RE: Clio Renaultsport 200

[rsstman]

CarlT said:

197 was 3 years old - hence the mid-life facelift.
Also, if you read the reviews / info - it is a bit more than a new front and 3 bhp !

its not a lot more than 3bhp and a shocking front end though.

[ukaskew]

rsstman said:

CarlT said:

197 was 3 years old - hence the mid-life facelift.
Also, if you read the reviews / info - it is a bit more than a new front and 3 bhp !

its not a lot more than 3bhp and a shocking front end though.

They tend to do the subtle things that go relatively un-noticed. When the 182 Trophy was announced everybody thought it was an end-of-the-line-throw-some-red-paint-at-it special. Look how that turned out, trick dampers and a change to the set up and it became one of the greatest hot hatches ever.

[rsstman]

ukaskew said:

rsstman said:

CarlT said:

197 was 3 years old - hence the mid-life facelift.
Also, if you read the reviews / info - it is a bit more than a new front and 3 bhp !

its not a lot more than 3bhp and a shocking front end though.

They tend to do the subtle things that go relatively un-noticed. When the 182 Trophy was announced everybody thought it was an end-of-the-line-throw-some-red-paint-at-it special. Look how that turned out, trick dampers and a change to the set up and it became one of the greatest hot hatches ever.

but hardly any better than a 182 cup.

[LukeBird]

I think most would disagree with you on the fact...

[Agoogy]

LukeBird said:

I think most would disagree with you on the fact...

most what?
182 cup owners?
182 Trophy onwners?
197 owners
Mini Cooper S owners?
Owners (who expressed a preference) said that their cats preferred it?

[loose cannon]

firstly the cup always has a spartan interior
secondly how much is a mini well specced, ££££££££
ive got a sneaking suspicion that a fully speced up clio 200 would come in a huge amount cheaper than a fully specced mini and not everybody has £30k to spend on a small performance hatch which a well specced mini costs,
plus you have the added bonus with the clio that its a track tool and you can actually get something in the boot.

[Jamesf288]

Both are similar in value. I know which i'd choose.

Edited by Jamesf288 on Monday 18th May 19:58

[Agoogy]

yeah but one is an out and out sports car, and one is a luxury status symbol... what is your point? compare like with like
The Clio..Cooper..205..Integrale...Focus..Golf.... whatever are all born of lesser shopping trolleys and the performance variants have to use what is provided and ideally make them as special as possible to make them desirable halos.
The Clio starts with bad, bland plastics, with an uninspiring format of shape, architecture and detail and .....for your extra £,000's adds a yellow rev band...ooooooh...
I'm not interested in spec and price comparisons...I'm not even THAT interested in the quality of the plastics, because I tend not to stroke or knock every part of the dash...
I'm talking about imagination and an interior that reflects the exterior and the car's purpose.... contrasting stitching...body coloured accents, small parts that could have optional textures, rubber, aluminium, carbon, alcantara, fake or real it doesn't matter, something that separates it from the 1.2RL or whatever...

I realise the engineers have had extra cash and time to fettle the chassis, fabulous, more kudos for that.... but again, if you're buying a car just for track work, you wouldn't buy a Clio Cup, these cars do more than one job, they ferry you to your work, maybe take the family or dog out....holidays...shopping...whatever...in these cases drab bland plastics are just that...uninspiring..boring and a non event...

So no I won't be buying one...when or if I'm ever in a position to buy a Hot Hatch, I'll look elsewhere...shame because I bloody love the exterior of the 197...(less so this one)

[TheBigUnit]

Agoogy said:

I'm not interested in spec and price comparisons...I'm not even THAT interested in the quality of the plastics, because I tend not to stroke or knock every part of the dash...
I'm talking about imagination and an interior that reflects the exterior and the car's purpose.... contrasting stitching...body coloured accents, small parts that could have optional textures, rubber, aluminium, carbon, alcantara, fake or real it doesn't matter, something that separates it from the 1.2RL or whatever...

Calm down. Go to the Renault website, and you'll find the following:

To meet customer demand even more closely, the Renault i.d. range of personalisation offers customers a wide choice of customisable options including the addition of three new exterior colours in the form of Alien Green, Mercury and Pearlescent Liquid Yellow. In addition to the exterior, the interior can also be tailored with a new range of finishes and upholsteries with other options including the new Carminat TomTom®, the first integrated GPS navigation system for just £450.

Agoogy said:

So no I won't be buying one...when or if I'm ever in a position to buy a Hot Hatch, I'll look elsewhere...shame because I bloody love the exterior of the 197...(less so this one)

Perfect for angry interior designers like yourself who aren't actually going to buy a hot hatch...

