Shed is a bit behind the times on company cars these days, but when he was in salaried rather than unpaid self employment he remembers Renault being quite a player on UK fleets. When the first Megane came out in 1995 as a replacement for the 19, the 2.0 16-valve version was as sought after by ambitious young tyros in shiny suits as the previous model's equally well regarded 1.8 16-valver had been. You didn't need a lot of power to have fun when old school French suspension came together with light, crash-dummy unfriendly bodywork.
Megane 1s are practically extinct now, and the Megane 2 that replaced it in 2002 is sadly going down the same road. Why is that sad? Well, for a start, the Meg 2 was no flimsy French floosie. Indeed, it was the first small family car to achieve a five-star NCAP crash rating.
More importantly, it looked like nothing else. If you believe that the auto world needs a return to distinctive styling, particularly in the mainstream, the Megane 2's fantastically courageous pitched battle between glass and metal would be a great lesson to draw on. The Avantime-style back end in particular evoked memories of, well, nothing (apart from an Avantime). Having said that, here's a French bloke pointing out how, with the right lens, the back end of a black one can look just like Darth Vader's helmet.
These 2s still stand out on the road today, increasingly so as growing rarity refuels their shock value. Unfortunately for Renault, UK small family car customers in the early 2000s would only accept distinctive looks if they were accompanied by dynamic excellence, as they were so brilliantly in the Focus. The Megane 3 that sidled onto the market in 2008 was a skulking reflection of board remorse. It was about as exciting as a prison sentence.
With extras fitted, that YouTube Megane 2 thankfully doesn't sound like Darth Vader's helmet, which is a good thing because nobody wants their car to sound like a nuisance caller. What it does show is that even our dirty, unloved 3-door Megane 2 GT Shed could look and sound special, given half a chance and half a day with a bucket and sponge.
Obviously the GT is a pretend Megane, a Renaultsport-lite if you will, designed to appeal to the upwardly-mobile company car driver who didn't have the salarific heft to stump up the tax on something pokier. Shed thinks there may have been a GT-Line model as well, although he admits he might be getting mixed up with the Megane 3 there.
The unfortunately coded F4Rt turbocharged 2.0 engine in the 'real' Renaultsport Megane R26 put out 227hp, which was enough for a 6.5sec 0-62 time and a 147mph top speed. In the downtuned GT you only got 165hp, but there was also less than 1,200kg to push along, resulting in a sprightly enough 0-62 time of 8.3sec.
Almost all of the notes that have appear on this car's MOT certificates down the years have been to do with worn tyres and brake pads, which if we're being brutally honest can happen to any car. Add to that a small sprinkling of 'insecure items' including inner wheelarch covers, the odd CV joint, and (slightly more worryingly) wiring, although to be fair there has been no more of that sort of thing since the ABS wire came adrift in 2013, at which point the car had done 39,000 miles.
Even so, electrics are the weak point on these. Anything depending on a steady flow of juice - windows, indicators, wipers, infotainment, ignition and entry systems - can go 'sur le blink' at le drop d'un chapeau. Some or most of these electrical problems will be related to water ingress. Cabin squeaks and rattles are par for the course and Shed seems to recall something weird about the coil design too. He's not sure if this one has the keycard thingy, but if it does mind how you look after it.
The other thing that these VVT engines have is the dephaser system that is well known to Renaultsport Clio owners. A grumbly growly noise at idle that disappears with revs will mean money will soon need to be spent on a new pulley. There's no talk of service history in the ad so you should assume the worst and spring for the full belt and pulley kit, or you could just bumble along and hope for the best as the bod who has just put 20,000 miles on this car in under a year presumably did.
Today, this three-owner Megane is still only showing a reasonable 121,000 miles. Last August's tester repeated the previous one's comments about lightly corroded rear shocks. The rest of the story you'll need to unearth for yourself.
This is the first Megane we've had in SOTW, or since records began at any rate, which is about eight years ago. As noted, it could do with a good clean inside and out, but once that's done (and with a favourable following wind on the electronics and pulley stuff) Shed is betting that it will look like decent value at £899, especially as according to the ad it has not one but two Air Conditionings.
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