Renault Megane news - Meg' Pryin' - 2008

These are the first pictures of the new Renault Megane.

Sorry they're a bit grainy and stuff, but we've acquired them through slightly covert means.

See, you weren't meant to see these until next week, but a naughty Spanish blog site got hold of them early and distributed them with reckless abandon around the interweb. Slapped wrists for you, sirs.

Enough of the back story. More importantly, what do you think of the looks?

Renault design chief Patrick Le Quement has aimed for a more subtle Megane this time round - the blocky, big-arsed current generation was thought to polarise too many potential customers - and it's certainly a far gentler-looking beast.

On first impressions, we like the look of the rear end, but is that face just too forgettable?

That said, we're told that the three-door Megane - which Renault is calling the Coupe - will be a lot more radical. We'll see it for the first time in Paris... unless some cheeky Spaniards have their wicked way, that is.

Renault is majoring on the improved quality in the new Megane, so we'd expect more upmarket plastics in the cabin and, we hope, better reliability.

One quick thought, though - we can't quite figure out how RenaultSport are going to, erm, RenaultSport this Megane. Visually, we mean. It doesn't exactly lend itself to the bodykit and spoiler treatment, does it? Maybe the Coupe will make more sense of it.

We'll find out a whole lot more about the Megane next week before its formal unveiling in Paris. No Spaniards invited.