All generations and engines together · 72,987 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 67k
One of the worst family hatchbacks, by age and by mileage. Watch suspension and steering. A risky used buy. Check the MOT history for repeating suspension advisories before you go.
Split by first-registration year. Cars registered in a changeover year can belong to either generation.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press, with how well each report stands up. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
Owners and Ask Honest John readers report creaking and knocking from the front end, worn bushes, and in a couple of documented cases a drop link joint that separated entirely when the car was up on a ramp for something routine like a tyre change. It can turn up surprisingly early, sometimes well under 30k miles, and rarely fails an MOT outright until the joint is properly loose. The measured data backs this up directly: suspension is the single biggest MOT failure category on this model, ahead of brakes and steering by a clear margin, so the forum chatter and the test-lane numbers are pointing at the same weak spot.
Cars fitted with Renault's EDC dual-clutch auto can develop low-speed shudder pulling away, and a specific complaint where the box seems to skip 2nd, 4th and 6th gear, jumping straight past them. Forum regulars trace it to the even-gear clutch pack or its control unit, and it doesn't always clear after a TCU swap. Repairs are expensive because the clutch pack isn't sold as a separate part in the UK, so a failed one often means a full replacement gearbox, upwards of £2,000.
The 1.2 TCe engine (codenamed H5Ft) fitted to Megane III and IV has a reputation for burning oil between services, and for a timing chain tensioner that rattles on a cold start before it warms through. It's serious enough that a group of owners in France pursued a class action over the oil consumption, though nothing equivalent has happened in the UK and there's no public UK TSB. A full chain kit and fitting runs somewhere around £800-1,500 if it's caught before the chain actually jumps.
The dCi diesels are prone to EGR valve carbon build-up and DPF clogging on cars that spend their life doing short town trips rather than getting a run long enough to burn the filter clean. Symptoms are a lumpy idle, a DPF warning light, and a flat loss of power; turbo trouble has been reported as a knock-on effect once oil gets fouled by regeneration soot. There's no recall covering it, it's just the nature of these engines on the wrong duty cycle, and it hits high-mileage ex-fleet cars hardest.
The UCH, the module that runs the windows, central locking, wipers, lighting and alarm, is a known Renault weak point and it turns up on Meganes across several generations. When it starts to fail it throws up a scattergun of small faults together rather than one clean break: windows not auto-closing, interior lights staying on, wipers running after being switched off. A replacement unit has to be properly coded to the car, so budget for dealer or specialist labour on top of the part.
The R-Link infotainment screen is a regular complaint, freezing on whatever menu is open while the rest of the car carries on working, or dropping to a black screen after a settings change. Renault has pushed software updates that fix it for some owners and not others, and a soft reset (holding the power button, or tapping Home five times) usually clears it for a while. Owners are split on how much it matters: some shrug it off as a glitch, others think it's a sign the whole head unit needs replacing.
Ranked from this model’s own MOT record, then from what owners report.
Saveable checklistThe physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
The physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
The physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
Drawn from the reports above rather than the MOT data. These are the model-specific ones.
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 16,344 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Same segment (Family hatchbacks), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.