Mk1 Meganes, your thoughts?

[Hendry]

In my quest for shite a guy at work has offered me his Megane as he's buying a mk4 Golf 20vt Gti for £250

 

Not sure on mileage but its a '99 T plate, its the facelift model, 1.6 petrol, and its the "RT Sport Alize" spec, and its a light green kinda colour, bodywork is pretty solid no rust but scuffed bumpers flaking paint, parking dents, spoiler is pitted at the sides door mirror is gaffa taped onto the base etc but its tidy enough, interiors ok too, plus everything works, ripped drivers seat bolster is about the worst part, mechanically fine too. Recent new fuel pipes apparently, timing belt kit and water pump done about a year ago with genuine parts, regularly serviced, only needed a new tyre for last mot.

 

Main issue is he says the boot lid won't open or shut, seemingly something to do with the hinge, he's had his mechanic get it permanently shut and called Renault for a new part to replace the damaged one and according to them the damaged part comes as part of the complete tailgate and can't be bought separately (I can't obviously see what he means to check what's broken but it'd mean swapping 1 over from a scrapper, the mot is up soon and other than the boot not opening which he thinks would fail it he thinks it should pass, does it sound worth the money?

[Albert Ross]

The unopening boot would actually prevent it from even getting tested. Let alone even getting onto the ramp. Walk away. Quickly, and zig-zag, to confuse him, into bushes. Hide there for a week smearing your face with excrement, eat berries, and sneak out early one Sunday morning.  With any luck, he might have forgotten about your conversation. Do not tell anyone else about wot I rote.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I watch my MOTs being done and I can't recall the tester ever even approaching the boot. They'd have to ask me for the key anyway since I keep it locked to prevent anyone stealing the roll of kitchen towel I keep in there. 

 

I say chance it.

[messerschmitt owner]

Renaults with names = shit

Renaults with numbers = shite!

 

Buy shite not shit!

[cort16]

These make me a little sick in my mouth but I think they have future shite potential .if you get it cheap enough then why not. I imagine the 1.6 is okay to drive.

 

I bet the hinge pin's snapped as this happened to my mates Laguna (he scrapped it)

[Cavcraft]

If it's dirt cheap it might be worth a bash but you want to be looking at scrap money. I had a 1.6 Mingegan and it was UBER on fuel, really was superb on juice. But then it broke and the RAC man just laughed at me.

[Hendry]

These make me a little sick in my mouth but I think they have future shite potential .if you get it cheap enough then why not. I imagine the 1.6 is okay to drive.

I bet the hinge pin's snapped as this happened to my mates Laguna (he scrapped it)

I've always thought they looked ok, a damn sight nicer than the ugly fat arse ones.

 

If it is the hinge pin its typical Renault to not sell them separately, I remember one broke on my mk3 Astra and Vauxhall sold replacements for 3 quid. No wonder so many of their cars get prematurely scrapped with design like that.

[trigger]

I wouldn't bother, don't these suffer from severe rot on the bulkheads or battery tray resulting in water all over the electrics or something along those lines?. 

[barefoot]

I don't know anything about how these things work,

But I think that they look pretty...

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I love the look of the fat arse Megane. The MK1 and the new one are unremarkably dull in comparison.

 

I wouldn't bother, don't these suffer from severe rot on the bulkheads or battery tray resulting in water all over the electrics or something along those lines?.

Yeah, someone on here had one with 1960s style rot under the battery... who was it?

[CreepingJesus]

From experience, they're okay cars. Not great or awful, just okay.

Battery trays can go, but door bottoms and sills are more of a problem. Particularly if the sunroof's leaking, then the footwells flood. Also, the central locking plays up in that case. Check the front edge of the boot floor for rot.

Coil packs die randomly, but are cheap and easy to fix; keep a spare - there's two, and usually only one dies at a time. Also, keep a good Torx set handy, there's hordes of the little bastards on Megs.

Personally, I preferred the 19, and the Meg 2 is more interesting; but a cheap Meg 1 is adequate transport.

[catsinthewelder]

I ran a 1.4 16v sport for the first couple of years after passing my test and loved it at first.  It had 4 coil packs and they did die randomly but a spare in the boot with a torx screwdiver to fit it would see me mobile again within minutes.

 

Once it wrecked it's engine for the third time I didn't trust it anymore and started to like a dented 205 diesel instead.  As CJ say's they're perfectly adequate transport but I wouldn't run one as a 'fun interesting old car'. Choose something randomly from the Bulgarian tat thread and try and get one for just above scrap money.  At least it'll be different from your Clio and probably more reliable.

[hairymel]

I wouldn't bother, don't these suffer from severe rot on the bulkheads or battery tray resulting in water all over the electrics or something along those lines?. 

 

example here

 

would i have another? possibly - but only at scrap money, they are not bad motors - until they randomly explode into a million garlic smelling pieces

 

[hairymel]

someone on here had one with 1960s style rot under the battery... who was it?

