Renault Megane
Renault Megane III 1.5 dCi [EDC] and AdriaPretty stable drive. 4th gear 2100rpm while climbing hills.perfect match.
Renault Megane III Estate 1.5 dCi and SwiftWe have been using this car to tow for about a year now so feel confident we can write a decent review. Towed in good and bad weather conditions and found this combination can best be described as adequate for quality and exceptional for economy.
Right first a few things, check the nose weight of your caravan, do not put a 110A battery in the battery compartment and full 15kg butane bottle in the front compartment, the megane has a maximum tow bar nose weight of 75kg. Load the caravan carefully and buy a nose weight scale, they are less than a tenner on ebay / amazon. Towing with 95kg as we did on the first occasion is not to be recommended. On a side note, why caravan manufacturers put all the heavy stuff up front (in the swifts case, Gas bottle, spare wheel, Battery, Hot water tank) is a little disturbing. Most people put awnings etc under the front seats to compound the problem.
In decent weather, no heavy cross winds, 55mph is ok...nasty weather and drop it to 50mph. Otherwise you will get battered across the motorways by the lorries. My good lady now like us to drive just at 50mph and to be honest, that’s how we drive now.
The good news, we have done 1000s of mile with this combination, have had amazing weekends away and everytime we go away now the temptation to get a vehicle that can safely do 60mph diminishes. Why, its solid, feels safe and we are getting about 42mpg, on a good day 45mpg.
I use this car for business trips and often get over 60mpg doing the normal 75mph on the motorway without caravan so am extremely pleased with this car.
A trick for better economy, the 1.5dci engine runs best between 1,500 and 2,000 rpm. It has a six speed box to allow this range to work....if you run the car in fifth gear, the car runs at about 1,300rpm doing 50mph. This is below its most economical range, when we first got the caravan we found we were getting 34mpg....so the hint is, drive it in forth and allow it to slightly over rev at 2000rpm. This is kinder to the car, basically I believe at 1,300rpm the turbo is constantly on trying to keep the engine torquey enough to power on, at 2,000rpm the turbo does not engage. I could be wrong about this, however there is a 10mpg difference.
A few other observations. Most of the time we drive around with just 1 bar on the temperature gauge...when towing we have 2 bars..never feels like it is getting hot, so just accept it.
For those that think this car is not powerful enough it most certainly is, it just does not feel heavy enough to tow like a 4x4 or Volvo so by accepting we have to drive below everyone elses speed we get to keep a 3 year old car that continues to work in all other aspects. We will get a bigger car when this one requires replacement, however for the moment, long live the Renault.
So far we have seen no other meganes towing in all our miles and events, would be interesting to hear from others experience with this vehicle.
For weights, we go weekend eventing so do not load the caravan, the 480se challenger 2003 is 1080kg and the max tow weight braked of the megane is 1500kg with a kerbside weight of 1381kg.
Renault Megane III 1.5 dCi [EDC] and Baileyfound to be a stress free match with easy economic towing over long distances in uk.
Renault Megane III Estate 1.5 dCi Energy [88g] and Baileythis combination we cannot fault covering approx. 10 miles
Renault Megane II Hb 1.5 dC 82pk and LunarI have a 57 plate Megane II 86 bhp 5 speed. have been towing a 1990 2 berth Elddis Mistral GTX which is not listed on this site. It weighs in the same as a Lunar Zenith 4 at 1100kgs. Amazed how well it pulls. Vary rarely have I had to drop down from top gear. Usually holds well on uphill inclines and only drop down to 4th only for the very steepest of gradients. Normally 60 mpg Solo but when towing this is down to 45 mpg. Quite an economical towcar. Strongly recommended for the smaller van, but a word of warning. Whilst you can legally tow up to its kerbweight of 1295kg, this would only be with the driver only in the car. If you have passengers/luggage in the car too, you would exceed the maximum train weight of 2750kgs. If you stick to the recommended 85% of kerbweight which is about 1100kgs, then you will have about 300kgs spare capacity for passengers and luggage.
Renault Megane II Hb 1.5 dC 82pk and Avondalehave been using our 53 plate megane II 1.5 dci 80 to tow our little 2 berth avondale on numerous outings for the last 18 months now and to be honest the car has never put a foot wrong, we've found her to be more than capable of towing the 'van at 60 mph on motorways and just as capable chugging along at 30 mph in the urban cycle,
when towing i have seen only a minor drop in ampg normally the car returns a modest 45 mpg (urban) but this only drops to 43 when towing.
as for gear changes even here i have been impressed at just how little i have to change gear whilst towing, the dci power unit is quite torquey so this may help to minimise the gear changes on all but the steepest of hills.
in short i can recommend this car for towing the smaller caravans but i think it would possibly struggle a bit more with the larger models
Renault Megane Fase II Hb 1.9 dCi and KnausHere I report my new experience with de Megane Sedan 1.9 dci 96Kw (131hp). As the caravan is a somewhat heavy for this car, you may experience some snaking when overtaking allways over 95 km/h. Provided you pay attention other overtaking cars and vans, the match is perfect. Driving on motorway slopes is easy as the car tows perfectly. The temperature of engine is the same as in flat roads.
Renault Megane Fase II Hb 1.9 dCi and KnausMy previous caravan was a spanish Ace 370, similar to the knaus. An average speed of 110 km An hour was easy to maintain, 30 MPG. The caravan just snakes a little when overtaking lorries or buses at high speed. The match is perfect and the driving was easy. Now we hace bought a Knaus sudwind 550qs which we will report next weekend, first time with new caravana.
Renault Megane Fase II Hb 1.9 dCi aut. and Eribafairly new to towing, didn't want to much grief, happy with the combination
Renault Megane Fase II Sport Tourer 1.9 dCi and CaravanI towed my Elddis hurricane gte which is 16', Took it down cornwall over Bodin, only had it into 4th gear a couple of times,averaged 32mpg, was doing around 37mpg till i hit Bodmin,downside was it was wondery at 70+,put to a bmw 320D I had prior to this, the bmw was crap, I towed a 13' elddis whirlwind with it to scotland,it really struggled
Renault Megane II Hb 1.9 dCi and CaravanHi i tow with a renault megane 1.9 dci 120 bhp 3 door hatch the caravan i tow is a abi jubilee rallyman 1997 i tow with no stabiliser and the outfit is the best towing ive had the only thing i have had to do is uprate the reaar shocks ive towed in hard cross winds with no problem for a small to medium car i have found it very good.
Renault Megane II Hb 1.9 dCi and CaravanHi, We have a Renault Megane Hatchback 1.9 DCi on 2003 plate. I am wanting an older caravan but have no idea what model I can pull comfortably does anyone know ?
Renault Megane Fase II Hb 1.6 16v aut. and BaileyVery easy to tow. Easy to forget that you are towing. 30-33 mpg on motorway and 27mpg on A roads. I am pleasently surprised at the cabability of the Megane.
Renault Megane II Hb 1.9 dCi and JurgensI drive a Renault Megane 11 Sedan 1.9 dCi (2006 model). I used this specs because it is the same as my car's. Towing is excellent. The thermostat was replaced due to temperature fluctuation when driving uphill. Would like to know whether somebody else has had the same experience and what was done to correct the "problem"?
Renault Megane Fase II Hb 1.9 dCi and BaileyVery good towing car - We have driven in France from Calais to the Alps and into Spain with no issues.
The car pulls the caravan like it is not there!
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