Sold: Renault Grand Scenic - ideal band vehicle, central Scotland, LEZ compliant, £2K

ICBM

Due to Daughter No. 2 requiring a car and there being no more room on the drive, I've decided to sell the much-loved Grand Scenic in favour of something smaller she can drive as well.

2011 Renault Grand Scenic 1.6 Dynamique, petrol, manual (6 gear), 110K miles

Yes, it's a Renault - they're much less unreliable than their reputation suggests, better than many supposedly 'superior' makes, and in the five years and roughly 30K miles I've owned it, only one thing (a seized rear brake caliper) has ever gone wrong with it. Nothing functional wrong with it whatever as far as I know, and while I’ve owned it, has always been maintained properly by a small independent garage I trust.

Yes, it's an MPV - not exactly cool or especially fun to drive, but it's *petrol*, pretty rare for one this sort of age, and fully compliant with the new LEZs being introduced in Scotland and elsewhere this year and next. Performance is reasonable for a 1.6l, and fuel economy varies from about 30mpg in town to 50mpg on cruise at 60mph on the motorway. It has cruise, speed limiter, satnav (TomTom), air con, decent radio/CD etc.

But most importantly for musicians, it's huge on the inside - really remarkably so for a car only the size of a Megane estate on the road. The boot alone is big enough to take an Ampeg 6x10" (admittedly not 8x10"!) under the sliding cover without even moving the rear seats forward, with the seats folded there's more room than in an estate because it's much taller, and with them removed completely it's not far off the size of a small van. If you want to do the opposite and use it as a bus there are folding seats under the boot floor so you can get up to seven - if they're not huge - people in it. And there's no sill on the boot opening, which makes loading much less of a pain.

Insurance group 15, which is the main reason - other than size, she’s just not happy with the idea of driving it - I’m selling. If it wasn’t for that I’d happily keep it. Values (sadly for me) peaked about a year or so ago as it turns out, so I probably should have sold it then, but right now I just need it gone so that's irrelevant. Autotrader dealer prices are in the £2.5-£4K region, I'd be happy with £2K.

Pictures to follow once I’ve cleaned it! - it's not in perfect condition by any means, but not bad for a 12-year old car with a history of family, band and (former) amp tech use . It's 'bronze' - metallic brown to you and me - but not actually ugly...

Based near Edinburgh.


Sold.