To celebrate 20 years buy a new Clio at 1990 price

[Guest]

Now imagine how fuel efficient cars would be these days if they put these modern engines in the older bodyshells.

I wrote a transport manifesto along these lines when the governMENTAL thread was in force. Got some support on here as well

[retrogeezer]

Now imagine how fuel efficient cars would be these days if they put these modern engines in the older bodyshells.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

'Brake assist' sounds like bollocks to me, i'm glad I havent got it. As for mashing the brakes, in an emergency surely you want to push them as hard as possible without locking the wheels, i.e there is some judgement required in doing an emergency stop. its no good just stamping on the brakes is it, as you'll slide into whatevers in front of you. If 60% of folk doing emergency stops are not shoving hard enoguh to activate the ABS, that doesnt sound like a bad thing to me, it sounds like they are braking in a controlled way rather than just hotching on the brakes and letting the ABS do the work.

[Akron]

Agreed Mr Bo11ox why would you want a car that wangs the anchors on full if you are a bit quick on the brakes? ABS is enough of a mystery to most drivers these days thinking it makes you stop quicker . I believe skid pan training should be part of the driving test, can't beat the driver being in control of the vehicle rather than a load of electronics, when I had a driving assessment in my last job which included a session with a Police Cat 1 driver (great fun ) the examiner was amazed at how I knew about cadence braking and how to control a car without ABS under heavy braking. My Octavia has ABS EBD ESP KFC BK STD bollocks and as far as I know I have only activated it once in two years of ownership, when a lorry swerved into lane 2 of a motorway, wet road condtions I was tired and didn't react as quick as I should have done jumped on the brakes and swerved into lane 3 dashboard lit up with all manner of flashing lights and kept the car going where I wanted it to, did the electronics help out? I don't know.

[boobydoo]

The new E Class has this device that triggers the bonnet to lift up at the back if you hit a pedestrian. It's supposed to deflect away the body so it doesn't hit the windscreen.The one on mine suddenly went off for no reason with a horrendous CLANG!.....frightened the life out of me!! Luckily I was only pootling along at 30mph down a side road......if I'd have been doing 80 on the Motorway I'd have probably braked hard and caused a nasty accident.The rear of the bonnet had raised about six inches and it took me about ten minutes to work out how to get it back down again, (with simple brute force and a worrying graunching noise!!)

[pogweasel]

Mercedes "safety devices" are made of win.Did they manage to get that magic auto-braking thing fixed yet?

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

The new E Class has this device that triggers the bonnet to lift up at the back if you hit a pedestrian. It's supposed to deflect away the body so it doesn't hit the windscreen.

That's pretty cool as safety devices go, especially if it avoids having to make very tall cars with high bonnets to passively achieve the same thing. Except when it activates without provocation, of course!

[Minimad5]

'As for mashing the brakes, in an emergency surely you want to push them as hard as possible without locking the wheels

I am sure a certain member on here would disagree Clue:Jewish racing gold Corolla .As for these safety devices.It really has to be questioned, just how safe are they ?I am sure there are a manner of reasons why these things can fail, so the folk who goes out and relies on these things, is surely dangerous ?-Just a thought-

[Parky]

My car is full of safety devices but I drive far better in cars without any. With the multiple airbags and impact bars in the Leon I'd be pretty confident of being ok in a minor smash, whereas in a rusty Renault 5 I'd be extremely concerned about losing limbs. I think this is why driving standards are declining as people are all so convinced we will walk away from even the biggest accident now.Bonnets that pop up to avoid hurting pedestrians? Self applying brakes? Theres only one person I want applying brakes and thats me, I dont want a computer deciding to do it for me - especially if someones phone signal or whatever confuses it.Another thing the old Clio has - affordable tyres. I think the pov spec models had 155 tyres and a set of four costs about £80. The low pro fatties on the new Clio cost that each.

[Richard]

I think 155-13s are actually quite dear now- especially in terms of rubber per pound.Is there a "standard" tyre size now or do no two cars have the same size?

[boobydoo]

Mercedes "safety devices" are made of win.

The latest one is "Lane Assist". If the car detects a sudden change of lane without the indicator on, it assumes you have dozed off at the wheel so it sends a vibration to the steering wheel and a little tea-cup icon lights up on the dash with a PING!! It's meant to wake you up!! Also, new S Class has split-screen sat nav/DVD. One central screen, but from driver side it shows sat nav info(map/arrows etc), but from passenger side it shows whatever DVD you're playing. Something to do with the pixellation. You got to see it to appreciate how darned clever it is!!

