Renault Scenic 1.6 16V Sport Alize

The Renault Scenic 1.6 16V Sport Alize was a really great car that did all the things we needed it to right up until the point when I started to drive 90 miles a day commuting. After that it started to get very expensive.

Within about 15 months the head gasket went, a piece of one of the timing belt pulleys broke off and dropped into the pully below resulting in the head having to be rebuilt with a complete set of valves, the water-pump was replaced and it needed new discs all round.

You can imagine the size of the bills!

I'd still recommend it if you wanted a really practical car that was also nippy. However if you do a lot of mileage I wouldn't get one, or get one with high mileage. Mine was OK up to 40 or 50k, but after I started putting the miles on it started to go downhill.

The Renault Scenic 1.6 16V Sport Alize People Carrier is a very good Nippy Car for it's size and Weight. It can lack top end speed past 100 MPH and it stops at 110 mph, it takes a bit to get to 115 MPH which is its claimed top speed. 124 MPh was seen on the German AutoBahn. This is a very Practical car, it has lots of cubby holes all around the car and can easly sit 5 adults with comfort. all around a very good car.

1592 cc 16v

110 BHP @ 5,750 RPM

109 LBft torque @ 4,000 RPM

0-60 MPH 10.8 secs

Max Speed (115 MPH) 124 MPH

I bought an imported Renault Scenic 1.6 16V Sport Alize in August 2001, overall this was a great car that performed well and never let me down once over the 53,000 miles I covered.

Fuel economy was good, up to 43mpg on a steady motorway run according to the fuel computer.

Renault really seemed to have combined the best possible in terms of family pracitcality & driver comfort in the Sport Alize.

The water ingress issue on my Scenic was minimal to be fair, but I have read horror stories from others with far worse leaks into the passenger footwell area. This is a shame because it is down to the poor long term performance of the sealant used between the sunroof & the car body, a low cost problem with a high cost solution.