Clio 3 dci vs competition (another what car thread)
Discussion
Due to a change in job my commute has jumped from 6 miles a day to nearly 50 miles a day (there and back). At the minute I have a Twingo gt (1.2 tce 100 engine).
Its a fun little car, but its fuel economy is terrible for what it is (around 26 to 32 mpg, and before anyone says heavy right foot etc, this is the only car I've had to resort to economy driving. I've tried changing up a just over 2000 rpm, tried sticking to 60 mph on the motorway, I think the best I've got out of it is about 34mpg. Plus I don't like driving like this. Been to 3 different garages and no one could find a problem). Plus this thread on a french car forum kind of confirms the tce has crappy mpg. I had a 1.1 106 before that and I could get 56 mpg out of it no problem.
http://www.forum-auto.com/marques/renault/sujet618...
Anyway, I'm thinking of changing the car for something less thirsty. At the minute I quite the look of the Clio 3 dci (The gt looks pretty good, but there none for sale near me, but loads of the 86 bhp) the Citreon C2 VTS hdi (although, again none near me). The megane 175 dci looks temping, but seem to be very rare.
On the other hand though, I think a Aygo/C1/107 might be a better bet. N/A petrol so less to go wrong, but how are they on the motorway? and mainly are they any fun to drive? Same goes for the Ford Fiesta and the VW polo (I had a polo TDI as a hire car last year, I quite liked it), but there a lot dearer to buy.
I can't really spend more than £6500, it has to be fairly cheap to run, but fun to drive. My commute is about 16 miles motorway, 9 miles in town. But I like going out for a Sunday blast around the B roads too.
Also, needs to be able to take 4 people (so, an mx5 is temping, but I would need to put friends and family in the boot.)
Its a fun little car, but its fuel economy is terrible for what it is (around 26 to 32 mpg, and before anyone says heavy right foot etc, this is the only car I've had to resort to economy driving. I've tried changing up a just over 2000 rpm, tried sticking to 60 mph on the motorway, I think the best I've got out of it is about 34mpg. Plus I don't like driving like this. Been to 3 different garages and no one could find a problem). Plus this thread on a french car forum kind of confirms the tce has crappy mpg. I had a 1.1 106 before that and I could get 56 mpg out of it no problem.
http://www.forum-auto.com/marques/renault/sujet618...
Anyway, I'm thinking of changing the car for something less thirsty. At the minute I quite the look of the Clio 3 dci (The gt looks pretty good, but there none for sale near me, but loads of the 86 bhp) the Citreon C2 VTS hdi (although, again none near me). The megane 175 dci looks temping, but seem to be very rare.
On the other hand though, I think a Aygo/C1/107 might be a better bet. N/A petrol so less to go wrong, but how are they on the motorway? and mainly are they any fun to drive? Same goes for the Ford Fiesta and the VW polo (I had a polo TDI as a hire car last year, I quite liked it), but there a lot dearer to buy.
I can't really spend more than £6500, it has to be fairly cheap to run, but fun to drive. My commute is about 16 miles motorway, 9 miles in town. But I like going out for a Sunday blast around the B roads too.
Also, needs to be able to take 4 people (so, an mx5 is temping, but I would need to put friends and family in the boot.)
Edited by Noesph on Friday 25th July 12:30
I have a Clio 3 1.2 petrol (non turbo) It's pretty gutless but I can manage 43mpg on my commute to work which is not too trafficky and around 50mpg on a run. It could be your driving style even if you are trying hard you may not be driving very economically, I went on an economy /safe driving course a while back and it was a real eye opener, it could also just be that It's a thirsty car.
My wife has a Clio2 1.5dci and she gets nearly 70mpg commuting although I can't get near that and it does drop to high 50s if you push it much above 70 on a motorway, the gearing on these cars just seems all wrong to me.
I borrowed a mate's Berlingo in France, similar size diesel, and it was much more relaxed to drive with good fuel consumption.
The Clio2 dci has been fairly good (now on 140K miles) but any faults that have developed seem to have Renault modified parts when replaced but I think these have carried over to the Clio3 so they should be a good car. My Clio3 has been fault free so far touch wood, so despite what people say about Renaults I think they are a reasonably good car by modern standards. Also I'm pretty sure that with the 85bhp dci it's free road tax so another benefit there.
My wife has a Clio2 1.5dci and she gets nearly 70mpg commuting although I can't get near that and it does drop to high 50s if you push it much above 70 on a motorway, the gearing on these cars just seems all wrong to me.
