With this driving ufoot, Renault worked towards the Scénic

In this context, it would be unfair to ignore the Nissan Prairie when describing the compact (or midi) MPV. For the image: an angular Japanese car from the early eighties, with modest dimensions for length and width and a contrasting high roof. That last one was special in itself. It became even more special, because that crazy Nissan turned out to have a set of real sliding doors instead of rear doors. In addition – with all doors open – the B-pillar was conspicuous by its absence. A nice concept, which nevertheless received very few imitations.

And then there was Renault in 1991, at the IAA in Frankfurt, of all places, with its concept car Scenic. Mind you, the name was still written without an accent on the letter e, so the name was still pronounced as ‘sienik’. When the series model was introduced in 1996, the accent still appeared and it became Scénic, to be pronounced ‘seenic’. Well. The name is not entirely taken out of thin air, by the way, but stands for Safety Concept Embodied in a New Innovative Car. At least that’s how Renault’s then design chief Patrick le Quément wanted the world to believe.

Ivo Groen worked as an intern on Scenic

Ivo Groen, the current design boss of Lynk & Co and a columnist for AutoWeek Classics, recalls: “In the summer of 1988 I did an internship at Renault Style Avance in Nanterre. That gave me the opportunity to use the first version of the 1/5 scale model of the mini MPV for my internship project. Because the Renault designers were involved in a competition for the future Alpine – one of many attempts that ultimately fell through – I christened my MPV ‘Alpine’, with sliding doors and a sporty twist. I presented the clay model to Patrick le Quément. He thought it was interesting, but thought the back was too extreme and too ‘hollow’. “Like biting a lemon,” he said. He later asked Anne Asensio to make the ‘correct’ modifications and that became the Scenic concept car from Frankfurt. A few years later, Anne was the design manager for the production version of the Scénic. As a young mother, she explained on television that this MPV was conceived by a female designer for young mothers. When Wayne Cherry of General Motors heard about this cool female designer, he snatched her from Renault and offered her ten times the salary of what she was getting at Renault…”

Renault was an MPV pioneer with Espace

In the early 1990s, Renault was a big name in the ‘space car’ market, which it had more or less exploited together with Chrysler (Voyager). The Espace was a valued travel companion for large families and other groups, and on that basis, the Scenic as a smaller brother could well play a major role as the smart alternative, that was the opinion in 1991. An idea that has come true .

Scenic finally based on Mégane

This does not apply to the prediction made by Renault at the time that the brand would be able to offer a space car in 1996 ‘in every segment’. That the Scenic would become a space variation on the Renault 19 was also incorrect, but only because that model had already been replaced by the Mégane. When we now take a closer look at both the concept car Scenic and the series model Mégane Scénic, it appears that Renault has been able to keep their vision from 1991 reasonably well.

Although the appearance changed considerably in detail, the contours and dimensions match well. Unfortunately, some nice features of the Scenic were not (or only much later) applied in practice. Such as: a system that warns the driver if, according to the car, he is in danger of falling asleep, a windscreen wiper hinged to the roof edge that covers the entire window and cameras that show the surroundings of the car on a display – useful when reversing park. Another nice one: operation of the automatic transmission via a removable keypad. removable? Yes, because you can start the car remotely with it. But not if the kids are already in it, of course. The designer: “A car that should be a pleasant place to be. It’s a big teddy bear.”