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The looks
Renault Fluence is a notch-back sedan member of Renault's Megane family. It was however revealed nearly a year after three and five door Megane had been presented to the market. And I kind of know why. Looking at the car makes me think, that guys and girls at Renault
+Renault were so happy with Megane hatchback that they forgot about designing a sedan version all together. Then someone from top management came in asked "where my sedan is?" and the hell broke loose. So the designers went the easy way and borrowed whatever possible from other Renault models. The front grill is stolen from Clio the boot is a bigger copy of Thalia and head lights are probably from a scrap yard. If I was to use a single word to describe Fluence's styling it would probably be "inconsistent". It was supposed to look like a limousine, but instead it looks like Thalia at front, Saab from the side and like nothing you've seen before from the back. The best styling bit is a sort of plank at the bottom of each door. A distinctive feature presented in Megane and then carried over to other Renault models. It looks well both painted in the same color as the whole body or in a contrasting color. Never the less, one feature is far to less to save such a huge styling failure as the rest of Fluence. Some may argue that this car's looks may be like a real champagne - it's bitter and only true connoisseurs can enjoy its taste. It's nothing like that. It's more like a cheap fruit wine with label poorly copied from other brand. The after taste is unbearable.
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Interior
A French car interior is not a place, it's a state of mind. Nothing is as it seems and if anything could have been made complicated it probably had been done so. Volume and phone answering controls are hidden behind the steering wheel. It's not a problem if you've been driving your Fluence for last six months or so. You probably know the layout by heart. But if you're (un)lucky like me and hop into that car for a couple of quick drives, don't even bother with feeling comfortable or "at home" right away. There is a Bluetooth for your phone, but either I'm plain dumb or you need a to say a secret French word like "camembert" or "oh la la" to connect it. I know neither of these and so I gave up after fourth attempt. The whole dashboard looks like a designing team divided into smaller groups and was given a task to design a part of it. Then they simply put it altogether and nothing matched. So as a result you have a horizontal plank painted glossy piano black and going across the dashboard. Below that you'll find A/C and ventilation controls plus CAR/MEDIA/OPTIONS panel both separately framed in silvery satin plastic. Finally at the very bottom there's a slot for a card/key together with Start/Stop button and a 12v slot. These three have no styling added and are simply holes in black matte plastic. Wonderful. To add even more to this styling hysteria you get two side air vents in glossy piano black and a single double vent in the middle of the dash in matte black. But it's a different shade of black than the one from the bottom where the card slot is. Armrest inside the door seems a bit too far for me and the same goes for indicators knob behind the wheel. I simply couldn't reach it because it was too far. How do I know that the know was too far and not my fingers were too short? Well, they weren't too short in twenty other cars I drove. The best looking bit? That would be the white stitching of seats. Unfortunately that is something you are unable to see the second you take your position behind the wheel.
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The drive
Do you know how many French sports cars makers there are? None. Some may argue that Bugatti is French, but it actually was founded by an Italian named Ettore Bugatti and now has been owned by German Volkswagen Audi Group for some time. I guess that the choice of engines you get for a Fluence derives exactly from that rich sport tradition. You can choose between five power trains the weakest of which is 95BHP diesel and the the most powerful is a whopping 130BHP diesel as well. I got to drive the only gasoline one - a naturally aspirated 110BHP and 151 Nm of torque. What do these figures mean in real live? Nothing. Because when you step on it in low or mid revs, this is exactly what happens. Nothing. And if you want to wait until the engine revs up you'll probably have grown some grey hair before that. The car may have decent brakes, but I wouldn't know since I was unable to find a stretch of road long enough to build speed to test them. The gearbox is a perfect supplement for the engine. Selecting a gear requires a genuine force to overcome a resistance before is slides in. To add to the pain there's a stitching on a gear knob that irritates the inside of your palm every time you shift. Seats, pretty as they are, provide no lateral support, but at least driving position is relatively comfortable. Once you add all this together you get a perfect highway car - you select fifth gear and drive like that for hours with no need to turn the steering wheel or select a different gear. That however seems like a niche product to me. Was there anything I liked about driving this car then? Yes, turning the ignition off and getting out of it.
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Summary
It's a copy cat body with parts borrowed from other cars with interior so ugly that you need an art college degree to be able to see any beauty in it and with choice of engines so poor than having no choice could actually be a better option because than all this car would be good for is standing still. I was trying to think of reasons why anyone would buy a Fluence and I managed to come up with a few. First, you're a Renault stakeholder and your mum made you buy a sedan. This is one of only two sedan cars in whole of Renault's range, the other one being Thaila. In that case, I'd probably went for Fluence as well. Second, you've never driven or sat in anything else and you think that is the way a car looks and handles and so be it. Third, you believe that the name of the car "
Fluence" is going to attract some chicks. Trust me, this won't work as sooner or later they'll have to see the car and they'll run away screaming. Fourth, a fleet manager in your company was bribed into signing a deal with Renault and you got this midsized sedan by default and had no say. That is where my imagination runs out of scenarios. I seriously see no other reason to buy this car. I do not consider my self as someone with enormous experience in that area, but this is the worst car I've driven so far. It was a pain to drive and it is a pain to write about it. I guess that reliving a trauma is not a way for me to deal with
PTSD a Fluence caused.
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Check back for more
Please check back next week to see how a head to head comparison of this
car and the Skoda Octavia will look like. I'll compare all that
matters and even some stuff that doesn't and look for a definite answer
to a question - which of these two is a better car.
The gallery
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