Beware the car that bites! (Renault Clio 1.2 5-door)

Member Name: oioiyou

Product:	Renault Clio 1.2 5-door
Date:	18/06/09 (383 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice looking little car, comfy, easy to drive

Disadvantages: see review ...

Worst auto experience of my life

My American drivers licence doesn't transfer into an English one so after a year I had to take the English test. Once I had past I began shopping around for a car. I had until then been driving my mum's car. I wanted something economical and little, but still big enough for a child's car seat and buggy. My mum had a Clio and after looking at a few other cars I thought it was quite a good choice to make. I went to Renault West London to have a test drive of one. The test drive went rather well and it was just like my mum's model. I spoke to the guy and told him I was interested. My only problem was the price tag. There was no way I could afford it. Renault made me a deal. They said that they would slice £2000 off the price tag if I was ok with a year old Clio that had only ever been used for test drives. My uncle looked over the paperwork for me and assured me that it was all ok and above board and that so a week later the Clio was mine to drive away.

To be perfectly honest for the first year and a bit the car was really good to me. Everything fit inside it, it was good on petrol, easy to drive, and looked nice. What more could I want really.

It was about a year and a half to two years into ownership that my little car began to treat me like dirt. Suddenly one day the car started acting as if it were running out of petrol. I had half a tank so I couldn't suss the problem. I pulled the car off the road and rang my boyfriend for assistance. Neither of us could think what the problem was so he agreed to follow me home. I started the car in a huge puff of black smoke. I stupidly thought maybe it was a one off and once I started moving it would stop! I put my foot on the pedal and more smoke puffed out. Obviously at this point I knew it wasn't going to stop and called the AA for roadside assistance. Thankfully they didn't take very long getting to me. The car couldn't be sorted then and there and was towed to my local garage. There had been an electrical fault which was caused trouble. The problem was sorted and my little car was back on the road by the following week.

I am one of those girls who changes her own tyres and head lights so when a head light was out I went to the shops and bought the bulb. I had changed the passenger side bulb on two occasions so I knew which bulb to get. I opened the bonnet to find that the drivers' side was a completely different shape to the other. My rather slender hands were just able to fit into the gap but there was no room for me to manoeuvre the bulb. I took the car into Halfords and asked if they could lend me a hand. The lad working told me that my model Clio (51 reg) they have some times had to remove the entire light section to enable them to put a new bulb in. This is exactly what they ended up doing. A lot of fuss but it was done now and hopefully the bulb wouldn't need changing for a while.

It's now about 5-6 months later and I turned onto a main road after another car letting me go. I tapped my hazard lights to say thank you and then when I tapped it again to turn it off nothing happened! My first thought was the person behind me was going to think I was silly for not turning it off. I held the button in as I drove a bit further down the road and turned down a side road. No matter what I did it just wouldn't go off! I ended up popping the button top off and pressing the button in with a pen which turned it off finally. I was lazy and didn't do anything about it and two months later it was due for MOT. They told me it wouldn't pass without a fully functioning hazards button so I got them to fix it. This was at a Renault garage mind you. I drove off thinking the car was now ok. It was roughly a week or so later that I said thank you via the hazard lights and again it was stuck in on mode. I took it that day back to the garage and they said it was possibly a bigger problem such as something to do with the wiring and thus I should take it to the bigger Renault garage. I did take it there but told them I didn't think it was wiring as when I was able to get the button off I could turn the lights off. They spent an hour or so playing with the car and then told me they had a tinker and thought it was now ok. They couldn't say what exactly the problem was but they didn't charge me so I wasn't overly fussed.

Over the next year the dashboard would randomly light up that there was something wrong and yet it would either the next day be gone or the garage would hook it up to their machine and find that it was merely a wiring fault. After this problem had happened 5 times I started getting a bit pissy to say the least.

I was driving around a rather large ring road in a local town centre when the black smoke happened again and this time the car came to a bouncing stop. Oh joy! This time I had to wait a little while for a tow truck. My son was with my mum so at least I didn't have to deal with a bored kid! For some reason I thought it was a good time to clean the dash. I ran a cloth over the hazard light button and off it popped to expose the Blutack underneath! I couldn't believe my eyes.

