Renault Megane hatchback (2016-2022) - Reliability & safety

While Renaults have long been renowned for very high safety standards, they have occasionally struggled with reliability in the past. The company will be hoping this Megane makes big strides in the latter area particularly.

Renault Megane reliability

Renault's reputation for customer satisfaction hasn't always been the strongest, and this is borne out by the results of our 2021 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey. The brand ranked 20th out of 29 manufacturers, although the Megane itself didn’t appear among the top models. The Captur and Clio scored well but these are from a newer generation of Renault models, so don't share much technology with the Megane.

Renault itself is confident of the quality of the Megane, which is built in a modern factory in Palencia, Spain, on a platform that'll underpin several Renault and Nissan models to come.

Safety

Euro NCAP wasted no time in crash-testing this Megane and awarded it the maximum five-star overall protection rating, as well as a score of 88% for adult protection, 87% for child protection, 71% for pedestrian protection and 71% for safety assistance.

The latter comes courtesy of a wide range of clever (but optional) active safety systems, designed to prevent a collision in the first place. These include adaptive cruise control (to maintain a safe distance from the car in front on the motorway), automatic emergency braking, lane-departure and blind-spot warning, traffic-sign recognition and all-round parking sensors. It should be noted that the majority of these safety systems can’t be fitted to the Play model and can only be fitted on the Iconic or GT Line trim levels.