Test Drive Renault Megane Coupe since 2012

Questions ideology

At the time of entering the Russian market of charged Ford Focus st, he will have a lot of competitors: the new three-year Opel Astra OPC will get to our market, and the Renault Megane RS, Seat Leon FR, Skoda Octavia RS, and, of course, will be sold well. VW Golf GTI is a spherical chamber of the fastest hatchback genres. The engine chose from this company two closest to focus in terms of power, but different hot hatch, and figured out the ideology of each of them.

RENAULT MEGANE RS and VW GOLF GTI 35 EDITION. Two diametrically opposite glances for charged hatchbacks. Anniversary version of the VW Golf GTI is 235 horsepower removed from a two-liter turbocoveor, a robotic predictive DSG transmission and surprisingly unwashed appearance. Boring, to a toothbrush.

Modest 17-inch discs, dark gray body painting, which is revived only by red stripes on the lattice of the radiator and the names of 35 on the wings. In general, golf as golf. It is possible to guess that in front of you the legendary hot hatch, you can only in red brake calipers and diluted in the corners of the bumper pipes of the muffler.


Keyfulness of the charged VW Golf GTI from the usual golf red stripes on the radiator grille, a pair of exhaust system nozzles and an imperceptible spoiler on the edge of the rear door.

Megane RS on his background is a real sports car. The sloping profile with a complex rear arm arm geometry, massive plastic linings on wings and thresholds that hide wide 18-inch wheels, curved spoiler in the front bumper and rear diffuser with a huge exhaust exhaust pipe. Plus, a spectacular bright yellow body color that causes neighbors in a flow literally to turn the heads.


Three-door Megane RS differs from a civilian model with swollen wheel arches, overlays on the thresholds and bumpers, and the muffler here was removed in the center of the rear diffuser.

The design of the salon Megan also puts his competitor on both blades. The French has a spectacular instrument panel with a yellow tachometer, inserts under carbon on the front panel, a relief steering wheel with a yellow line and a yellow central label, aluminum pads on pedals and yellow threads are beautiful seats with yellow inserts. Sport! However, looking after and knewing, you begin to notice the imperfection of the French interior.


1. Interior megan looks good and even stylish
2. RS RS and Yellow Belts are available on all versions of Hatbchek
3. CENTERAL METHOD on the steering wheel - referenced to racing cars
4. The basic version of Megane RS is equipped with ordinary, not very dense seats. But with electric drives and memory settings
5. Powered for Carbon almost revives the interior, and here the music Bose plays the middle
6. The removal of the climate and the radio will seem logical only to the real fans of French cars.

Cup / Sport
In the CUP package, in addition to the Recaro chairs with combination trim, also includes self-locking inter-wheeled differential, reconfigured, tighter suspension and painted in red brake calipers.

Strongly inclined tidy with diverse busshers, which differ not only to the color of the substrate, but also the size of the numbers, as well as the color of the arrows, it turns out not very visual and gloves in the sun; The traditional rosal radio tape recorder has confusing control, and its monochrome screen is too far from the buttons and makes it constantly carry the look from the bottom up and back. The quality of the materials are average, and the basic front seats have a too short pillow and an unsuccessful backrest profile. Optional recaro chairs is more convenient, but we intentionally chose a basic model for a test without a CUP package as the most civilian.


1. The pretty golf interior revived with red accents. Multimedia complex screen - Touch
2. Comfortable, deep enough seats have a very chain coating in the central part.
3. Golf ball sector - Tradition!
4. In the backs of the seats embroidered logos 35, and the belts have a red edging
5. It's a little bit off and decorated with aluminum inserts and a GTI namedr
6. Plastic inserts on the front panel have an unusual cellular spraying of matte paint

VW Golf, even in the anniversary version, seems boring inside, but pleased with the well-thought-out ergonomics of the salon, pleasant materials of the finishes and the highest quality assembly. Suppose from bright stains here only a red stitch on the steering wheel, a leather case of a DSG selector, the handle of the parking brake and on the seats, but the plastic inserts on the front panel do not mimic the banal carbon, and have an unusual cellular pattern, repeated in embossed on the seats. Aluminum is real here, and the seats are dense and deep. True, they are manually regulated, whereas on Megan a driver's chair has not only electric drives, but also the memory of three settings.