The Clio spent the next week at the garage being fixed.

I went through a car wash as I had done many times before but this time the aerial popped off. I was a bit pissed off at myself but oh well. I took it into the garage to have it fixed. They called me a few hours later to say it would have to stay in a few days. I couldn't understand why it was going to take so long. Apparently the wires had been run along the top of the car and not along the sides of the doors and also the top fabric had been glued on so they had to take the whole lot off!

In the following 6 months I kept having the wiring issues but nothing major. I received a letter in the post from Renault telling me that my model Clio had been on Watch Dog television show and that contrary to what was said they had the Clio bonnet catch investigated by an outside company and it would be fine. I was a bit confused as I hadn't seen the show, but the letter said as long as you look after you car and do the weekly checks then nothing should go wrong. I checked the Haynes Book for my model Clio and the weekly checks. There was nothing there about the bonnet catch. I looked at it and besides a tiny bit of rust it looked fine to me. I looked my mum's Clio and although the catch was slightly different it was in the same condition so I was happy with it.

I was travelling down a dual carriageway after getting off the motor way. Going about 50-55 miles per hour. Try and get the picture if you can ... Seven month pregnant woman, boyfriend, 5 year old son in the back chatting away to each other when suddenly the bonnet flew up into the windscreen! The screen cracked all over, the wipers were bent, the top panel was dented in, the sunroof caved in on us, and obviously there was quite a bit of damage to the bonnet! I am very proud of my reaction to be honest. I was really calm. The hazards were put on and I started pulling off to the side whilst slowing the car all the time staying in my lane. Two cars stopped to check we were ok. One was a driving instructor who told me to call Watch Dog as he'd seen a report about Renault Clio bonnet problems. I got my son and boyfriend to stand off to the side whilst I directed people around my car. My boyfriend took over and as we were just past a bend in the road I first called the police as I thought we were likely to cause a crash if some one came round the bend too fast or not looking. Best part of my day was the police interceptor turning up! Those cars are so cool. The policeman used his baton and bashed my bonnet down. He gave us the ok to drive it home. £1520.76 worth of damage! EEK! Thank the lord for insurance.

It was at this point I contacted Renault and told them my story. They weren't overly fussed and said I must have not been looking after the car properly. I was livid to be honest as I look after my cars better then anyone I know! I'm one of those seriously anal people who actually do the weekly car checks. I read a few experiences on the internet of people taking on Renault regarding their Clio bonnet problems and no one had gotten anywhere. It seemed to be a you said I said argument and I couldn't be bothered. New baby on the way I was looking at bigger cars anyway so I sold the Renault and moved on.

It is now June. I sold the Renault in July so almost a year has gone by and I got a letter in the post from Renault saying that they are now acknowledging that there is a problem and officially recalling the bonnet catches. They are replacing them with the new model ones. My whole argument before had been if they changed the ctach on the Clio model directly after mine then they must have already known there was a problem. All over the internet people have been saying they are angry and taking their claims back to Renault. I should really do the same as it cost me a lot of money amd hassle. As I was seven months pregnant at the time I'd probably have a good case but honestly I'm just too lazy to deal with all that again. No one has gotten compensation out of them yet.

I know people with older Clio's and newer ones and they have also had the wiring problems but thankfully for them nothing more.

Update - Forgot to add in ... There is a plastic shield bit under the engine which has a sole purposs of protecting the engine. I think it just basically stops things bring the road getting in there. Unforfutnetly on a trip to Bluewater shopping centre it caught fire with the heat of the engine. It was raining heavily so it was put out quite quickly. I pulled over to look and found parts of it had melted. To be honest I wasn't gunna risk it so I pulled it off and took it to the garage the following day.

Can't believe I left this stuff out but the clutch also had some issues. I don't know very much about the clutch except how to work it so could I guess have been my driving but I'm not sure. The car was only 3 years old and the clutch needed replacing.

Should also tell you which Renault I had ... It was a 51 reg (2002), silver, 5-door, and 1.2 engine.

© oioiyou 2009

Summary: My experience has turned me off ever owning another Renault and especially not a Clio.

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