[Closed] Sporty Clio's... Talk to me !!

How old are you? How old are your kids? Would they really want a Dad who picks them up at the school gates in a "sporty Clio"?

£2k for a chaved up death trap to transport kids?

If kids are not involved then get an MX5 over or Clio..

Fast-rattly-plasticky, pick all three..

Ignore the old fuddy duddys above:

No rust at all. Rattly interiors, but you're not buying a luxury car.

172/182 prone to killing gearbox mount (dog bone), which will give a huge clonk/rattle on hard acceleration. Easy DIY fix if you have a vice and some spanners.

small oil drip from the gearbox is usually the input shaft seal, and a lot of them do it, don't worry.

Belt/dephaser pulley/water pump needs to be changed as per service schedule, and is £500 all in. Plenty of specialists around. Ask for a receipt if they claim it's been done as it's new engine if it goes.

Clutches bite near the top and are quite off and on, even when new. Takes a bit of getting used to.

Great fun, proper little drivers cars, quick enough, handle like go karts. Addictive little things.

Oh, always got around 35/40mpg out of mine, without being careful.

I've seen well used examples still going strong at 150-200k.

Bits are really cheap.

Plenty around that have been looked after, look at cliosport.net for loads of advice and a for sale section in the forum, worth £10 membership.

Funkydunc... why would you presume its a chavved up deathtrap ??

Some people like to keep their cars as original as possible.

cheers cbmotorsport.

renton - Member
Funkydunc... why would you presume its a chavved up deathtrap ??

Some people like to keep their cars as original as possible.

Yes, that's what they were originally.....

Davidtaylforth.... have you ever had one?

If not then why the chuff are you bothering your arse to reply??

Yes, that's what they were originally.....

Silly man.

renton - Member
Davidtaylforth.... have you ever had one?

If not then why the chuff are you bothering your arse to reply??

I've seen one in real life.

trying to persuade you not to make a terrible mistake.

Push the boat out a bit and get a Clio Williams that needs a little work. You'll have a bit of fun and an appreciating asset.

There are days when I really miss my old 182 Cup. In the end tho, it was a bit smaller than I wanted, my ageing dad found it a bit difficult to get into and out of, it was a bit rattly and generally not a great car for covering big motorway miles.

[edit]Cup spec[/edit] Deleted quite a few bits of spec from a regular 182. I'm not going to go into the differences here, there's a decent [url= http://www.cliosport.net/content/guides/Renault%20Sport%20Clio%20Guide.pdf ]spotters guide[/url] over at Cliosport.net.

As for dephaser pulleys - it's a ~£100 part that, if it's done as part of a cam belt change, is no great shakes. Mine ran fine for over a year with a sticky dephaser pulley. I kinda missed the big step change when it got sorted when the cam belt was done. Oh, and whilst the cam belt change is at 72,000, the auxiliary belt change is every 36,000. They get their reputation for snapping cam belts and associated top end self destruction from people overlooking the aux belt which then snaps and takes the cam belt with it.

Oh, and I got better fuel economy out of my 182 Cup than you're managing out of your Mondeo diesel... 😉

Funkydunc... why would you presume its a chavved up deathtrap ??

I would have thought a well looked after one would be more than £2k !

There are a lot of presumptions being made on this thread. Generally by people that haven't got a clue what they are on about.

I would have thought a well looked after one would be more than £2k !

The last ones were 2005, so the youngest are 10 years old. They were cheap to buy in the first place so 2k would get you a nice unmolested one.

That does surprise me, they obviously are not well thought of then if you can get a mint for that money....

renton - Member
There are a lot of presumptions being made on this thread. Generally by people that haven't got a clue what they are on about.

Well, it's a chav car, that's for certain; just look at it.

Well, it's a chav car, that's for certain; just look at it.

Poor trolling, but I'll bite for sport:

What makes you say that? What's your definition of a 'Chav car'? What car do you drive David?

🙂

That does surprise me, they obviously are not well thought of then if you can get a mint for that money....

Who said mint? I said nice, unmolested.

Chav-ey or not, this looks wonderful:

[img] [/img]

The trolls are out in force today.

What makes you say that? What's your definition of a 'Chav car'? What car do you drive David?

I drive a 1.4 Honda Civic 😀

I'm not trolling; just look at it. Alloys, one of those loud exhausts, garish paint job, sporty upholstery.

Vulgar/tasteless/loud i.e. Chav summed up

Aye that's a completely different car to the one I'm looking at

As a full adult man, with children, I think it's the sort of car you can't really get away with driving.

Your kids friends parents will judge you -

"Renton wants to take the kids out for a day at the zoo, Dear"

"hmm, I'm not sure that's a good idea. Have you seen the car he drives? It's one of those Max Power cars. I wouldn't trust him not to drive like an idiot, and feed our kids junk food for tea"

Lol troll. Look at this Chav Wagon... A 1.4 Honda Civic, alloys, garish paint job sporty upholstery!

[img] [/img]

This is worth a watch,

Chav-ey or not, this looks wonderful:

Indeed. I used to own one, for all of 4 weeks. Well known hedge finders. The 350hp TVR I owned before it I was much easier to drive.

Renton, aren't you pretty tall? Make sure you can actually fit in one properly, the ergonomics are [i]interesting[/i]

Otherwise, crack on. Surprisingly reliable, strangely economical and lots of fun for much cheapness

FunkyDunc - Member

That does surprise me, they obviously are not well thought of then if you can get a mint for that money....