The rear sofas and golf, and in Megan are similar they are molded under two passengers, and the third here will be inconvenient due to the serving central section of the pillow. However, sit down, of course, is easier to golf, and not only thanks to the extra rear door: because of a strongly beveled roof, get back to Megane RS is not easy. And the front chairs here shifted forward with the help of electric drives, and very slowly.


Golf GTI is more practical than Megane RS. He has a more convenient trunk, despite the fact that a formally luggage compartment at megan is suitable: 377 liters of useful volume against 350 in golf. However, the Frenchman has too narrow opening and a large loading height, and the internal space is clamped with protruding wheeled arches. In addition, GTI has a five-door version, and Megane RS is available only in the form of a three-year.

The main ideological differences lie in the chassis of these hot-hatchs. GTI is, in fact, the usual golf, with MacPherson in front and a multi-dimensioner from behind, but with reconfigured springs-shock absorbers, stabilizers and more powerful brakes in front and rear. And if in Europe, GTI is sold with an adaptive chassis with three modes of operation of electronically managed shock absorbers, then only passive suspension is provided for the Russian market.

Megane RS was created by the Renault Sport division according to the very different rules. It is already in the database equipped with 4-piston brakes Brembo with 340-millimeter discs in front. In the rear suspension, he has a simple torsion beam, but on the front McPherson with separate swivel fists, which reduce the effect of power infringement during acceleration, and the stabilization system has a sports mode. Plus an enlarged track and re-configured shock absorbers with springs.


The suspension at Megan's really cool dense and energy-intensive: lying policemen can pass without slowing down, and the rolls are minimal. Surprisingly, the fact that eraska does not shake the soul even on a very bad road.

Yes, the peaks of vertical accelerations with inappropriate seems great, but Megane RS remains extremely assembled on any coating.

Against the background of the athlete of Megan Golf GTI almost a civil car. He has more rolls, softer suspension. He reacts a little sharper to large irregularities, but it is better smoothes small cracks and hillocks. By a bad road, Golf flies very elastically, without scaring blows from the holes, not allowing breakdowns on the bumps and without swaying on large coating waves.

GTI 35 EDITION
VW GOLF GTI 35 EDITION - An anniversary modification of GTI, issued in honor of the 35th anniversary of the legendary model. The turbo engine and a slightly changed trim of the cabin and the body was distinguished.

Despite the compromise settings of the chassis, GTI 35 Edition is not a smear. Its slightly lucid steering wheel turns out to be very accurate, and the golf command reacts without delays. Information from the front wheels with a margin. The driver always understands which clutch limit from the front tires and what kind of coating they are now rolling. It is a pity that the hooking of our GTI was just desperately lacked: the hatchback was too early to glide to the outward in the tense turns and once at times wearing the tires on each fast start from the traffic light. Tires are blamed simple TURNGESTONE TURANZA ER300 tires mounted on a test car. No, 235-strong hot hatch must be something for me to and short.


Bridgestone Turanza ER300 was not only slippery on the golf, but also very noisy hums of tires dominates in any conditions and at any speed. And on the highway with abrasive asphalt, too, talkative tires almost muffled the sound of the radio.

For example, the same Tires Dunlop SP Sport Maxx, like on Megane RS. On these tires, the French Hot-Hatch demonstrates simply a fantastic clutch margin and in slow turns, and on running arcs. That's just in the city, at permissible speeds, the entire potential of the megan is impossible to reveal.

