My Friend On Wheels (Renault Clio Grande 1.2 3dr)

Member Name: topsyturvy

Product:	Renault Clio Grande 1.2 3dr
Date:	19/09/06 (1289 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great steering, safe, comfortable

Disadvantages: -

I last reviewed my Daewoo Matiz which I have since then had to update because it was forever in and out of the garage and being a student I just didn’t have the money. I looked about on the Auto Trader and since I didn’t really have £9000 to go buy a new car I opted for a second hand one, hopefully that is until I graduate. Anyway, I have always been quite into my cars and having a friend who works at a garage I asked some advice on what cars usually had the most faults and which were going to save me on money. I was recommended the Renault Clio, which I have always liked anyway.

I went to a used car dealer who had a number of Clio’s and he sounded trustworthy enough and said that they always tend to pass their MOT’s fine and don’t have a lot of major problems with them. I paid and was soon out on the road. For my age group of younger drivers I was still not too bad with the Clio I got insurance for about £850 a year which to older drivers sounds like a lot but for me who had been quoted £1300 elsewhere this was relatively good. I got my car taxed and it was soon good to go.

The colour range of Clio’s is quite good they do your typical black, silver but they do gold’s, teal, ice blue you name it but I stuck for a red one because I notice too many silver cars nowadays and wanted to be a bit more different. At first I found the car spacious from my last model but it’s big enough inside and very comfortable for long distance journeys. I have a 3 door and even people who have sat in the back seat have never complained about feeling like they don’t have a lot of leg room which is good.

The boot of the car is again a good size big enough to fit a lot of things into it. One of my favourite things about the car is how to control the radio because instead of having to touch the usual dials when driving mine has controls on the steering wheel so that I can change stations, put it on mute and adjust the volume saving from major distractions. The radio overall has a really good sound and a digital display too which I like. At times it is annoying when all of a sudden it changes to the traffic station but I can always turn it right back quickly so that this isn’t too much trouble.

The sound of the car when it’s running isn’t too noisy, I am someone who likes to try and gain a lot of speed with the car and obviously when it gets to higher speeds it does sort of struggle a bit but once over that mark there’s no problems and it runs well. Even at higher speeds it doesn’t feel like I am going to loose control of the car and I feel safe in it. The gears again all your usual and easy to get the car in gear. With reversing I have to lift up the gear stick and then put it into reverse which I got confused about at first but now I have no problems with it.

The car has all the usual things like your different headlight settings, the alarm if you go to close your door when the lights are still not turned off. It also has airbags the usual not wearing seatbelt alert light and so it’s all easy enough to understand. After reading through the manual it came with I adjusted to the car very quickly. The seats go back quite far and also if you need to sleep during a long distance journey the seats go back far enough to do so.

There is a big compartment in the car for keeping sunglasses etc, also each door has space to store things in as well as there being space to keep drinks in if you like to eat in the car.

In terms of how well the car keeps petrol I would say it’s really good. Normally it costs me about £24 to fill up the whole tank and when driving for say 4 hours I still only find it going down to 1 bar which is great considering my last car would use the petrol so quickly that I’d have to stop off nearly every second service station.

The air conditioning system is really good in this car too it’s easy enough to set you turn the dial around depending on where you want the air to come out of the vents. The temperature setting is easy enough to control as well. I find with this car it’s great because even if the car has been sitting for a few days if I turn it onto the hottest setting it still heats up pretty well whereas I’ve known other cars that take at least 5 minutes for the air to start to heat up.

So overall I feel that the Clio is a good car for motorway and city centre driving. It’s comfortable enough to stay in for a while and I always feel safe in the car. The features are all good enough and the sunroof is nice too. Also, the radio is fine and I don’t feel like I still haven’t figured anything out with the car. The steering is great and so far I have been lucky enough to not have any major problems with the car that have set me back hundreds of pounds so I’m hoping that it stays like this.

For more information on the Clio go to http://www.renault.co.uk

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