They're all 10+ years old, not limited numbers (Trophy exluded) and were fairly cheap when new. £1.5k for a good condition 172, around £2.5k for a good 182, £4.5k (and increasing now) for a 182 Trophy

Not trolling, ive been in one and it was indeed fast and rattly and plasticky, I'd have one if I wanted something like that but I'd worry about finding a good one now and any big bills if I ended up with a lemon..
If your handy with spanners then they make more sense but if you're paying a mechanic then old fast cars can be a money pit.

Forget the Clio, OP. You'll get a sorted RX8 for that cash. More power, more space, better interior, better handling, better looking. What's not to like?

Painey - Member
Indeed. I used to own one, for all of 4 weeks. Well known hedge finders. The 350hp TVR I owned before it I was much easier to drive.

Odd that moving the engine from front to middle gave some "interesting" handling characteristics

The Flying Ox - Member

Forget the Clio, OP. You'll get a sorted RX8 for that cash. More power, more space, better interior, better handling, better looking. What's not to like?

Now thats trolling

6 foot mate. I've read about the offset steering wheel issues.

David. I have a mondeo to take the kids to the zoo in 🙄

This is purely for the wife to go to work in and maybe for me to stick the bike in and go to the trail centre. Or perhaps they won't let me into the car park as it will look crap against all the Audi estates and t5 vans.

As a full adult man, with children, I think it's the sort of car you can't really get away with driving.

Your kids friends parents will judge you -

And...?

Judge away! Says more about them than it does about him

If you want one, get one, and screw what 'they' think

David. I have a mondeo to take the kids to the zoo in

🙂 Phewff!

Crack on then, personally I'd have a Civic Type R as they're potentially more reliable. Plus they rev to about 8500 rpm, so great for doing laps of town in first gear.

Another good option, Toyota Corolla T sport. Bit of a sleeper car, so you could probably take your kids mates to the zoo in it and scare them shitless.

I've got a friend who's a serial car buyer/seller. He's had a couple of Porsche 944s (S2 Turbo?), a Stag, Dolomite Sprint, MGB GT, had Mondeos as family cars but they've been the 3L V6 or 2.5T engines, and he's now got a Clio 172 (amongst one or two others). He's had it for longer than pretty much any other car I've known him to own. I think it's basically what cbmotorsport says above, it's a relatively cheap to run go-kart that's happy on country lanes/around town/cruising down the motorway.

now that's trolling

[img] [/img]

Odd that moving the engine from front to middle gave some "interesting" handling characteristics

Was more that when it did let go, you had no warning and couldn't do anything about it.

6 foot mate. I've read about the offset steering wheel issues

May work out differently for you depending on where your height is, but for me at 5'11" with 33" inside leg, I found I couldn't fit comfortably in a standard 182 - I found the leather and alcantara seats rather overstuffed. The poverty spec (and rather less generously padded) cloth seats in my old 182 Cup made the difference between me fitting comfortably and not.

maybe for me to stick the bike in and go to the trail centre

It'll be a both wheels off job, and even so it could be a tight fit depending on what you ride. My old Pace RC405 fitted with both wheels off, but it was a bit snug and really needed the front seat forward a notch further than I'd prefer. With modern bikes generally having slacker head angles, longer forks and longer wheelbase, not to mention the general trend towards wider bars... I ended up with roof carriers as the slightly larger Cup spec roof spoiler didn't play nice with rear hatch mounted carriers, and with the twin pipes on a 182 anything requiring a towbar is a non-starter.

I think it's basically what cbmotorsport says above, it's a relatively cheap to run go-kart that's happy on country lanes/around town/cruising down the motorway

Not so much cruising down the motorway - not a major drama if you're only doing it now and then, but sitting at a steady 70 on the motorway in a 172 or 182 is not an especially relaxing experience. Not especially relevant to the OP by the sounds of it, but if 100+ mile motorway trips are even remotely regular, I'd be looking elsewhere (and did). That said, the "Cup Chassis" handling tweaks could have been exacerbating things

There's a point, my 17" Five is snug, your 29er could be tricky. Reckon it would go though (just).

The steering wheel lines up better with the seat than the one in our T5. The pedals... not so much. The height issue comes from the seat not going as low as you would expect.

A standard or "full-fat" will have cruise control for the days you do have to go on an m-way trip. Certainly helps the sanity, we just about survived Glasgow > London and back

Crack on then, personally I'd have a Civic Type R as they're potentially more reliable. Plus they rev to about 8500 rpm, so great for doing laps of town in first gear.

Vtec kicked in yo! (EDIT: DTF got modded?)

Legend,have you not had a xl meta sx in the back of yours?

Vtec kicked in yo!

😀 A mate had one for a while quite a few years ago. It was fast and sounded awesome. After travelling in it, I can certainly understand why powerful cars with loud exhausts appeal to certain men (small ones especially).

A standard or "full-fat" will have cruise control for the days you do have to go on an m-way trip

My 182 Cup had cruise control too. My point was more that the lively handling - which made the car so much fun on little roads - made motorway journeys a bit tiresome. Well, that and the noise. This isn't intended as a criticism of the car btw - as I mentioned in an earlier post, there are days when I really miss the general bonkers-ness of it. However, my circumstances changed, my driving habits changed, so I changed my car.