Renault sport Megane 225, talk to me.
Discussion
Browsing the classifieds I have stumbled on the Megane 225, I have always liked the look of these but never thought about buying one before.
I need a more practical car than my z4, baby on the way,(won't be the main family car) and very surprised to find quite a few on auto trader/ph and they seem to be a performance bargain, approx £6000 seems to be in the middle of the price range for 2006 year cars,
I have done a bit of googling and they seem to be very highly rated.
After 10 years of BMW with cam chains and simple mechanics are these a bit of a pig to work on? I would probably get the cam belt done as soon as I bought one just to be on the safe side.
So, what are the key things to look for when buying apart from the usual, any strange quirks I need to be aware of?
Also there seems to be a cup pack available, how do you tell between a cup chassis and a standard one and is there much of a difference? Do they all come with brembo's?
Any feedback would be great
Steve
I need a more practical car than my z4, baby on the way,(won't be the main family car) and very surprised to find quite a few on auto trader/ph and they seem to be a performance bargain, approx £6000 seems to be in the middle of the price range for 2006 year cars,
I have done a bit of googling and they seem to be very highly rated.
After 10 years of BMW with cam chains and simple mechanics are these a bit of a pig to work on? I would probably get the cam belt done as soon as I bought one just to be on the safe side.
So, what are the key things to look for when buying apart from the usual, any strange quirks I need to be aware of?
Also there seems to be a cup pack available, how do you tell between a cup chassis and a standard one and is there much of a difference? Do they all come with brembo's?
Any feedback would be great
Steve
MissCheif is right Steve. The R26 is worth the extra money as the dynamic ability is supposed to be far better than the 225.
Oh and it comes with the quaife diff! My recently deceased mk1 focus RS had one of those as standard and it's brilliant fun with the way it pulls you out of corners. The r26 should be dynamically better than the RS I owned and I had brilliant fun flinging that round corners
I collect my Liquid Yellow (rare sourt after colour) R26 on Thursday. Any detailed advice I'd join up to meganesport forums mate
Paul
Oh and it comes with the quaife diff! My recently deceased mk1 focus RS had one of those as standard and it's brilliant fun with the way it pulls you out of corners. The r26 should be dynamically better than the RS I owned and I had brilliant fun flinging that round corners
I collect my Liquid Yellow (rare sourt after colour) R26 on Thursday. Any detailed advice I'd join up to meganesport forums mate
Paul
When I was looking for a new car these were out of my price range. The 'standard' 225 was seen as a disappointment as it seemed to be a bit soft compared to other Hot Hatches at the time. They then introduced a Trophy version and then offered a Cup pack that tightened things up (The order may be backwards, it was nearly two years ago). Then they brought out the F1 inspired R26 versions with a minor power increase to 230HP with LSD and some unique paint options. The Liquid Yellow looks awesome.
Again orders of specs may be incorrect as it was ages ago I was looking. Don't forget the R26.R versions too!
Again orders of specs may be incorrect as it was ages ago I was looking. Don't forget the R26.R versions too!
going back a bit my house mate at the time had an R26 F1 in blue and as it was always last in the driveway I used to "acquire" it for various trips and tasks (with his permission of course!) Nice enough car and he didn;t have any issues reliability wise with it.
From memory it handled nicely but did have some quite bad torque steer at times especially in the wet so decent boots on the front are a must. The F1 had marginally more power from the engine and despite its really rather bland and flat exhaust note was a very strong performer feeling remarkably quick. Economy was average for this type of car. F1 comes with lovely Recaro seats which are even nicer than the already brilliant renault sport items and some pretty serious Brembo brakes up front although I only see these as an annoyance as i'm sure the discs and pads will be significantly more expensive to replace than the already good standard items. Things I hated on it were the low rent dash and interior, the smallish boot, the crap headlights and the nasty, rubbery, vague gearchange. Also the F1 model was very stiffly sprung and this became annoying on the motorway Other than that it was a decent motor. As to how reliable they are, I have never worked on one and my house mates was less than a year old at the time.
From memory it handled nicely but did have some quite bad torque steer at times especially in the wet so decent boots on the front are a must. The F1 had marginally more power from the engine and despite its really rather bland and flat exhaust note was a very strong performer feeling remarkably quick. Economy was average for this type of car. F1 comes with lovely Recaro seats which are even nicer than the already brilliant renault sport items and some pretty serious Brembo brakes up front although I only see these as an annoyance as i'm sure the discs and pads will be significantly more expensive to replace than the already good standard items. Things I hated on it were the low rent dash and interior, the smallish boot, the crap headlights and the nasty, rubbery, vague gearchange. Also the F1 model was very stiffly sprung and this became annoying on the motorway Other than that it was a decent motor. As to how reliable they are, I have never worked on one and my house mates was less than a year old at the time.
Hoddy910 said:
MissCheif is right Steve. The R26 is worth the extra money as the dynamic ability is supposed to be far better than the 225.
Oh and it comes with the quaife diff! My recently deceased mk1 focus RS had one of those as standard and it's brilliant fun with the way it pulls you out of corners. The r26 should be dynamically better than the RS I owned and I had brilliant fun flinging that round corners
I collect my Liquid Yellow (rare sourt after colour) R26 on Thursday. Any detailed advice I'd join up to meganesport forums mate
Paul
I agree with all the above comments, I love my R26 and won't be changing anytime soon.Oh and it comes with the quaife diff! My recently deceased mk1 focus RS had one of those as standard and it's brilliant fun with the way it pulls you out of corners. The r26 should be dynamically better than the RS I owned and I had brilliant fun flinging that round corners
I collect my Liquid Yellow (rare sourt after colour) R26 on Thursday. Any detailed advice I'd join up to meganesport forums mate
Paul
Although I wouldn't class LY as a rare colour, sort after but not rare as it's the most common on the R26.
steve_bmw said:
Some great replys chaps, I'll get on it tonight and see what's available.
I'll make sure I get one with an LSD, I can imagine wth 225 bhp it would be a bit of a handful without.
The standard seats look ok but the recaros look superb.
Cheers
They arent a handfull at all. I'll make sure I get one with an LSD, I can imagine wth 225 bhp it would be a bit of a handful without.
The standard seats look ok but the recaros look superb.
Cheers
I had all 3 at points.
I spent the last 30 mins writing a review on all three and it didnt post
I will do it again later Axionknight said:
I dont think you can get a five door R26, will that be a problem for getting the nipper in and out of the back for you?
Good point, but it won't be the main family car, I just wanted something a bit different for my self and something that I could get the family in if needed. I want a hot hatch, not had one before and I think this is pick of the bunch.
steve_bmw said:
The Autotrader ad wasnt for an R26 (if that's the one you want), there are around 12 on herehttp://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds?Category=us...
If it were my £6k I'd look at going down the predictable golf GTi route. The interior on the Renaults really is god aweful. Recently had this decision myself, looked at everything, even 3 MPS's. Ended up with BMW 130i for £7k (but 2005 reg but only 59k miles). Think I got the best of the bunch tbh, others can't even come close in terms of noise and the feeling of specialness.
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