Thursday 18th September 2014

Clio Renaultsport 200 Turbo: PH Fleet

So is the more sensible Renaultsport Clio at home on more mundane duties? Hmm...

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Following a few weeks abroad at the beginning of August, my return to the Clio couldn't come soon enough. When the taxi from the airport rounded the corner into my road, all I could see was an ocean of traffic cones surrounding a solitary Clio. Reading the partially disintegrated note on the windscreen from the water authority revealed the embarrassing truth. Apparently it had been trying to replace the water main in our road, and the abandoned Renault was all that stood in the way. Oops.

Probably should have left it parked here

Since getting home, I've been predominantly clocking up miles of a mundane variety. It's a facet that's far from glamorous, but increasingly significant given the more mature direction taken by this version four Renaultsport Clio. If class-leading dynamic brilliance is now subordinate to duplicitous versatility then its capacity to perform as a daily driver will increasingly come under the microscope.

By rights, mooching around town should be all about leaving the gearbox in auto, leaning back in the excellent seats and letting the stresses wash over you. For the most part it is. But once again that gearbox can end up causing the blood pressure to rise, inexplicably clinging on to a gear way well beyond the point where I'd normally have shifted up. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does I'll usually end up doing 25mph in second with the revs racing away and the feeling that everyone else in the traffic jam is thinking 'what's that twonk doing?'

Easing off the throttle never seems to send the desired signal to the gearbox, so instead I tend to pull the right paddle and override the computer. Within ten seconds the gearbox reverts to auto, letting me get back to doing, well, not very much.

Interior much improved over old Clios

I can think of many worse places to spend time stuck in traffic. While the cabin is not the last word in quality, the important materials - seats, paddles, wheel, buttons, screen - feel nice to the touch. Next to previous Renaultsport Clios, it's positively luxurious, and so far it's still creak and rattle-free. There are traces of the past though; the bright orange panels are cheap and nasty, as is the gear selector. Having only used the sequential-style push/pull action to change ratios once, I'd happily see it shrunken down to an inconspicuous dial on the centre column.

Hospitable though it is when you do get stuck in a jam, usually I'm one step ahead. Live traffic updates are a £150 option, but it's one that was ticked on our Lux spec car, and so far it's proved invaluable. As a matter of habit I now have a quick check of the traffic map on the huge touchscreen whenever I leave the house, and on the approach to known blackspots. There have been the odd occasion where it hasn't given an accurate update, but nine times out of ten the information has been spot on. Equally handy are the little grey flags denoting nearby petrol stations. With a 45-litre tank, I'm averaging around 300 miles between fill-ups (32-35mpg). But when the onboard computer has a range that falls from 60 miles to zero, you need every help you can get locating the next pit-stop.

Someone needs a bike rack!

In addition, the navigation system is very clear and intuitively simple to operate. My only criticism is that it has an annoying habit of resetting the map to a tight zoom, even when you've manually selected a wider overview. One useful feature is the option to use the star at the bottom of the home screen to set up a list of favourite destinations, phone numbers and radio stations; simplifying regular tasks.

Getting the Bluetooth to connect has mostly been successful first time, and always on the second attempt. What's has been frustrating is that, although I can happily access phone contacts, the R-Link won't let me cycle through any music folders. Maybe it's just an Android thing? I'd be interested to know if iPhone owners enjoy full control over their music.

A final point on manoeuvring around town; the Clio suffers from annoying blind spots, particularly from the thick A-pillars and small rear window. The latter is particularly annoying if a) like our car, you don't tick the box marked parking sensors, and b) your road is being dug up and all the neighbours are parking like Parisians.

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FACT SHEET
Car: Clio Renaultsport 200 Turbo EDC LUX
Run by: Danny Milner
On fleet since: April 2014
Mileage: 7,459
List price new: £21,835 (Basic list of £19,995 plus £650 for Cup Chassis, £300 for 18-inch Renaultsport wheels and Dunlop Sport Maxx RT tyres, £595 for Flame Red i.d. metallic paint, £295 for Renaultsport Monitor)
Last month at a glance: Wouldn't you know, there's another gearbox grumble with the Clio

Previous updates:
Clio arrives on the PH Fleet; faces an uphill struggle for popular opinion
PH 'accidentally' ends up in an impromptu Clio Cup race at Spa
Danny heads to Scotland in search of the Clio's hidden depths
Found - the Clio's wild side
Clio battles its Peugeot nemesis for Danny's affection

 

[gregf40]

I wish they would hurry up and release a version with Recaro's and a gear box that works...we know it can be done...

[MyCC]

The overwhelming feeling that comes across from this review is the complete lack of excitement that the car gives. Surely that should be its whole raison d'etre?!

Regards,

MyCC.

[Chicane-UK]

The 'forgetful' auto gearbox sounds extremely frustrating. I'm curious to know if it's smart enough to now leave the car in a low gear whilst you're doing high revs when the engine is cold, or whether it at least has some programming to shift up quickly until the engine is up to temperature? Just thinking how much premature wear that'll be putting on a cold engine if it's hanging onto gears in such a way.

[Fetchez la vache]

article said:

...capacity to perform as a daily driver will increasingly come under the microscope

Isn't that the whole point of a hot hatch?? Surely you don't save a hot hatch for weekends?

