Jerr Nolan of Renault Ireland often tells the story of how the Irish company got 100 Renault Scenics with which to launch the model here at the end of 1996. Then disaster struck.

"The Scenic was a complete new concept, a compact MPV, and Renault were totally taken by surprise at how it was received by the public," he recalls. "The fact was, they were overwhelmed with orders, and just after launching we were told that production of right-hand-drive versions had been stopped and wouldn't resume for six months, so they could catch up with continental European demand."

The rest, in general terms, is automotive history. The runaway Scenic created whole new segment, had a few years in which to become the sole provider of this new very lifestyle vehicle, and has since held the lead position, with only Opel's Zafira coming close.

By the end of 2002, Renault had built over 2 million Scenics, almost 10,000 of which have been bought in Ireland, and annual sales volume of compact MPVs had breached the 100,000 mark across the European marketplace.

At its peak in the year 2000, the Scenic was responsible for 6.8 per cent of the small family car market. And even on run out in the last year, the model held a dominant position against Zafira, the Mitsubishi Spacestar, Fiat's Multipla, Mazda's Premacy, the Citroen Picasso, Nissan's Tino, the Mercedes Vaneo and the A-Class, Hyundai's Matrix and Toyota's Verso. Only the Opel and the Citroen have made any strong impact on the segment.

Now we have Scenic II, where the original of the species is bent on setting a new benchmark in the compact MPV area, with a few other wheezes up its sleeve.

And my initial feeling after driving it in Sweden last week is that even the successful competition must be getting a little uneasy.

So too might be the new kids coming to play on the block, represented by the upcoming Ford Focus-based C-MAX, and the VW Golf-based Touran.

Part of my good impression is based on a similar feeling when I first drove the Megane II, which shares the platform of the Scenic II, that this is one tough motor-cookie.

The time when the French had style but the Germans were the owners of all the substance in carmaking are now long gone, and in both strength of build and quality of construction, the Scenic II comes second to nobody.

And then, the French still have the edge on styling flair, and though we can be a little slow to pick up on really good stuff in dear old conservative Ireland (yep, Celtic Tigers we may have been, but adventurous we are still not in many ways), the Scenic II has enough of the recent Megane II adventure by Renault's chief designer, Patric Le Quement and yet a more restrained execution that shouldn't frighten the children in any way.

It also has the benefit of improving on what is the basic raison d'être of the compact MPV, carrying people in a more flexible and more comfortable environment than an ordinary car.

So, though the outside looks uncannily smaller than what has rolled before, the new vehicle gives more headroom front and rear, more elbow room in front, and a fifth more luggage space than had the outgoing car.

There's also a better driving position, more car-like thanks to a lowered hip-point, better pedal positioning and greater latitudes in steering wheel adjustments.

And, as I think of it, that was probably the only thing I didn't like about the outgoing Scenic, that it pushed the driver into a slightly 'sit-up and beg' position. Never enough to turn me against the car, though.

The new car also follows the Megane II trail in the quality of the interior materials, in truth a far cry not just from what has gone before in Renault, but in my view substantially better than most competition and a matter which the upcoming new kids will have to have taken account of.

In acoustic terms, Scenic II's designers have not just halved the interior noise levels against the outgoing car, but they have also achieved exterior noise levels that are half the requirements under current EU vehicle noise standards.

One of the things that Renault has NOT done in this Scenic second act is bother to try and emulate Opel's foldaway third row of seats. OK, maybe only one manufacturer needs to do this, and Opel has from time to time equalled Scenic's sales in Ireland with the Zafira, probably soaking up that other end of the market.

Renault will simply offer a second version from next Spring, longer and with seven seats. Which it sees will fill a gap in its range between Scenic 5-seat and the much more expensive Espace, which also comes with either five or seven seats, but in a much more salubrious end of the market.

The new car has at least as many clever stowage ideas as the outgoing car, which itself improved in this respect almost every year of its life. But in one of these, the glove compartment - which is cooled when aircon is part of the bought package - is vast. It just goes on and on and ... well ... on?

But for all their cleveralities, the bottom line for the owner of any car or car derivative is what it is like to drive. and what is under the bonnet is an important element of that.

In Ireland, Scenic II will come first with a 1.4-litre petrol that is expected to represent up to 85 per cent of sales here, a 1.6-litre petrol with variable valve timing that outputs 115bhp, a figure that only a few years ago was proudly trumpeted by many 2-litre power units, and a 1.9i-litre dCi turbodiesel which has just been upgraded to provide a whopping 300 Nm of torque without any impact on the fuel consumption.

There's also a 2-litre petrol version which is not going to be imported to Ireland because it is seen that there's no real point in bringing in a car that does nothing more for the buyer than give Charlie McCreevy a present that he doesn't deserve, to wit his shenanigans on vehicle registration tax last time out to find a quick E30 million or so.

What is going to be really neat when it comes next Spring is the 1.5-litre cDi turbodiesel, which will provide an insurance-friendly engine that is right up to date in the environmental friendlies too, and which will fit in cost terms in the middle of best values between the petrol and the diesel units.

What I drove were the 2-litre petrol and both diesels. The 1.4-litre wasn't available and the 1.6-litre there wasn't quality time for. What all versions gave us was a very good feeling for the essentials of the car.

What the roads in Sweden also gave us was wonderful surfaces with very little traffic, but a culture of obedience where even the locals didn't exceed fairly slow speed limits. A colleague made the comment that Volvo, for instance, in Sweden should be providing a 1.4-litre V70, because no more power was required there for the kind of driving they do.

He's a comedian by trade, but maybe it wasn't a joke ...?

We couldn't even find a pothole on which to test the suspension. But we've already done that part near the K Club in County Kildare with the Megane II, so it is probable the platform can handle that stuff pretty well.

In terms of preparation for the inevitable quota of accidents which Irish roads and driving conditions will play their own part in causing, all Scenics in Ireland will have six airbags as standard as well as the familiar raft of electronic aids to minimise the possibility of those accidents from happening in the first place.

Renault are expecting to add another 5-star rating to their collection when the Scenic II is tested under the Euro ENCAP crash test programme. The company already has the biggest range of cars of any manufacturer with the top rating.

The outgoing car has pretty well disappeared from Irish motor showrooms, and Jerr Nolan said last week that sales in the last year didn't diminish as might have been expected in a runout, with the Scenic I still taking one per cent of the Irish car market.

"In fact, if we could get any more of them between now and the launch of the new one on September 19, we'd take them, because there's still a strong demand out there," he said.

That said, he's very sure that the new one will build from there to make the compact MPV segment in Ireland as important as it has become elsewhere.

"We still have a big development potential in the segment," he said. "As well as that, I believe that when we add the 7-seater model to the range next year, that will increase our Scenic sales by a further 50 per cent."

In the meantime, he's trying to forget that initial debacle in 1996 for the Irish motorists Desperately Seeking Scenics. It is not a good time to ponder on what might occur outside one's control.