Had a go in an 06 plate Clio

[HBR]

I've owned a mk2 Y reg petrol 1.2 Clio, & a girlfriend had a mk1 diesel one & under powered & basic as they were they were a fair laugh to drive. I kinda liked the basic no frills interior along with a driving experience that was just more entertaining than Festers & Corsas etc. Other old Renaults I've driven seemed to be similar but the only word I can really feel fits the newer one is INERT! It wasn't unpleasant really but it just seemed, plain & no better or worse than anything else might have been. Renno cop a fair bit of flak (much of it justified!) but at least they used to turn out cars that were at least entertaining to drive, if they make the drive the same feel as everyone else's what positive factor do they have to set them apart?

[Negative Creep]

Probably summed up most modern cars. Weight and safety aids make it feel more like you're playing a computer game than driving

[Ross_K]

The word "laugh" is one I could never associate with a Clio.

 

"Shit immobiliser" or "smells of piss" maybe...

[HBR]

The word "laugh" is one I could never associate with a Clio.

 

"Shit immobiliser" or "smells of piss" maybe...

 

 

My girlfriend's stank of horse shit as it happens, but so did every other car she had!

[carlo]

I don't think I would dare drive any Peugeot made after 2005. It might ruin a beautiful love affair.

[Mr Lobster]

Agreed, I drove a '07' plate a while back and it was ok but did nothing at all for me.

 

The 'X' reg 1.4 16v I had years back was a lot nicer and much more entertaining to drive. Should've kept that one...

[Negative Creep]

The word "laugh" is one I could never associate with a Clio.

 

"Shit immobiliser" or "smells of piss" maybe...

 

 

I briefly had a mk.1 and that was actually pretty decent. The hot versions are pretty much universally praised as well

[eddyramrod]

My late father-in-law had a red Clio, 97 on an R - Mk1? I drove it once or twice, and thought it was half the drive the comparable 206 was (had one of those for a week in Portugal). He had endless immobiliser troubles with it, and other unrelated stuff. When he traded it in for an X-plate Micra he entered a whole new world: he couldn't believe things just worked.

[freebird]

I bought a new 57 plate new shape one and loved it. Bang for bucks it was hard to beat,had reasonable kit ( for a virtual tart up base model) and despite the fact that Renault now build cars that no longer, ummmmm, "feel French" I couldnt fault it. It was a car that could be thrashed into 3 figures all day long, carry a Capri axle which was nearly as long as the car and would do mid 40s MPG without having to have a feather on the accelerator. I tried lots of different cars and most bored the tits off me but the lickle Clio still had that something that the others didnt, dunno what but it did.

I chopped that in for a Clio GT 1.6 which wasnt super fast but bloody good fun, for a modern, and now ive got a Megane Coupe, again not that quick but it looks nice, is comfortable and i was fucked if i was going to by an Astra or Focus. Anyway, the Megane was cheaper than the aforementioned two with better looks ( in my opinion) and better kit.

Im under no illusions, modern cars have zero personality and are not THAT much fun to drive, 99% of them do what they say on the tin and thats all you can ask for really. I doubt if people buy new cars nowdays for any other reason unless they have the money to go way up the food chain and by something more exotic.

Mind you, were Renault 5s really that good? Were early Clios so great? Probably not.

[pandamonium]

The word "laugh" is one I could never associate with a Clio.

 

"Shit immobiliser" or "smells of piss" maybe...

 

 

My girlfriend's stank of horse shit as it happens, but so did every other car she had!

 

Are you sure that wasn't her?

[HBR]

The word "laugh" is one I could never associate with a Clio.

 

"Shit immobiliser" or "smells of piss" maybe...

 

 

My girlfriend's stank of horse shit as it happens, but so did every other car she had!

 

Are you sure that wasn't her?

 

 

Ha ha, she did when she'd just finished work! But she did scrub up ok, the cars always stank tho, just got all the horse related gear thrown in & treat like a pickup.

 

I've moved on now, got a lass that stinks of sheep when she's been at work instead!

[R9UKE]

I can relate to this big time. Even the difference between the Mégane II and Mégane III is unbelievable. The latest one might as well be a Toyota Corolla. Whereas the Mégane II is one of my favouritest cars - because it's so French.

 

And the interior quality of my 1992 Clio puts the trio of Toyota Aygo piss to shame.

[Morgan84]

So dull,boring and lifeless - not as fun and chuckable as a 5

[Renault18]

Mind you, were Renault 5s really that good? Were early Clios so great? Probably not.

 

A bloody sight better than my current 11-plate Megane Coupe. I've now had two of the new Coupes, a petrol and a diesel. They look great, but lack any form of life to drive and even the diesel gives absolutely shit fuel economy.

 

That's why I use a real Renault from my list whenever I can; if they weren't on classic insurance I'd use them all of the time.

[Morgan84]

Renault 5 Monaco Very nice little cars indeed

[barefoot]

...feel more like you're playing a computer game than driving

 

I thought I was the only person who thought this.

