than a depreciating asset