It is possible with temperate cross-country running to see 27mpg, our best interval figure, but 22 to 25 is more common, and even a shade below 20mpg is possible if you really cane it. The trouble is that this Renault loves going fast, and will beguile most users into frequent bursts of speed.
Ride is stiff by most standards, especially traditional French ones, but acceptable for this sort of car. The brakes have the sort of sterling fade resistance you expect, and the hand brake will hold the car two-up facing down a 1-in-3 test slope, but the bias to the front is, as so often nowadays, too strong, so that ultimate braking ability is unnecessarily restricted to below 1g.
The seat is not by Recaro, but Renault-designed and made, and with its pronounced sides and cupped back, it looks like it, giving excellent side support, although not the best of long-journey comfort. There is for once enough thigh room under the smallish (14.25-inch) wheel.
Pedals allow easy heel and toe use, as they should do on such a car. In town or traffic driving, the clutch's 34lb release effort - which was light a decade or so back - becomes a little heavy. The stalk controls, on the other hand, are unusually light.
Instruments are comprehensive, with a reasonably modest speedometer, and temperature and oil pressure gauges, with the unspecific turbo boost gauge inset neatly into the rev counter. There is a digital clock which, since it uses an illuminated liquid crystal display, is visible in any light, unlike several other types.
Legroom in front is adequate for 6ft drivers, but a constant call for wonder since the current R5 came out; in spite of having at last dropped the old, intrinsically space-efficient longways drive unit layout of the first 5 for a transverse arrangement, the current car is woefully cramped in the back whenever tall people set the front seats to their liking, unlike several of the Renault's supermini competitors.
