Renault Clio review (19/06/2013)
However, the car I am writing about today, the Renault Clio, has a noble history in the competition and has won it twice. It won first time out, in 1991, the year after it was launched at the Paris Motor Show; its second win was in 2006, with the Mark III version, voted by motoring hacks from 23 countries across Europe.
The Clio is one of only two cars to have won the COTY (as it is fondly known) award twice; the other is the Volkswagen Golf — and that’s a decent endorsement of the quality of a car. That Renault has won the contest six times — the second most successful manufacturer in the history of the prize — is an indication of how prolific the French outfit has been in churning out populist motor vehicles.
The 2013 award was Golf’s second — and those jury members I spoke to before the vote was collated had predicted that outcome. They had also predicted that the new Renault Clio would be a short-order favourite to make the top three.
That prediction was a little wide of the mark, as the Clio was squeezed out by the Toyota GT-86/Subaru BRZ and the Volvo V40, but the car did well in the voting and it was regarded that, in a particularly competitive year, the Clio was unfortunate to have run into a clutch of such good opponents.
I thought so too and I have long predicted a decent future for this car, although it is Renault Ireland’s ‘curate’s egg’, with the inclusion of some unexpected pieces of kit and the exclusion of things you’ve come to expect as standard these days. Curious.
But this is a very good car in a segment made up of particularly good ones. When you’re up against such as Fiesta, Polo, Yaris, Micra, et al, you’ve got to be good.
The good bits of the Clio start with its looks, although the test car was an uninspiring shade of black, a colour that does not suit its curvaceous and svelte design. Next up is its grown-up size, because, for a supermini, it is positively monstrous. And, much like its French rival, the Peugeot 208, it now appears to be among the largest in its class.
On the engine front, the Clio is only available right now with the venerable, 1.5-litre dCi turbodiesel engine and — much like the spec — this seems a little strange.
We know Renault to have a one-litre petrol engine (a la the Ford EcoBoost unit) on the stocks, but the company has chosen not to introduce it yet. That said, it is still very frugal and the claimed consumption figures are pretty astonishing.
If the company wanted to maximise sales, then having the petrol variant available as an option to prospective buyers, rather than just the diesel, would be apposite. It’s not that the diesel is a glugger, just that Renault does not appear to be fully exploiting the sales potential of the Clio.
It is a very decent drive, too, and is among the best in class, in my view, coping ably with the vicissitudes of the Irish road network and displaying a handling verve that is not always the norm in the class. I’d put it very close to the Fiesta, which is the clear segment leader in this department.
The Clio has enough going for it to be considered among the best in class, although it is a little way behind the class leaders. But with a heavy Renault market push and a bit of tinkering, for example, with the specification, there is no reason why this car cannot compete with the best.
It may not have won the COTY award last time around, but it carries on a good tradition of those that have.
