There are a few things to get used to in the Renault Megane, but once you’ve driven it for a few days you’ll feel like you’ve been driving it forever. The take-off is has a slight lurch factor (it feels like a manual on take-off), so it’s a bit jerky, but it quickly becomes expected.
The rest of the drive is smooth and quiet, with responsive steering (though a little stiff, apparently intentional because it’s the sports version). Even though it has a small 1.2-litre engine, I found it good enough for my suburban drives from beach to home and shipping the kids around to friend’s houses and their grandma’s.
Basically, if that’s what you do in your car - easy driving in suburban areas, it’s enough. It even got up the hill near my house I test all cars on, with little effort and lots of zoom.
I had a slight problem when the start-stop function did not restart for me, which proved to be an issue because I was on a hill, however you can turn that feature off and that’s how I drove the car for the rest of the week. It dampened my enthusiasm for the Megane slightly, however.
It sits lower than an SUV, being a wagon it’s on par with sedans and hatches, and this is just one of those things you get used to - being at a regular height in a car. It kind of makes you wonder why we’ve all been sitting up high for so long.