 

see above

[pandamonium]

Driven a few, the 5 door ones are better than the silly coupe ones. There are plenty about at throwaway money, so why bother with one that has immediate issues?

 

This was the one I owned for 2 weeks.

 

[DVee8]

The cam belt snapped on the r reg one i had

[Sigmund Fraud]

Not much love for Meganes on here... My daily is a council-estate-spec Mk.I with the naturally aspirated diesel engine and it's... erm... not as bad as one would expect !

 

Rust-wise, make sure the rear arches and sill ends are solid. Electrics are on par with any BL offering from the '70s, so be prepared for loads of niggly faults. Immobilisers can play up, which would mean that the car's reincarnation in the form of bean cans is imminent. Parts are cheap and plentiful, factory workshop manual is widely available online FOC.

 

The secret is to buy the best one you can find... Nobody likes them, so you can get a lot of car for your money ; mine was £300 with FSH, 10 months of test and three months of tax ! I wouldn't pay more than scrap price for the one you've been offered.

[londonm]

I personally wouldn't touch it, Renault are notoriously awful to work on. He clearly wants to get shot of it for a reason, I'd find out the scrap value of it and offer him lass than that if you're that keen.

[Mr Lobster]

They're ok but the none opening boot and short MOT would mean its probably not worth the potential hassle. Otherwise they are ok, bulkhead can rot as we know but generally they are acceptable enough and pretty comfy.

 

Sounds like that ones coming to the end of its practical life though.

[CortinaDave]

If you're picking it up for say £150 its worth it. Bung it in for a fifty quid test and see how it does. If it falls on its arse just weigh it in and walk away more or less even.

 

It's not much of a gamble at rock bottom money

[Mike D]

 

I wouldn't bother, I had this one for a matter of weeks and it was shite. comfy seats though..

[Lankytim]

If I needed a cheap smoker and one of these presented itself to me I'd deffo be interested. The shape has grown on me recently and they are certainly now entering the interesting shite category. How bad can they be anyway?

[Polystratus]

If I needed a cheap smoker and one of these presented itself to me I'd deffo be interested. The shape has grown on me recently and they are certainly now entering the interesting shite category. How bad can they be anyway?

 

I know someone who had one from when it was only a year old and he's never had any major issues with it apart from the body rot. For it's MOT this year it needed £600 worth of welding, so he swapped for a 10 year old Vauxhall Astra. Now he's found the car got a problem with one of the piston rings, (plus some other niggles) and going to cost around £500 to fix, he said he wished he kept the car and had the welding done on it.

[cort16]

My mate had a base spec 1.4 RT and it has the build quality that made mk5 Escort look like a Rolls Royce Phantom. I think they're proper old banger shit though as their massive unlovedness means you could probably get a pretty nice one for not much £.

[Hendry]

I had a better look around it today and the airbag light is on which is a definite mot failure and could cost shitloads to fix, plus it sounds like the exhaust is blowing, add to that he only paid £250 for it himself 2 years ago means I'm going to steer clear, he said I was his last interest as another couple of guys at work wanting a cheap motor aren't interested so its going to get scrapped.

[Sigmund Fraud]

I had a better look around it today and the airbag light is on which is a definite mot failure and could cost shitloads to fix, plus it sounds like the exhaust is blowing, add to that he only paid £250 for it himself 2 years ago means I'm going to steer clear, he said I was his last interest as another couple of guys at work wanting a cheap motor aren't interested so its going to get scrapped.

 

Let me get this right... He wants £250 from you, but would be happy with £150 (or less) from the scrap man ? How odd.

 

For future reference, airbag light is often due to the pre-tensioner connectors - a very easy fix. Exhaust parts are cheap, but thoroughly unpleasant to replace, unless you have access to a lift or inspection pit. Exhaust problems are often due to mountings, which appear to be made of the same material as Poundland marshmallows.

[Burnside]

Shame it seams like it might be too far gone. Don't think it would stop me though if the body wasn't shot. I really like these early shape Meganes myself I think there nice looking cars. If Im in the position of looking for another motor this size I would seriously consider one. Nearest I've got to one is a toy model of a 2.0 RXE hatch in metallic silver.

 

Surprised so much negative comments though as at the end of the day aren't we all hear because we like older / classic and unloved motors?

[Lankytim]

I didn't know it was £250. Tell him to FRO. It's £100 tops I recon.

[Pillock]

Yeah we like unloved motors, but owning a megane is like housesharing with a serial killer. One day you'll come home to find body parts in the dishwasher.

 

Meganes aren't just amusingly rubbish, they are terrible at everything a car should do such as proceed, stay in one piece and be able to be sold on. My ma had one new (P reg 1.9dti) and bits of trim were throwing themselves to the floor. It had rust issues in the three years she leased it, the plip locking gave up twice and the brakes needed constant attention. It was replaced with a W plate facelift which went through 5 aux belts in three years.

 

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