Just been and bought a Megane Dynamique 1.6 VVT 5 door as our family transport today and talked the salesman into lending me their 182 demo car for the afternoon!
I bought a brand new CTR 3 years ago over a 172 and one of the main reasons was the looks. I dont want to start a recent subject off again but it still looks too much like the others in the range (twin pipes excepted), maybe it was just because this one was in black???
Anyway, looks aside, I was impressed with the power delivery. Lots available from low down in the rev range, making it easier to drive faster than the CTR. Very responsive in top from 60mph. I cant believe how noisy they are though! Not that it bothers me at all but once the revs were high it became very noisy, quite a nice noise but still noisy!
Handling was as expected, very precise & sharp with more grip than I could possibly get near explioting on the public roads!
The only major downside, as many of you seem to go on about, was the build quality. When we set off the car had 992 miles on the clock, we did about 50 miles in it which was enough time to notice at least 2 annoying squeaks....... I hope the Megane is better!?
Overall, it didnt do enough for me to consider buying one, although maybe one with both cup packs, in blue with racing stripes and gunmetal alloys might change that opinion!!!!!