[Ecurie Ecosse]

Loving all this chat about the interior.

I had a 197 on test for a weekend and loved it. The interior was absolutely fine. It had great seats, and the basic nature really suited the car - like a little stripped out racer. It certainly wouldn't put me off buying the car, and you can order leather etc if you want a Changing Rooms special.

A big thumbs up to Renault from me for continuing to produce focussed performance cars.

[Agoogy]

TheBigUnit said:

Agoogy said:

I'm not interested in spec and price comparisons...I'm not even THAT interested in the quality of the plastics, because I tend not to stroke or knock every part of the dash...
I'm talking about imagination and an interior that reflects the exterior and the car's purpose.... contrasting stitching...body coloured accents, small parts that could have optional textures, rubber, aluminium, carbon, alcantara, fake or real it doesn't matter, something that separates it from the 1.2RL or whatever...

Calm down. Go to the Renault website, and you'll find the following:

To meet customer demand even more closely, the Renault i.d. range of personalisation offers customers a wide choice of customisable options including the addition of three new exterior colours in the form of Alien Green, Mercury and Pearlescent Liquid Yellow. In addition to the exterior, the interior can also be tailored with a new range of finishes and upholsteries with other options including the new Carminat TomTom®, the first integrated GPS navigation system for just £450.

Agoogy said:

So no I won't be buying one...when or if I'm ever in a position to buy a Hot Hatch, I'll look elsewhere...shame because I bloody love the exterior of the 197...(less so this one)

Perfect for angry interior designers like yourself who aren't actually going to buy a hot hatch...

I'm calm now.... that option thing sounds (almost) just the ticket...marvellous.....and one day..one day soon I will be buying a hot hatch, which happily coincides with the fact that I'm neither angry or an interior designer...or in fact that I know anyone that is...

[Jamesf288]

Agoogy said:

yeah but one is an out and out sports car, and one is a luxury status symbol... what is your point? compare like with like
The Clio..Cooper..205..Integrale...Focus..Golf.... whatever are all born of lesser shopping trolleys and the performance variants have to use what is provided and ideally make them as special as possible to make them desirable halos.
The Clio starts with bad, bland plastics, with an uninspiring format of shape, architecture and detail and .....for your extra £,000's adds a yellow rev band...ooooooh...
I'm not interested in spec and price comparisons...I'm not even THAT interested in the quality of the plastics, because I tend not to stroke or knock every part of the dash...
I'm talking about imagination and an interior that reflects the exterior and the car's purpose.... contrasting stitching...body coloured accents, small parts that could have optional textures, rubber, aluminium, carbon, alcantara, fake or real it doesn't matter, something that separates it from the 1.2RL or whatever...

I realise the engineers have had extra cash and time to fettle the chassis, fabulous, more kudos for that.... but again, if you're buying a car just for track work, you wouldn't buy a Clio Cup, these cars do more than one job, they ferry you to your work, maybe take the family or dog out....holidays...shopping...whatever...in these cases drab bland plastics are just that...uninspiring..boring and a non event...

So no I won't be buying one...when or if I'm ever in a position to buy a Hot Hatch, I'll look elsewhere...shame because I bloody love the exterior of the 197...(less so this one)

I've owned a 205 1.9 and a S2 106 Rallye. Were they great to drive, yes. Did I care about the interior? One word beginning with N.

The raison d'être of all Renault Sport products is performance not luxury. Ask any Integrale, Renault Sport et al driver how important the interior is to the ownership experience...there's your answer.

I personally love the low-rent interior.

As for separating it from the poverty spec models. Your right foot does that.

My mum's Cooper S is a blast to drive and clearly has a better interior than my Clio. Which would I choose? Trophy everytime.

[Agoogy]

Yeah but I bet you wouldn't say N to a car that could tickle both aspects of driver focused-ness to the extent of a Trophy with an element of desirability in the 'just sitting in it' stakes... hmm? yes?

[Jamesf288]

Agoogy said:

Yeah but I bet you wouldn't say N to a car that could tickle both aspects of driver focused-ness to the extent of a Trophy with an element of desirability in the 'just sitting in it' stakes... hmm? yes?

I refer you to my last sentence.

Anyway, I'm not sure that such a hot-hatch currently exists in this price bracket...

[Agoogy]

Jamesf288 said:

Agoogy said:

Yeah but I bet you wouldn't say N to a car that could tickle both aspects of driver focused-ness to the extent of a Trophy with an element of desirability in the 'just sitting in it' stakes... hmm? yes?

