Renault Clio review

Unusually for Renault, exterior design isn’t such a big topic of conversation. It says the Clio is now sold mainly on its good looks, and as the previous car surpassed annual sales volumes every successive year since arriving in 2014, there’s been little appetite for design director Laurens van den Acker to shake things up. Because the Dutchman styled also the previous car – his very first Renault, since which he’s gone on to redefine the brand identity – peronsally he has very little to prove.

Neverthess, the new Clio has a larger grille than before (what, we're left wondering, doesn’t these days?) and the LED tusks from the Mégane. The bonnet now features a pair of pronounced contours and with a new bumper the whole demeanour is meaner, the car looking a little less surprised to be here. The windows surrounds are now chrome, while the rear is less heavy on the black plastic and achieves a neat minimalism by pressing the body panels in subtle, interesting ways rather than resorting to tacked-on trim. Sporty? Mature? A bit of both, to be honest. This particular example is painted Valencia Orange, and looks especially agreeable in the Portugese sun.

Understanding the Clio range

The engine line-up is relatively straightforward. The SCe 75 backstop is a naturally aspirated three-cylinder 1.0-litre petrol with 71bhp, though more popular will be the turbocharged TCe 100 version, which makes 99bhp and is the car we’re driving here. For now, the top-spec petrol is the TCe 130, which uses the same turbocharged 1.3-litre four-cylinder engine found right across Renault’s model range and benefits from direct fuel injection. It’s also the only Clio available with a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, and the only one capable of hitting 62mph from rest is less than 10 seconds.

Rest assured, quicker variants will follow, not least an effort Renault Sport, potentially with a detuned version of the 1.8-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine from the Mégane. Diesel being less popular than in previous years, only one such engine is offered: an 84bhp 1.5-litre whose five-speed gearbox features taller gearing than the petrols for fuel economy nudging 90mpg at a steady cruise. There’s also a hybrid ‘E-Tech’ Clio due along in 2020 – it’ll pair a 1.6-litre petrol engine and a clutchless gearbox fitted with a pair of electric motors. In city driving, fuel consumption is said to be up almost half again compared to that of the petrol engine alone.

As for practicality, the Clio would seem to score well. At 391 litres, boot space tops even that of a Polo, which at 351 litres has so far been untouchable in the B-segment. The backrests of the front seats have also been slimmed down, winning a considerable 26mm of extra legroom for backseat passengers, and there’s more rear headroom in the Clio than in even a Jaguar XE, according to photographer Luc Lacey, who isn't especially short.

Inside the new Clio's cabin

By far the greatest perceptible changes are reserved for the interior, where Renault has moved almost all the cheaper materials out of reach – and sight (and, indeed, mind). It’s a league ahead of the old car, so much softer to the touch in general, with hard plastics chased below the plain of the gearknob, which now rests high up on its own plinth.

There are some premium touches, too. The dash-wide strakes in which the vents sit are unashamedly Audi (and, come to think of it, the gearknob reeks of R8), but Renault can colour the upper strake in, so it doesn’t feel too Germanic, and there’s a plethora of unusual colour and texture options for the expanse of trim below.

Then there’s the touchpoints, which are superb. Our test car’s leather-trimmed steering wheel feels as though it belongs, at the very least, the class above, and because Renault has repackaged the airbag, the view through its spokes and into the digital instrument binnacle is effortless. The window switches and toggleswitches beneath the tall 9.3in central display also depress with an expensive-feeling crispness, and Renault has resisted the infurating industry trend of moving the climate controls into the digital relam. Here they take the form of rotary dials, which use a fairly convincing knurled plastic chrome trim deployed elsewhere in the cabin.

How does the new Clio perform on the road?

If the cabin is nothing short of stellar, then the driving experience doesn’t quite hit the same heights, though it begins well enough. The steering column boasts all the adjustability you could ever want, and the seats can be set low enough for almost all tastes, even if the bolsters look more supportive than they really are. The steering action is fluid and the raised gearlever begs for positive inputs.

You’ll need to oblige it, too, because there’s a slightly gritty texture to shifts that, if not a chore, certainly doesn’t make changing gear any particular pleasure. The length of the throw is fine for a non-performance derivative but the movement itself also needs more definition. The clutch is then feather-light and matched by steering, which is also now a toucher quicker than before and with greater travel. In short, the control weights are very much set up for the low-speed ease and agility demanded by city driving, which is difficult to criticise in a supermini, if not quite what many of us are looking for.

The downsized 1.0-litre triple can also be filed under ‘adequate but uninspiring’, especially when Ford has shown that such engines can have both power and personality. Sometimes it’s as though Renault has geared this car for a land-speed record, such is the absence of torque at lower engine speeds, and yet straying above 5000rpm only loudens the monotone din. Equally, when not under any real load, few engines in this class are more discreet from the cabin, and at a cruise the TCe 100’s efforts are all but inaudible. 

Dynamically the chassis by far is the most intruiging element of the new Clio. In the main, the suspension is impressively absorbant, and soaks up corrugated roads without much fuss. It’s prone to crashing over sharper inputs, but find me a supermini that doesn’t. In this class only the Polo does noticeably better, and most do considerably worse. Vertical body control is good, and lateral control more relaxed – too much so for our tastes but not in any way that might be described as 'flawed'. The Renault is also magnificently quiet at a cruise, and not just because of the engine. We’re told this is a particular area in which substantial sums of money have been spent, and it’s worked. Don’t be surprised if this car matches Golf-sized rivals when we affix our road-testing microphones later this year.  

And when you really want to drive the thing? Once you’ve got on terms with the lack of steering feel and begin to push the car, it’s the low rolling-resistance tyres than give up first. The chassis balance is there, however, with you all the way, and so is another nice surprise: a mobile rear axle. You need to go looking for it in this regular Clio, and manage an ESP system you’ll swear gets triggered even when travelling in straight line, but the new car’s narrower hips (a change made principally for aerodynamic gains) make it playful. Only the Ford – or a Mini, driven extremely hard – feels this adjustable and so the upcoming RS Clio should be a blast.