With the measured ride, it seems sluggish at all: it reacts to the steering impulses with Lenza (the sensitivity of the steering wheel in the incomplete zone is small), and the responses for moving the gas pedal seem nonlinear. I clicked slightly, a little stronger sharply jumping forward. Not the most appropriate quality for daily trips on traffic jams, especially in combination with tight and sharply grasping clutch.

Honestly, Megane RS feels uncomfortable in the MEGANE RS trapping traffic.

Riding in the flooded items. Up to 3-3.5 thousand revolutions of the mighty turbo engine, megan sleeps with full breasts, it begins to breathe closer to the mark of four thousand revolutions. In addition, the turboyam, on this hot hatch, turned out to be quite tangible to quickly twitch when rebuilding from a number in a row or accelerate when leaving the adjacent road, it is possible only after a tangible pause.


Short programs The second ends already 90-95 kilometers per hour is ideal for short urban sprints. However, due to the inertness of the motor at low speeds on the third in the city, we will not be particularly trading: scratching from the working area of \u200b\u200brevolutions, it will not be able to sharply accelerate.

Megane RS need space. On a fast winding road, the hatchback is completely transformed: the steering wheel acquires the necessary informativeness and accuracy, and the gas pedal becomes almost perfectly responsive. The main thing is to hold the working turns in the range of 4-7 thousand: Below the eraska does noticeably, and above the coarse cut-off. But between these marks, Megane RS is accelerating almost walked, under the hissing of the exhaust system, driving the tachometer arrow into the red zone.

In terms of its nature, the MEGAN engine resembles an old school turbosotors slightly nervous, with pronounced turbolag, but also with no less bright pickup in high speed.

Under the full gas, the steering wheel is plugged on the irregularities, resembling about a rather big torque, forcing the front wheels of choking along the road. Compared to golf Megan and more powerful, and faster: its two-liter turbo engine develops for 15 horsepower (250 hp), and the difference in the maximum torque is even more impressive 40 nm (340 Nm at Megane RS versus 300 at Golf GTI 35 EDITION). As a result, even with mechanics, and the other transmission for eraski is not provided in principle, the French hothe-hatch accelerates from the spot to hundreds in 6.1 seconds, while the robotic jubilee Golf GTI reaches a mark of 100 kilometers per hour on half awend later.


It is a pity that the drive mechanical transmission Megane RS lacks clarity and selectivity on the background of an ideally configured DSG box on GTI 35 EDITION. This becomes especially noticeable. Golf accelerates inspired and without any noticeable breaking of thrust when changing steps: just gave the gas pedal to the floor and enjoy powerful acceleration. Only the current transmission indicator on the dashboard changes: 3-4-5 in sports mode DSG forgets about the sixth gear and does not give a motor to suit below three thousand revolutions per minute. And how cool and how in time the robot switches to a low passage reduced!

Brakes? GTI 35 EDITION is just good, although the pedal has too much a lot and seems too sensitive in the initial phase of braking. In the city rhythm of movement, it even interferes. But on Megane RS brakes are set up exemplary: ideally informative and fantastically stable for loads. Several more powerful braking from a speed of 150 kilometers per hour in a row for them is a judicial nonsense.

They literally ask for a track. However, like the car itself.


Megane RS is an ideal sports projectile, created and sharpened under a very fast ride, and not only on public roads. Tight, assembled, with a chain, understandable and gambling chassis, in good evil motor and powerful brakes. No wonder because the charged Megane is considered one of the fastest front-wheel drive cars that have established many records in its class on racing tracks.

And his main trump card is the highest efficiency.

VW Golf GTI 35 EDITION is a completely different look at hot hatch. Practical, nonsense, with high-quality interior and very accurate, but comfortable chassis. Fast, with refined ride character. Very rare combination of properties for a charged car. And in the version with DSG, an almost perfect city car.


Why almost? Because now in the fight for the buyer turns on Ford Focus St, no less downtry, but more dynamic hot hatch, which is ready to fight for the title of the most universal car in the class with any, even the most authoritative competitor.
 

A source: Motor magazine [August 2012]