30 July 2025
Alpine and Renault Sport have lots in common and since I own both an Alpine and a Renault Sport product currently, I've been wondering do Alpine and Renault Sport cars have some common features which could be describes as common DNA?
The short version of the common history of Alpine and Renault Sport is that when Renault stopped Alpine production in 1995, Renault Sport continued designing and producing cars utilizing the Alpine plant in Dieppe. When Renault re-introduced Alpine with the new A110 in 2017, it started manufacturing the A110 on the same Dieppe plant. Renault closed Renault Sport operation in 2023 and its operations were merged into Alpine. I have also written a slightly longer version of Alpine history here.
I have an 2022 Alpine A110 and a 2021 Renault Megane RS280, and as far as I understand, some of the people involved in the development of these cars have been the same. Are there therefore some common qualities on these cars which could be called as common DNA for both Alpine and Renault Sport?
Those two cars are naturally fundamentally quite different since the other one is a hot hatch version of a regular front-wheel-drive family hatchback, whereas the other one is a middle-engined aluminium construction sports car.
Lightness has been one of the key guiding principles when the A110 was designed and the effort to save weight can be seen in various parts of the car. The end result is a weight just over 1,100 kg. My Megane RS, on the other hand, weighs around 1,500 kg, which is quite typical for a hot hatch of it size, and it cannot be said that my Megane shows any special effort to minimize weight. Based on this, it could perhaps be said that the pursuit of lightness is not at the core of the common basic idea for both Alpine and Renault Sport.
However, Renault Sport has had several Megane RS model versions, where the additional speed for the car has not been sought primarily through additional power, but specifically through weight reduction. Examples of these have been e.g. the 2009 Renault Megane R26.R, which had the same power as the standard Megane RS of the time, but had saved 123 kg of weight, e.g. by removing the rear seat and soundproofing, and replacing the rear hatch and rear side windows with polycarbonate ones.
Renault Sport also developed a lighter version of the next generation Megane RS, the Megane RS 275 Trophy-R. Weight was saved in this version by, among other things, removing the rear seats and soundproofing. Air conditioning and the audio system were also discarded as unnecessary in that version. The end result was 1,280 kg, a weight saving of 101 kg compared to the standard RS.
There was also a Trophy-R version of the Megane RS of the same generation as my RS. This version followed the same philosophy as the previous lightweight versions of the RS Megane, with a new lightening measure including carbon fiber wheels. This time, the weight savings were 130 kg compared to the Megane RS Trophy version.
Not only is the basic A110 exceptionally light for a modern car, but over the years Alpine has introduced several special versions of the A110 model, in which the aim has also been to make the car lighter. The core of the old Alpine models was also exceptional lightness. In my opinion, the effort to improve drivability and handling through lightness is clearly a trait that can be said to be an essential part of the shared DNA of Alpine and Renault Sport.
Even though my cars are quite different in many ways, what my Alpine and Megane RS have in common is the engine. Both have the same four-cylinder 1.8-liter turbocharged gasoline engine. The Alpine has a slightly lower tuning level (252 hp), while the Megane has 27 horsepower more, or 279 hp.
The engine characteristics are therefore very similar. The soundscape is quite different, however. In the A110, the engine is in the middle, and during heavy acceleration, you can hear a nice swooshing sound behind your ear. In sport mode, when you downshift or ease off the throttle, the exhaust system pops gently. In the Megane, the engine sounds are less perceptible, but when you ease off the throttle in sport mode, the Megane can make loud pop sounds that I find disturbingly loud. The A110 has a clearly more pleasant soundscape - except when talking about the sound quality of the music, where the Megane's Bose audio system beats the A110's Focal audio.
How about the handling, which naturally is quite essential on these type of cars? Are there any common traits related to handling on these cars?
What both cars have in common is that they are both very good and enjoyable to drive. However, the A110 and the Megane RS are quite different in terms of handling/drivability and I cannot identify any single common characteristics related to handling on these cars.
The A110 dances through corners effortlessly - and the dancer in this case is a graceful ballet dancer. The Alpine's suspension is relatively soft, and it leans a fair amount in corners.
The steering of the A110 could also be described as effortless, it is not particularly sensitive, but still on the bends you know exactly how much of the steering wheel you need to turn to get the car exactly where you want it to go.
Megane, on the other hand, is no dancer - or if it is, it is a bodybuilder who crushes others on the night club dance floor in the last few moments before closing time. Compared to the Alpine, the four hundred kilos more weight is felt in the corners, and the Megane has a clearly stiffer chassis than the A110. It handles corners with great efficiency.
Although one might imagine that the A110 being a sports car would be harder and more uncomfortable in daily driving than the family car Megane, it is actually quite the opposite. The lighter Alpine does not need such a stiff suspension, and it is more comfortable in daily driving than the heavier, stiffer Megane.
