The good folk at Renault have been busy putting the finishing touches to their 2009 Megane, only to have French car rag Auto Plus reveal all, well ahead of any official debut.

Renault have clearly toned down the styling for the 2009 car in an effort to help it appeal to more punters. Far more conventional looking than the current model, the new Megane features what appears to be the ‘new face’ of Renault – a front end that shares plenty in common with the new Laguna.

The coupe version of the new Megane has some promising looking lines and you don’t have to look to hard to see that the designers had the Megane Coupe Concept in mind when they first got the crayons out. It will be interesting to see what the new Megane coupe and its performance derivatives have to offer the hot-hatch enthusiast – knowing Renault it will be plenty.

Renault have a lot riding on their Megane range which goes toe-to-toe with heavy hitting rivals like the Ford Focus, Mazda3 and Volkswagen Golf. The smooth new styling may be more appealing to the masses but let’s hope Renault haven’t diluted their natural quirkiness too much.

Expect Renault to present the new Megane to the public at this years Paris Auto Salon in September. Following the Paris reveal European buyers are likely to have the new Megane in their driveway before years end.

[Source: Autoplus via Autoblog]