2000 Renault Megane Expression review from UK and Ireland

I owned this car for three years, and despite it being an all round good car, I did note the following problems:

1. The air-conditioning stopped working. This was inspected by the dealer (under warranty) and I was told it needed re-gassing (not included in warranty - surprise!). This cost £70.

Three months later (now out of warranty) it stopped again. This time it was a £50 inspection fee to be told the heater unit had broken, cost to replace £1,000 - on a car worth £3k?

Needless to say, this did not get fixed, and despite many phone calls to Renault and the dealer the best offer they could do was a £30 discount on the work (therefore a bargain £970 fix), or to ignore the problem for valuation purposes should I chose to part-exchange the vehicle for a new Renault (neither of which are much use to a person without spare money in the summer!)

2. The center brake light fell off the back window - it is held on with two sticky pads. After 14 visits to the dealer for it to be fixed, (which resulted in various 'fixes' from more glue to a whole new back brake light unit), I gave up and it now resides in the garage on a shelf! Fortunately it is not an MOT failure to remove the light (but it is to have a light there that doesn't work). This was not a serious problem, more an annoyance that every time you opened the boot the light fell off the back window and swung toward your face!

3. The button to lower the back seats has been jammed in for some weeks. I have no idea why or how, but the only way to lower the seat now is to open the catch in the boot using a screwdriver - not as convenient as the button! Renault dealers quoted £850 for a new back seat as the only cure to the problem - and they could not guarantee it would be in the same fabric as the other seats when it arrived - not appealing really.

4. The service light never comes on regardless of how many miles you do over the 18k service interval - however in hindsight this could be regarded by some as a good thing!

Nice car to drive.

Performance from the 1.6 is plentiful if there are one or two passengers, however it does suffer if more fully loaded with people / luggage.

Fuel economy good, even at 90 mph on the motorway I was averaging 39mpg.

Attractive car in the dark metallic blue I had, I certainly think it still looks better than the new Megane with the funny back end.

Never had any reliability problems, started first turn of the key every day, and would happily do 8 - 10 hour drives without feeling tired (as the Clio I had before used to).

Generally a good car, shame about the steep depreciation though!