...and a lux pack without parking sensors? Are Renault avin a laff?

Love the colour and look of this car though. Alas been bitten by shoddy Ren's in the past, so aahm oot.

[Antj]

Clio 200 turbo should be competing with the fiesta ST, the old Clio 200 and the classic hot hatches. however it finds itself in the Skoda Fabia VRS class due to its specs, with auto, 4 door. However it loses out to the Skoda as the skoda is practical, roomier, german build quality, a proper DSG box that, better MPG and a damn site cheaper, even if it does look as ugly as chest freezer with wheels. So the clio ends up looking worse still as it can;t beat any cars in any category.

Surely Renault are looking at the sales figures and realising the issues now????????????? If they are not then it would show a massive change, i mean how can a firm who has always developed cars to give customers what they want in the last 20 years end up ruining a car so much. The last time a car was wrecked like this was the bugeye Scooby and we all know how long that lasted.

[WCZ]

would love to see how many of these they've sold

[greggy50]

WCZ said:

would love to see how many of these they've sold

This I see several Fiesta ST's everyday seems a huge hit where I am whereas I still have not seen even one of these on the road says a lot...

[Nealio]

greggy50 said:

WCZ said:

would love to see how many of these they've sold

This I see several Fiesta ST's everyday seems a huge hit where I am whereas I still have not seen even one of these on the road says a lot...

I'm never actually sure if I've seen one or not - the ones I think I've seen, when I get closer, end up being a TCe or dCi. Not even sure what the difference is styling-wise.

[HJMS123]

Nealio said:

I'm never actually sure if I've seen one or not - the ones I think I've seen, when I get closer, end up being a TCe or dCi. Not even sure what the difference is styling-wise.

I have the same problem evreytime I see one!!

[sad61t]

According to How Many Left, about 330 of the Lux model (and the curve is already flattening out so few new ones are being sold) and 40 of the non-Lux.

ETA: By contrast, Ford has done much better with the Fiesta with nearly 6500 ST-2 and 500 STs are registered.

Edited by sad61t on Thursday 18th September 13:42

[howardhughes]

Hideous looking thing. What are Renault thinking at the mo?
They have totally lost the plot on this one.

[Matt100HP]

sad61t said:

According to How Many Left, about 330 of the Lux model (and the curve is already flattening out so few new ones are being sold) and 40 of the non-Lux.

ETA: By contrast, Ford has done much better with the Fiesta with nearly 6500 ST-2 and 500 STs are registered.

Edited by sad61t on Thursday 18th September 13:42

Plus another 600 odd ST-3s, which haven't been on sale nearly as long as the other two versions of the ST or the Clio.

[Poopipe]

Is there any chance we could get a comparison of this vs a megane r26 /225 cup ? It seems to me there are more parallels to be drawn between the new clio and the old megane than between the new clio and the last model.

[Alapeno]

Had a test drive of one of these a few weeks ago and it just wouldn't comfortably drive around at 30mph. As said in the article you'd naturally change up a gear from where it was sitting which was pretty frustrating.

Was by no means the worst auto box, when accelerating it seemed to cope pretty well but I'd have probably found myself using the paddles if I bought it.

Didn't really get to stretch it out properly though, the salesman totally fixated on getting back and making me look at what I can make the car sound like through the speakers? The spaceship was funny for 2 seconds.

[anonymous-user]

sad61t said:

According to How Many Left, about 330 of the Lux model (and the curve is already flattening out so few new ones are being sold) and 40 of the non-Lux.

Ouch. I bet that's really hurting them financially. No sympathy for them though, as they had the perfect formula for the RS Clio 10 years ago. Unfortunately, the major decisions for the direction of development would've been made by only a handful of people. The rest of the project team just have to go along with it, even if they thought it was the wrong way to go.

[greggy50]

sad61t said:

According to How Many Left, about 330 of the Lux model (and the curve is already flattening out so few new ones are being sold) and 40 of the non-Lux.

ETA: By contrast, Ford has done much better with the Fiesta with nearly 6500 ST-2 and 500 STs are registered.

Edited by sad61t on Thursday 18th September 13:42

So the ST has sold about 25x more many cars

Look back to the last generation when the Clio 200 probably outsold the Fiesta ST and see how badly Renault have fked it up...

[Matt100HP]

greggy50 said:

So the ST has sold about 25x more many cars

Look back to the last generation when the Clio 200 probably outsold the Fiesta ST and see how badly Renault have fked it up...

More like 20x more, but I think it's fair to say that your point still stands. Renault have well and truly thrown away the opportunity to build on the success of the previous generations of RS Clios.

[renorti]

may be a decent car,but you need something that looks a bit better than this.

[jcl]

I'd buy an old one every time.

[msremmert]

I think the fact that we're still debating the topic of whether the 200T is fun or not has sealed its fate.

Do we doubt the capabilities or assess how easy the Fiesta ST is to live with? Nope.

Shame really. I had a 182 which I adored and have a real soft spot for RenaultSport, but even I wouldn't buy one.

I actually popped into the main Cardiff dealership the other day with the sole purpose of sitting in a 200T for the hell of it, but the sales advisor practically pretended the 200T didn't exist.
They had that Twizzy thing there though. Go figure.

Went next door to Ford and I counted 8 STs.