[Pete-M]

Couple of years ago I spent a few hours playing one of those racing games on a PlayStation3, Need for Speed something or other. Playing using the proper wheel and pedal set up. Got quite good at it.

 

At the time I had an Audi A6 Avant quattro, driving home I was amused to find out that the PS3 had better steering feel than the Audi, and that the game had a better throttle response than the Audi's 'fly by wire' throttle.

[ProgRocker]

I've owned a mk2 Y reg petrol 1.2 Clio, & a girlfriend had a mk1 diesel one & under powered & basic as they were they were a fair laugh to drive. I kinda liked the basic no frills interior along with a driving experience that was just more entertaining than Festers & Corsas etc. Other old Renaults I've driven seemed to be similar but the only word I can really feel fits the newer one is INERT! It wasn't unpleasant really but it just seemed, plain & no better or worse than anything else might have been. Renno cop a fair bit of flak (much of it justified!) but at least they used to turn out cars that were at least entertaining to drive, if they make the drive the same feel as everyone else's what positive factor do they have to set them apart?

 

French cars are getting more and more boring...

French car m/facturers are doomed

[Ross_K]

French cars are getting more and more boring...

French car m/facturers are doomed

 

Car buyers are getting more fucking stupid. If I wanted advice on cars, the last place I'd go is a property website...

 

My French 2.2 HDI diesel has basically a "Ford" engine.

 

we make enough good cars in this country, i don't know why people don't by them and support manufacturing.....

 

I saw a French car the other day with a pre-00 number plate. These days that gets 50 points in the Eye Spy book of the road.

 

I always wonder what goes people's minds when they decide to buy a French car. If you added up the cost of garage bills in the years ahead, would you not charge the seller to take it off you?

 

Fuckwittery of the highest order...

[scooters]

good lord - I've read some shit in my life but that thread takes the biscuit:

 

generalisation, ignorance, prejudice and downright racisim in some cases.. we should be thankful, ignorant fools like this enable us to pick up a reliable BX for less than scrap and to feed our hobby with other chod.

 

I had a similar conversation at a party the other day - a chap was holding forth on cars etc and how british cars were terrible things..I pulled him up on it by asking him how were they terrible? nmechanically he said, what then followed was another mate telling him that he couldn't even fill the oil on his BMW - a long and amusing conversation followed only to end when I told him his 10 year old 518 was worth about 900 quid....he wasn't happy as he'd just spent 2k fixing it

 

nope - I for one love these ignorant fools, the keep it cheaper for the rest of us!

[Albert Ross]

My current job at work is to remove a gearbox from a 56 plate Clio 2.0 Sport. So far, two hours in, I have removed ACRES of seemingly useless plastic , and one of the two subframes that need to be removed. The rear subframe carries the rack, which is secured by two long bolts with captive nuts. Yeah, but the bolts go down from the top, and are covered by other things. Gee thanks Renault. You tossers. It even looks like a Vivaro sump and gearbox. There's a Nissan badge on the mounting, too. They can fuck right off aswell. You can keep this modern toss. I'd have a R16 any day.

[Pete-M]

604 FTW

 

I actually quite like Frogmobiles, but their recent efforts have been pretty bloody dismal. My brothers 54 plate Espace that grenaded it's 2.2 dci with no warning whatsoever doesn't appear to be an unusual thing. I was at a friends garage today and out of the four Renaults that appeared for MOT one passed. Two were Lagunas - both had broken drivers door window motors, both failed on front ball joints. One was a 52 plate Clio automatic that had major issues and is going to be scrapped. The one that passed was a mint old biddy spec R5 that passed with no advisories.

 

Modern French stuff does appear to be an utter disaster.

[cms206]

I can't really comment on most French motors, but I can say without a shadow of a doubt the best fun I've had in any car was 3-up on South Uist in a Peugeot 107 petrol. And it only used 11 litres of pez razzing around all day.

 

My former employer had a brand new Citroen C1 1.4HDi which ran on cherry, it was the butt of many jokes and wasn't terribly reliable. Or easy to see, apparantly, going by the number of times it got run into on the airfield. It was fast as razz and on skinny tyres was quite adept at handbrake turns, not that we did those on the airfield. While people were looking

 

[Pete-M]

Ok. Why's it wrapped in cling film?

[cms206]

Ok. Why's it wrapped in cling film?

 

I don't have any pictures of it not in cling film, now I look at my time there...

 

The ramp managers were adept at being a bit cunty about many things, and as a result the ramp guys used to quite often chock ramp cars using aircraft chocks, and other such tomfoolery; on one memorable occasion they barricaded our minibus in, strapped a traffic cone into every seat and then filled it to above the level of the windows with old scrunched up newspaper because our supervisor branded one of the leading hands a "lazy workshy bastard".

 

Said lazy workshy bastard did all the stuff to the minibus himself. He was proud of it...