Now here's an odd state of things. The article you have just started reading concerns a car which is on sale at the time I'm writing about it, but won't be for very much longer. What, you might reasonably wonder, is going on?Simple. The Renault Grand Scenic seven-seat MPV is, along with its five-seat sister, the Scenic, being revised, and the new versions will be available to order in February 2012. There's a new petrol engine, stop/start is available on the 1.5 dCi 110 diesel, a clever device called Vision System is being introduced, and of course there are a few exterior styling tweaks.There's also going to be a very special 1.6-litre turbo diesel engine, but unlike everything else this has been brought into the range before the new model year. It powers the car being reviewed here, which is why I'm reviewing it, if you see what I mean.The 1.6 replaces the old 1.9 dCi. I always liked the 1.9. I thought it was one of Renault's finest achievements. But the 1.6 dCi is better. For a start, it produces a maximum of 130bhp, and that's a very high figure indeed for a diesel of this size.But it's not at all racy. On the contrary, it pulls strongly from as little as 1300rpm, and no matter how hard you push it it's never noisy (the only objectionable sound in the Grand Scenic being a slight booming through the cabin). Officially, it's very economical - 64.2mpg on paper, though I didn't drive the car for long enough to be able to check this - and CO2 emissions of 115g/km means that Vehicle Excise Duty costs just £30 per year.You can't really ask much more from an engine than this. Not in an SUV, anyway. When the new Scenic and Grand Scenic arrive, it's quite possible that the very best thing about them will be this here 1.6 dCi.It would be easy to leave it at that and wait for the replacement model to come along, but since the differences between that car and the current one are generally quite minor it's safe to assume that a lot of other features will be carried over. So here goes.As mentioned above, the Grand Scenic is a seven-seater. You are, however, unlikely to find seven adults who will be able to fit into it at the same time. Four, yes. Five, maybe, if the one sitting in the centre seat of the middle row is slim-hipped. The remaining two seats behind are really only useable if the ones ahead of them are slid forward (which, fortunately, they can be), but of course then you reduce the middle-row legroom. Still, a car that can carry two adults and five children all at once might serve well as school-run transport.The middle-row seats can be tumbled forward very easily to allow access to the back-row ones, which in turn can be folded without difficulty (unfolding them is trickier - there's something about the geometry that I find awkward) to increase the luggage capacity. With all seats except the front two out of the way, this reaches the impressive figure of 1863 litres, and realistically you're probably not going to need any more than that.None of this is likely to change for 2012. Nor is the visibility situations, which isn't great; when I tried to reverse round a corner, the way we all had to in our driving tests, the bit I most needed to see was completely blocked by the large rear pillar, requiring me to guess or assume that I wasn't going to run into anything or anybody.Apart from that, the Grand Scenic is very easy to drive for something of this size. The steering is light but not too light (its power assistance varies according to the conditions, though you don't really notice), and the clutch action is very smooth, so it would take some effort to muck up a gearchange.Dynamique TomTom is one of just two trim levels available for the Grand Scenic, the other being the more basic Expression. The price gap between the two is £1500, and for that you get a decent range of extra equipment including, among other things, 16" Sport alloy wheels, air-conditioning, automatic headlights and wipers, cruise control, Bluetooth connectivity and, as the name suggests, Carminat TomTom Live satellite navigation. Engine 1598cc, 4 cylinders Power 130bhp Transmission 6-speed manual Fuel/CO2 64.2mpg / 115g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 11.1 seconds Top speed 121mph Price £22,200 Details correct at publication date
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