I borrowed a mate's Berlingo in France, similar size diesel, and it was much more relaxed to drive with good fuel consumption.
The Clio2 dci has been fairly good (now on 140K miles) but any faults that have developed seem to have Renault modified parts when replaced but I think these have carried over to the Clio3 so they should be a good car. My Clio3 has been fault free so far touch wood, so despite what people say about Renaults I think they are a reasonably good car by modern standards. Also I'm pretty sure that with the 85bhp dci it's free road tax so another benefit there.
£6.5K will get you into a very nice Fiat Bravo. They do a 1.4T-Jet (150BHP) Petrol which will average around 35-40mpg. Alternatively, there are 2 diesels, a 1.9M-Jet (150BHP) and a 2.0M-Jet (165BHP). Very well built cars. I have the 1.4T-Jet Sport. Much better quality than any Renault I've sat in!
I drive a renault clio 3 dci 85hp at the moment covering about 280 miles a week. My commute is from cardiff city centre out into the valleys so it's kind of half bumper to bumper and half dual carriage way. I've got a depleted uranium right foot and rarely drop below 65mph on the motorway/dual carriageway and I seeing about 54.5 mpg indicated by the screen (works out about 56 if you do the maths), however I do find the miles remaining reading is wildly optimistic saying a full tank can get 750 miles and being no where near that..
Reliability wise it's only let me down on thing in the 45k miles I've driven over the last two years. It failed an mot on the horn not working which turned out to be the connecting plates between the steering wheel and column which cost about £260 to fix. Touch wood I've had non of the engine troubles you hear about such as turbo failure, I did however overfill the oil slightly once which gave me the impression that the turbo seals had gone. It's done just over 122k now so I'm guessing I'm doing ok.
I service the car myself every 12 thousand miles which costs me about £50 and a Saturday morning to do, regular servicing is probably the most important thing in keeping these dci engines going.
The quality was not as good as expected, mine is a 55 plate 2006 car and things are now starting to rattle like the window mechanisms inside the doors and the glovebox has started to droop on one side. The blower decides when it wants to work on setting number 4 and the aircon condenser is situated right where all the kicked up stones seem to hit the car so was punctured just after I had the car. The factory tinted rear and side windows are now starting to peel underneath the tinting material so I'll have to get those done soon..
I have occasionally seen 70 mpg but only when sticking to 60 mph and driving calmly.
Richard
Reliability wise it's only let me down on thing in the 45k miles I've driven over the last two years. It failed an mot on the horn not working which turned out to be the connecting plates between the steering wheel and column which cost about £260 to fix. Touch wood I've had non of the engine troubles you hear about such as turbo failure, I did however overfill the oil slightly once which gave me the impression that the turbo seals had gone. It's done just over 122k now so I'm guessing I'm doing ok.
I service the car myself every 12 thousand miles which costs me about £50 and a Saturday morning to do, regular servicing is probably the most important thing in keeping these dci engines going.
The quality was not as good as expected, mine is a 55 plate 2006 car and things are now starting to rattle like the window mechanisms inside the doors and the glovebox has started to droop on one side. The blower decides when it wants to work on setting number 4 and the aircon condenser is situated right where all the kicked up stones seem to hit the car so was punctured just after I had the car. The factory tinted rear and side windows are now starting to peel underneath the tinting material so I'll have to get those done soon..
I have occasionally seen 70 mpg but only when sticking to 60 mph and driving calmly.
Richard
Edited by dci on Friday 25th July 13:54
dci said:
Reliability wise it's only let me down on thing in the 45k miles I've driven over the last two years. It failed an mot on the horn not working which turned out to be the connecting plates between the steering wheel and column which cost about £260 to fix. Touch wood I've had non of the engine troubles you hear about such as turbo failure, I did however overfill the oil slightly once which gave me the impression that the turbo seals had gone. It's done just over 122k now so I'm guessing I'm doing ok.
I had that on my wife's one, It's the ribbon that breaks by the plug so you need a complete new plate inside the steering wheel, mine cost £110 from Renaults and I changed it myself. Check the alternator pulley as they give up at around 70K + miles and can be quite expensive if it totally fails. I've just had to have a new set of injectors fitted and was told that the turbos can give up as they have a small filter in the oil feed which gets blocked so regular oil changing is a must, I do it every 6K or so but then I don't have to pay for the oil so It's not too expensive for me.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff