Renault updates the Megane RS, cuts its price

With a motor show pending, most car news concentrates on shiny new things we’ve not seen before. Scroll through the gallery above and all you’ll find is a six-year-old car.

The Renaultsport Megane, though, is a good six-year-old car. About the best car you can buy the sensible side of a Porsche Cayman, in fact, if you place driving thrills at the top of your shopping criteria.

What you see here is its latest round of minor tweaks, something it has enjoyed throughout its life to keep it fresh. The biggest news, though, is a new £23,935 entry point.

The Megane 275 Cup-S, as it’s called, forgoes satnav and parking sensors and instead concentrates on the serious stuff – a limited-slip differential, big Brembo brakes and firm sports suspension – to deliver the most satisfying new car with a roof and rear seats below £25,000.

It also shares its 271bhp 2-litre turbo engine with the ‘Ring-bashing Trophy-R, yielding a 6.0sec 0-62mph time and 158mph top speed. And you can even spec the more focused yet Ohlins dampers and Michelin Cup tyres that helped the madder Megane set its record lap time at the Nordschleife.

The more materialistic can rest assured that a more sanitised 275 Nav, with a whole caboodle of cossetting things – including, crucially, illumination for the sun visor mirror – costs £2,000 more.

But they’re the people already addicted to go-faster Golfs and Leons. For a couple of grand more than the Clio Trophy, which is notably less powerful and exciting, could they – or you – finally be tempted by the mighty Megane?