I refer you to my last sentence.

Anyway, I'm not sure that such a hot-hatch currently exists in this price bracket...

and I refer you back to my comment.... if your Trophy had an interior that was as 'interesting' or characterful as say the Cooper..wouldn't you be happier?
and the fact such a hot hatch doesn't exist in this price bracket just opens up the potential ....

[Jamesf288]

Agoogy said:

Jamesf288 said:

Agoogy said:

Yeah but I bet you wouldn't say N to a car that could tickle both aspects of driver focused-ness to the extent of a Trophy with an element of desirability in the 'just sitting in it' stakes... hmm? yes?

I refer you to my last sentence.

Anyway, I'm not sure that such a hot-hatch currently exists in this price bracket...

and I refer you back to my comment.... if your Trophy had an interior that was as 'interesting' or characterful as say the Cooper..wouldn't you be happier?
and the fact such a hot hatch doesn't exist in this price bracket just opens up the potential ....

No.

I love my car and wouldn't change a thing. You'll find that other Trophy owners feel exactly the same. Cheers

[ukaskew]

Jamesf288 said:

I love my car and wouldn't change a thing. You'll find that other Trophy owners feel exactly the same. Cheers

I'm with you on that one, it is functional, that's it, and that's all I ever needed from it. I can't think of a time when I ever sat there and looked at the interior in any great detail, and that goes for any car I've ever owned. 99.9% of the time I'm looking straight out of the window. Maybe I'm a bit odd though, as something like a R26.R or F40 interior appeals to me far more than a Zonda or Spyker interior.

Sure some of the materials could have been longer lasting (my 172 Cup steering wheel melted, pretty much), but I couldn't care less for the actual 'styling' of it all inside.

[Jamesf288]

ukaskew said:

Jamesf288 said:

I love my car and wouldn't change a thing. You'll find that other Trophy owners feel exactly the same. Cheers

I'm with you on that one, it is functional, that's it, and that's all I ever needed from it. I can't think of a time when I ever sat there and looked at the interior in any great detail, and that goes for any car I've ever owned. 99.9% of the time I'm looking straight out of the window. Maybe I'm a bit odd though, as something like a R26.R or F40 interior appeals to me far more than a Zonda or Spyker interior.

Sure some of the materials could have been longer lasting (my 172 Cup steering wheel melted, pretty much), but I couldn't care less for the actual 'styling' of it all inside.

I love the stripped out approach of an F40, R26.R, Elise/Exige etc; there's a beauty in their purity.

[fivesixseven8]

Agoogy said:

and the fact such a hot hatch doesn't exist in this price bracket just opens up the potential ....

Does it though? If it were feasibly possible to tick all of the boxes and keep the cars within the cost bracket that they are, do you not think someone would have done so?
Renault chose to spend more on the chassis development than on the interior. BMW, for example, chose to spend more on the overall package and focus less on the ride and handling.
Shirley, with anything in life, it is about what balance of merits you personally want from a car?

Our Mini Cooper S is a much nicer place to sit than our R26, but, once you start to drive it the R26's "basic" interior is soon forgotten and the driving enjoyment takes over. The Mini also cost considerably more when new, so much more in fact that they are almost in different price brackets.

[Agoogy]

Jamesf288 said:

ukaskew said:

Jamesf288 said:

I love my car and wouldn't change a thing. You'll find that other Trophy owners feel exactly the same. Cheers

I'm with you on that one, it is functional, that's it, and that's all I ever needed from it. I can't think of a time when I ever sat there and looked at the interior in any great detail, and that goes for any car I've ever owned. 99.9% of the time I'm looking straight out of the window. Maybe I'm a bit odd though, as something like a R26.R or F40 interior appeals to me far more than a Zonda or Spyker interior.

Sure some of the materials could have been longer lasting (my 172 Cup steering wheel melted, pretty much), but I couldn't care less for the actual 'styling' of it all inside.

I also love the stripped out look...GT3, F40, Elise, VX220, Caterham etc, but its when the architecture your stripping out is fundementally dull, that I call fowl - Megan, Clio, Focus Mk1, 306, 106
So its less specifically Clio Trophy/Cup/200 whatever and more Clio (in this case)
and whilst I certainly don't want to get into a Cooper S vs Clio debate, didn't BMW spend an inordanant amount on chasis development?? so much so that Renault only beat it with cars developed after the Mini, ie in answer to it? I'm not stating that as fact...merely proposiing it..

I love the stripped out approach of an F40, R26.R, Elise/Exige etc; there's a beauty in their purity.