The Megane's steering is reasonably responsive and precise. However, the steering is somewhat jerky under heavy acceleration - a feature that is absent from the rear-wheel drive Alpine. The Megane's steering is also heavier than the A110. Partly this might be due to to the Megane's wider tires (245/35/19 vs. the Alpine's 205/40/18 front tires).
Common features between Alpine and Renault Sport can be found at least in the focus on lightness over high power and in the fact that a strong focus in the development of these cars has always been on enjoyable driving.
16 February 2025
I've owned the car almost six months now and here is a summary of my experiences so far. The car has 33,900 km on odometer at the moment which means that I've driven approximately 7,000 km with the Megane during the first few months of my ownership.
When I bought the car late August 2024 it was due to have the next annual service shortly. Therefore I booked the car for service at the local Renault garage Autosalpa here in Lahti. I had agreed with the car salesman that that they would pay for that service.
In addition to normal service procedures I asked the garage to investigate three additional things. Firstly, the picture quality on the rear view camera was quite bad - it seemed like weather was foggy all the time. It was determined at the service that they would replace the camera with a new one under warranty. This required another visit to the garage and since the camera has been changed the picture quality has been much better.
Second thing I wanted to be investigated was that I hadn't found the RS Monitor telemetry system on the car at all even though the car was supposed to have one. The guys at the service didn't know why the RS Monitor was nowhere to be found on the R-Link 2 multimedia system. They promised to contact Finnish Renault importer to ask for guidance and get back to me once they would receive some instructions on how to enable RS Monitor.
While driving the car two weeks after the service there was some kind of a RS Monitor related notification on the multimedia system which disappeared quickly. After that I navigated into the menu on the multimedia system where RS Monitor was supposed to be and all of the sudden it was there! Later when I visited Autosalpa for the rear view camera replacement they said that the Renault importer had performed some operations which made the RS Monitor to appear on the car.
Third thing which I wanted to be investigated on the service was related to the car's battery. This generation Megane RS300 Trophy has lightweight DESS-lithium battery which has caused lots of issues for the owners of the Trophy version. Apparently Trophy's with DESS battery might have problems starting if car has for example been unused for a while. The RS280 version has more conventional type of battery and that was one of the reasons why I actually preferred the RS280 version over the Trophy since I would use the car mainly in the winter.
Once I had bought the car and had a look under the bonnet I noticed that there was a sticker with text "R.S DESS" on top of the battery. When I booked time for the service I asked them to investigate which type of battery my car actually had. During the call they checked their systems based on the VIN number of my car and told me that the car does not have DESS battery. We did however agree that they would confirm on the service which type of battery the car actually had.
During the service they did determine that indeed my car has a DESS battery. Strange! I did ask them if they could change the battery to a conventional type battery and after consulting with the the Finnish Renault importer they said that they are not allowed to change the battery to a different type.
I then decided to continue with the DESS battery at least for a while to see how it would cope with the Finnish winter conditions. This winter has been unusually mild at least so far and the coldest temperature when I've used the car has been approx. minus 15 degrees Celcius so far. No problems with the battery have occurred. The car sits on a carport at home and the longest period when it's been unused so far has been about one week.
In general, the car has coped pretty well with the wintry Finnish conditions. The car feels quite stable on icy and snowy roads although relatively low ground clearance does cause a little bit issues when there is lots of fresh snow on the road. The car has 19" optional Megane RS wheels for the winter with 245/35/19" spike tyres. Personally I would've preferred slightly narrower 18" tyres with higher sidewalls for the winter.
When the winter started and temperatures dropped below zero degrees, two new issues have however appeared. The car has an electric engine heater installed like many cars in Finland. When using the engine heater for pre-heating the engine an error message "Check injection" appears every time I start the car. The second problem was related to keyless entry, namely that the doors didn't unlock when putting my hand on the door handle. Instead I had to use the unlock button on the key to unlock the doors.
Due to these problems I booked a time for service for January 2025. The door locking problem was diagnosed as a problem on a transmitter on the driver's side door handle. That transmitter was replaced under warranty on my subsequent visit to the garage.
The reason for the engine heater related problem was that some temperature sensor on the engine doesn't understand that the coolant which is heated by the engine heater is warmer than expected on cold weather and that causes the error message. The electric engine heaters are usually tested and approved for each car model but in the Nordic countries where these engine heaters are mostly used, the Megane RS is quite rare car and therefore there is no type approved heater version for the car.
Most likely my car has had some universal type electric engine heater installed which is not tested with the car and causes the error message. My options would be to either not use the electric engine heater or use it and just ignore the error message. I chose to continue using the heater since the error message is in no way serious and the engine heater is very useful here in Finland during the winter.
