Geneva 2016: New Renault Scenic trades practicality for looks
With falling sales, the definitive small MPV has been thoroughly re-thought
The poor old Renault Scenic. The car that launched scores of imitators, and transported many a European family (and their belongings) in the space and comfort of a larger car, has been all but killed by less intelligent but more desirable crossovers.
It’s the same story for the bigger Espace and, as that car has undergone a reinvention to help attract buyers back, so the fourth-generation Scenic has been thoroughly rethought.
If the aim was to make this model line more attractive then it’s a success. Enormous (20-inch as standard!) wheels, expressive surfacing and intriguing, original graphics are a world away from most people’s idea of an MPV.
But the reason they don’t usually look like the Scenic is obvious when you get inside. The front of the cabin is reasonably spacious-feeling with neat details such as the push-button glovebox ‘drawer’ and sliding centre console storage, even if the superb view afforded by a low belt line and generous glazing has been removed by the exterior styling. But it’s in the rear that it starts to fall apart.
We watched a number of people get in the back of the Scenic and each one went through the process as us – reach for the sliding rear seats’ lever only to discover it’s a far back as it goes. They, as we, then returned to the front seat in the belief it was unnaturally far back. Realising it wasn’t, we all stepped out and scratched our heads trying to figure out where the space that defined this car’s very existence had gone. And while some may say that if you have small children rear legroom isn’t so important, a window line that kicks up in the rear door to make it difficult to see out of surely is important.
There’s no doubt this was a very difficult project to gauge – carry along the same path as before and you fail to pull up from nose-diving sales, make big changes and people like me complain.
But when Renault already has both the Captur and Kadjar selling strongly in the crossover market it’s a shame there wasn’t a little more space (literally) to retain the Scenic’s core attributes.