[Guest]

I think 155-13s are actually quite dear now- especially in terms of rubber per pound.

At least one of my cars have those - £30 a corner for fancy make ones, about a fiver less if you want some Woosungs or Triangles.

[Parky]

National Tyres always have some special on, like 4 Barums or Avons for the price of three, etc.I used to use Ceat tyres - basically Budget Pirelli's made in India I believe. Just pretend you are riding on the finest tyre technology 1995 had to offer and you arent far off. Two on my Corolla were £80, which was OK as they were reasonably large sizes. And the tyres were absolutely fine, I'd happily get them again. Something else early Clios have that later ones dont - much lower number of electrical problems. Might be related to having considerably less electrical equipment of course....

[Dukestar25]

I'm not big on Clios myself. i've driven my brother's 1.2 RL 'versailles' one and it's nowt special. It doesn't even have a temperature guage FFS Surely the Autoshite choice of Clio would be the 'Night-and-Day' model with the old 1108cc engine from the Renault 5 ?? Va-va vomit!!

[Parky]

Yeah, night and day, 1108cc of noisy torquey pushrod POWAH!I always liked those old "cleon" engines. I cut my servicing and maintenance teeth on them and whilst trickier than a Ford or Vauxhall they arent that bad if you take your time, and remember to NOT rotate the engine during a decoke unless you have secured the wet liners firstly. I think they only did the Night and Day to use up supplies of ex R5 units. Seemed odd to offer the sate of the art 1.2 energy engine and then introduce the 50 yr old Cleon to the range. I cant remember what was special about the Night and Day. I know it was black or white paintwork and jazzy trim but that was about it wasnt it?

[garbaldy]

I'm not big on Clios myself. i've driven my brother's 1.2 RL 'versailles' one and it's nowt special. It doesn't even have a temperature guage FFS

lots off cars dont have temp guages now the salesman recons that cars tend to run much hotter now to make them more environmentaly freindly, this alarms the public causeing loads off grief on the blower to carmakers,i however recon its just another way to save a few squid

[Guest]

Could we come up with things that the mk1 Clio has and the 2010 version doesn't?

3. lightness.1090kg in 2010 1.2 spec

Or to put it another way, exactly the same as 4 door Volvo Amazon. Strewth.

[Dukestar25]

Yeah, night and day, 1108cc of noisy torquey pushrod POWAH!I cant remember what was special about the Night and Day. I know it was black or white paintwork and jazzy trim but that was about it wasnt it?

IIRC, it was black with white decals (sorry, can't find a proper picture of one ). Did anyone on here own one...? Come on, don't be embarassed!

[Polystratus]

I'm not big on Clios myself. i've driven my brother's 1.2 RL 'versailles' one and it's nowt special. It doesn't even have a temperature guage FFS

lots off cars dont have temp guages now the salesman recons that cars tend to run much hotter now to make them more environmentaly freindly, this alarms the public causeing loads off grief on the blower to carmakers,i however recon its just another way to save a few squid

Renault 5's didn't have one - the only time you knew the engine was cooked was when the little red light came.Quite a few MK I Clio's still around here but appear to be very prone to rot around the front wings and wheel arches, someone at work has a 51 reg Clio and you can see bottom of the sill's started to rust away.

[alfetta]

I found the receipt for the (new shape) fiesta 1.4LX my granddad bought, nearly 8 grand back in 1989!

 

I think in real terms new cars are better value...still wouldn't buy one though...

[Negative Creep]

The new E Class has this device that triggers the bonnet to lift up at the back if you hit a pedestrian. It's supposed to deflect away the body so it doesn't hit the windscreen.

 

The one on mine suddenly went off for no reason with a horrendous CLANG!.....frightened the life out of me!! Luckily I was only pootling along at 30mph down a side road......if I'd have been doing 80 on the Motorway I'd have probably braked hard and caused a nasty accident.

The rear of the bonnet had raised about six inches and it took me about ten minutes to work out how to get it back down again, (with simple brute force and a worrying graunching noise!!)

Don't they have to be replaced every time they go off? I remember reading about a GTR that had a very minor tap. Bonnet lifters fired, ended up costing about 11 grand to repair

[MrRegieRitmo]

That's not even a 1990 Clio in the picture - mid nineties facelift!