31 August 2024
I own a 2022 Alpine A110, and I have had a 2019 Ford Fiesta as my second car since new.
When I bought my Fiesta ST it was my only car and it was meant to serve both as my fun car as well as daily driver. The Alpine A110 I've had for the last two years as my fun car but also as a daily driver during summer season. After I had bought the Alpine, the Fiesta was moved to winter daily duties and I have also used it during summer season when for example I've had to carry more stuff or people.
I put the Fiesta for sale in Spring 2024. The plan was to replace it with a slightly bigger car. I like small and light cars but since my other car would mainly be used in winter and since Alpine was a light and nimble car, I thought that it might be time to replace Fiesta with a car that was one-size bigger. The winter conditions here in Finland are such that a bigger and more stable car could be useful.
I already had searched for potential options to replace Fiesta and two most interesting options were fourth generation Renault Megane RS or Hyundai i30N. Neither of them were available as new so I had to look for lightly used cars. I had done test drives on both of those cars and Megane RS was the one that sparkled my interest the most. Therefore that would be my preferred option.
One potential option could've been Alpine's new electric hot-hatch A290 which was introduced in June 2024 and would be available in Spring 2025. Interesting car, but since the car would be mainly for winter use, A290's range in Finnish winter conditions would not be good enough for my purposes.
The thought of buying a Megane IV RS was easy for me to rationalize since I had owned a previous generation 2012 Megane RS 265 Trophy between 2012 and 2018. Since that car was very good in my opinion, I had faith in Renault Sport producing a good car in the Megane IV RS also. My faith was strenghtened also by my experiences with my Alpine A110 which is also at least partly a product of some of the same people as Renault Sport products.
I managed to sell my Fiesta mid-August 2024 and since the plan was to put Alpine into winter storage in mid-October, I had two month time-window to find a replacement for the Fiesta.
I have some experience on importing cars from continental Europe to Finland and there are plenty of Megane RS IV cars for sale in for example Germany. When you export a car from other EU country to Finland you have to pay Finnish registration taxes which would be several thousand euro for a car like Megane IV RS. The prices for the Megane RS IV in Finland when new were several thousand euro cheaper than it would've cost to buy a car from Germany, import it and pay the Finnish registration taxes.
With regards to used Megane IV RS prices, they were quite similar in Germany as in Finland. However, with Finnish registration taxes added to the price, the cost for buying a used Megane IV RS would've also been much higher than buying a car from Finland.
Swedish krona has been quite weak compared to euro recently, and therefore lots of used cars have been imported from Sweden to Finland in recent years. However, the supply of used Megane RS cars in Sweden was thin and prices such that it didn't make any sense to buy one from Sweden either.
Therefore, the end-result was that I kept a close eye on the Megane RS market in Finland. There are slightly less than 20 Megane IV RS cars registered in Finland which means that there are only few cars for sale at a time. Usually there were two or three cars available so not much to choose from.
There were two Megane IV RS cars for sale in Finland when Fiesta left my courtyard. The other one was a 2021 RS 300 Trophy with manual transmission and had only 10 thousand kilometres on the clock. That car had been for sale for a long time and I had test-driven it in Summer 2023. Otherwise this was a potential example, but unfortunately it was white in colour which was not something I wanted.
The other car for sale was 2020 RS 300 Trophy manual. It had two big no-no's for me: it was black and had been driven for more than 100 thousand kilometres.
Luckily one additional car turned up shortly after I had sold my Fiesta. This was a 2021 RS 280 in red metallic colour and 26 thousand kilometres on the clock. Even the asking price was quite reasonable.
The car was located in northern Finland more than 500 km from where I live so after a little bit haggling I made a conditional deal on the car with the condition that the dealer would deliver the car in their Lahti dealership near me and I would first test drive the car before committing to buying the car.
The dealer managed to deliver the car to Lahti pretty quickly, and after a test drive I determined that the car seemed functional and looked like it had been taken care pretty well. The deal was done and the car was mine on 27 August 2024.
The car I had bought had one prior owner and it had been first registered in November 2021. However, since model year 2021 cars are supposed to be face-lift versions, and this is not one of those it is most likely that this car has been manufactured in 2020. Apparently almost all Megane IV RS cars in Finland are pre-face-lift cars, although it might be possible that there are two face-lift cars in the country.
My car has the following options:
List of options is not very long on my car but luckily the standard equipment on the RS is pretty comprehensive. According to the sales ad for the car, it should also have the RS Monitor telemetrics but at least so far it is nowhere to be seen on my car. The summer wheels on the car are 19" from brand Rotiform. The car is also equipped with electrical engine and interior heaters, important stuff for winter use in Finland.
