Cliosport 200 FF vs Mini Cooper R53 JCW

[Wagonwheel555]

Would be a no brainer for me, Clio all the way.

I realise the R53 is lower miles but its still a 16 year old car so simply isn't worth £7k unless this is one of those rare ones that only appreciate in price but ultimately you are buying it to drive, not to garage.

Ive owned a Clio 200, really fun car to drive but being a 2L N/A, you need to rev it to get the power out of it but this is true of most N/A engines.

[Dave.]

£7k for a pre-facelift R53 is nuts, regardless of the mileage or JCW bits.

If it was half the price it'd be a good buy.

[BaronVonVaderham]

Clio 200 is a much better drivers car than the BMW.

[GiveItSomeWellie]

That R53 was for sale at a local MINI specialist quite recently, makes you wonder what could be wrong with it for the seller to move it on so quickly.

I've owned an R53 (and countless other MINIs), and briefly driven a Clio 200. The MINI for me had more character and much better steering, but the Clio was more playful and had a great engine.

Edited by GiveItSomeWellie on Friday 6th September 09:50

[Dave.]

GiveItSomeWellie said:

That R53 was for sale at a local MINI specialist quite recently, makes you wonder what could be wrong with it for the seller to move it on so quickly.

I've owned an R53 (and countless other MINIs), and briefly driven a Clio 200. The MINI for me had more character and much better steering, but the Clio was more playful and had a great engine.

Edited by GiveItSomeWellie on Friday 6th September 09:50

It has a slightly dubious history for the past couple of years too... Late MoT which it failed, then sat for a while....

[l-murcielago]

Thanks guys. That helps a lot. Do you think that Clio 200 model is good value though? And any idea if the Scorpion exhaust system is good?

I actually wanted a lower mileage Clio 200 with the same full fat package, but can't seem to find any good spec on the market in the right colour (black). And I don't know if it's worth waiting for another one to pop up on the market. Want it ASAP really...

[Wagonwheel555]

l-murcielago said:

Thanks guys. That helps a lot. Do you think that Clio 200 model is good value though? And any idea if the Scorpion exhaust system is good?

I actually wanted a lower mileage Clio 200 with the same full fat package, but can't seem to find any good spec on the market in the right colour (black). And I don't know if it's worth waiting for another one to pop up on the market. Want it ASAP really...

Yeah seems decent enough for £4k.

"remapped at rs tuning and ran a healthy 190bhp with printout to prove."

They are 197BHP as standard and a remap would have done little on an N/A engine, even with the exhaust mods so this seems a little weird.

"with a 200 cell scorpion sports cat."

This might fail the MOT as I believe a CAT is a requirements nowadays, although perhaps I am mistaken. If not, be prepared to find a friendly MOT tester or swap it out once a year for the original.

"There are no issues with any of the gears"

I believe some of these suffered from gearbox issues at some point so perhaps this is in reference to that, may be worth a trawl on the Clio Sport forums to see what sort of costs you would be looking at worse case.

At the end of the day, the owner would have ragged this car to within an inch of its life so make sure its got full service history with regular oil changes etc and its the standard risk of buying any hot hatch really.

[andyr30]

The R53 is expensive...I own one as a daily driver and can't remember a weekend I haven't been replacing or fixing something on it! Luckily I enjoy doing it and a lot has been preventative maintenance

Great fun to drive though. I only paid £1700 for mine, albeit with more miles and not a full JCW, but done a lot of work since

You can pick them up a lot cheaper than that even with all the JCW bits

[350]

I've got a 2011 RS 200 which has the cup pack (they have the red brake calipers).

The ride is pretty harsh on anything but a really smooth road, and as said above, does have to be revved hard to make progress. It's good fun as a weekend car though.

Common belief is that they never made 197 bhp out of the factory so the owner's statement is likely correct.

have a look on clio200.net

[ZX10R NIN]

I'd say go for the Clio it's the better car.

[CABC]

last year i chose a non-S R50 for limited use after a fair bit of research. I wanted to experience an original MINI, but that wonderful supercharger looked like a pile of trouble in a car at least 14 yrs old. The R53 is a really tight engine bay, and it's hot! The cooling system is pressurised to help cope and is a notable weak area. facelift cars (04) have a few niggles ironed out, gbox, looms and such. however, even my non-S has had cooling issues.

i would suspect a newer and simpler Clio to be more reliable and a better spirited steer.
an original R53 will be worth 7k. in a few years...

I'm looking to upgrade my R50 to a late R56 (as first R56s also had issues) and take it on track. Erin Dawes has vetoed a Clio or FiST

[l-murcielago]

Thanks everyone for all the advice so far. Going to avoid the R53 now.

However, I just saw a really nice looking Suzuki Swift Sport on AutoTrader today. Much better mileage at 36K compared to 77K on the Clio 200 although costs an extra 2 grand. This review of the SSS looks pretty amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR_a80IUIQo

2014 SSS:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Should I go for the Clio 200 or the Swift Sport? I'm guessing the Clio will be more slightly more fun (extra horsepower), but perhaps the Suzuki will be more reliable? What is the better buy? Or do you think I should just wait for a lower mileage Clio to pop up?

Cheers

[ZX10R NIN]

It's still the Clio for me it's just the better more enjoyable drivers car.

[MDL111]

Can’t offer a comparison, but I adore my Clio

[l-murcielago]

Haha thank you guys. Lots of love for the Clio