The Renault Scenic has enjoyed bursts of popularity on the Irish market over the years and for a while was the default choice in the seven-seater category. But once more mainstream players such as Ford and Toyota started upping their interest in this segment, twinned with some shoddy build and reliability from the Renaults, the Scenic’s popularity began to wane. We must admit it had been quite a while since we spent any time in a Renault Scenic, but what with Renault’s new-found popularity thanks to giveaway prices, and a new gearbox offering in the Scenic we decided it was time to reacquaint ourselves. EDC stands for Efficient Dual Clutch and it is Renault’s dual clutch offering much like the DSG you will find from the Volkswagen brand.
The list price of the Renault Grand Scenic EDC Dynamique is €31,890, but even with scrappage a distant memory Renault will now offer you a ‘Trade-In Booster” of €3,000 off the price and a further €2,500 off if you are trading in a car of 10-years or older. So you could end up paying as little as €26,390 for this large, seven-seater that is laden with equipment. But is it any good?
Well yes, it is. Renault has decades of experience at packaging seven people and the Grand Scenic is brilliantly versatile with the rearmost row of seats folding neatly into the floor of the car. And Renault’s these days feel better built too, with much better plastics and a much more solid feel to the vehicle overall. And the kit thrown in as standard is really impressive. This includes climate control, Bluetooth that will operate your phone and stream your music and a built-in TomTom satellite navigation system. Twin that with this new EDC gearbox that is very smooth and it all feels rather good.
There is just a 1.5-litre dCi engine in the Grand Scenic and you might think that it feels pretty sluggish in such a substantial car, but it actually feels fine. Sure enough, 0-100km/h takes a massive 14.3 seconds but this is more than made up for by the fact that the CO2 emissions are just 124g/km meaning annual road tax of just €156 in an automatic, diesel 7-seater. If you avail of the offers on these then you are getting a vehicle, which is thousands less than its nearest rivals. If you are keen on value then you really can’t ignore this model and with this new gearbox it is really at its best.