At the beginning of this week, I had the opportunity to represent the Kursors.lv blog at the tests of the new Renault Clio held in Poland. With this new small car, we were able to drive along the roads of both the city and the rural regions of Poland in a fairly large group of media, as well as visit several interesting manors. An excellently organized event that allowed not only to get to know the new car in practice, but also to talk with other automotive journalists and Renault representatives.
Clio is a very important model for the Renault brand, and its story began way back in 1990. In total, more than 17 million Clios have been sold worldwide, and for several years this model has been the best-selling car in Europe. The name of this car comes from one of the nine muses in ancient Greek mythology, and under Cleo’s patronage was history. From the ancient Greek word for Klīo, “kleiō”, words such as “make famous” and “celebrate” are derived. While other competitors are abandoning the Clio’s B-segment (ahem, I’m looking at the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Polo), Renault has chosen to celebrate by launching the new sixth generation of the Clio.
We also talked about this test drive in our podcast “What the Cursor Doesn’t Tell You”. I invite you to listen to this episode.
The new Renault Clio looks… unusual
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If some previous generations of Clio have been relatively round and inconspicuous cars, then already in the fifth generation, Renault started to introduce much more expressive features to this car, and this new sixth generation Clio, in my opinion, is a very aggressive looking small car. The body has many different folds, the daytime running lights are huge and the black plastic elements embedded in the front of the car pull towards the aggressive side.
And what kind of explosion of creativity has happened in the heads of the designers who created the front and rear lights of this car? In the front, I see some influence from Japanese cars, and in the back from the Americans. I can’t say I like these elements yet, but they are undeniably eye-catching.
I think it’s no longer a secret to anyone that nowadays cars are getting bigger and bigger, and that’s exactly what happened with the Clio. In terms of size, the new Renault Clio has now become larger than the class-leading first-generation Renault Megane in almost all parameters. The new Clio is longer, wider, higher and we can put more things in the trunk. During very serious testing, we found out that the trunk of the new Clio holds 0.9 Tons. But if we’re talking seriously, the trunk capacity of this car is 391 liters, which we can increase up to 1176 liters when we lower the rear seats.
We could already see the previous generation Clio in bright colors and it’s nice that Renault offers something brighter in addition to several color variations of the bucket. I would even say that this car needs another bright shade.
There is also a pleasant surprise in the range of engines
In a world where almost all car manufacturers strive to create engines with the smallest possible volume and number of cylinders, Renault has dug up a 1.8-liter 4-cylinder gasoline engine somewhere. It is, of course, equipped with a hybrid system and an automatic transmission. This whole combination is capable of developing 160 hp, which is quite a lot for such a car weighing less than 1.8 tons. There is enough dynamics not only in the city, but also on Polish high-speed highways. We checked. It is very unusual to hear a real internal combustion engine after driving all kinds of electric cars.
The manufacturer promises some unrealistically low consumption of 2.9 – 4.1 liters for this engine, but this is not what we saw on our test drive. It is possible that in the summer and driving on the highway at 90 km/h you can get close to such consumption figures, but when driving normally in winter conditions, the consumption of the car at the end of the test drive only approached the 6 liter mark. On the other hand.
Two other engines are available for this car. If we are looking for a simpler and cheaper option, then we can consider the 1.2-liter 3-cylinder gasoline TCe 115 turbo engine. It is capable of developing a slightly lower 115 hp, but we can also equip it with a 6-speed manual transmission if desired or needed. And the third engine, which unfortunately will pass by our noses in the Baltics, is the ECO-G 120. As we can already understand from its name, it is an improved engine that is used in Renault group machines, which works with both gasoline and LPG gas. Interestingly, we can get it only with a machine. Renault promises a mileage of up to an impressive 1,450 kilometers for this car with both fuel tanks, so I’m very upset that we can’t buy it on our side.
Lots of useful technology
Although this is a representative of the compact class, it cannot be considered a simple car in any way. In fact, we can thoroughly pack such a new Clio with various useful technologies, which are usually seen in larger and more expensive cars. True, it also allows Renault to charge more for this car, because, although small, it is no longer a simple car.
The instrument panel, as well as the multimedia computer, have two large displays. We can perhaps debate whether such an arrangement of displays does not look a bit wooden, but if we look into them, we see already familiar design breezes from other previously tested Renault cars, as well as the pleasant Google navigation view awaits us on the multimedia display. Renault Clio uses Google software and thus we will be able to easily use Google Maps, Google Assistant, Google Gemini services, as well as install apps from Google Play. Similar to the recent Volvo EX30 test drive to the Trakai Castle, I was able to play Angry Birds while the car was charging. True, at the start of our test drive, the multimedia display of our test car did not want to turn on. It came back to life after about an hour of driving, but this one goes to show that technology is cool as long as it works properly.
The car has 29 driving assistance systems and the cool personalization mode has not disappeared anywhere, which allows you to turn off the most annoying of these systems with a double press of the button. Nowadays, those machines often try to watch our every move and beep if we don’t do what they want. In Renault and Dacia cars, at least we can easily silence these beeps. It’s cool that all Clios already include adaptive cruise control as standard.
It’s also cool that Renault hasn’t tried to avoid physical buttons in this car. On the steering wheel, they may not have been implemented quite successfully, but at least we can adjust the climate control system in a very comprehensible and convenient way. By the way, the heated steering wheel function runs VERY hot on this car.
What I liked less is the drive mode switch. When you drive calmly and prudently, there is nothing wrong with that, but if you need to quickly change the driving direction, for example, when you have missed your turn and have to turn back, then you often have to crouch down and go in the opposite direction to what you want. I remember that I did not like this in the Renault 5 test. Also, the audio and radio regulator behind the steering wheel, which has been found in Renault cars for years, has not disappeared anywhere. People say it’s cool once you get used to it. Well, I don’t know.
Although the car is small and the windows are not high, but the rear hatch is covered from above by a plastic cover, I thought the visibility in this car was good. I had no discomfort in this car due to transparency issues.
As we can see in the picture, this car is equipped with nice seats. You will have to adjust them manually, but it is not a big deal. However, they are comfortable and hold well when we take a corner.
In the back, even though I could get in and sit down, I’ll be honest – I wouldn’t want to sit there for a long time. It is a small car and you can feel it in the back. But there is actually quite a lot of space in front and the ceiling of this car is higher than it might seem from the outside. And I am totally neither the shortest nor the narrowest rider.
How does this car drive?
You know, cool. I had the opportunity to drive the most powerful hybrid model during the test drive. It is easy and comfortable to drive in the city, because basically the car works in hybrid mode. Also, in addition to the agility, it is also useful that the car steers easily and from the sitting position everything that is happening around is clearly visible. On the other hand, we were able to give this engine a run on the high-speed highways. Acceleration is quite linear with some noticeable jerky moments. One and two, and we are already past the 130 km/h mark. In the evening, we accidentally wandered into some Polish countryside and got to drive on worn and frozen gravel. Although such roads are definitely not the nature of this car, it was handled successfully – even with its 18-inch wheels (expensive), it seemed collected and firm, not rattling hard. In Latvian conditions, I would put much nicer 16-inch wheels with more affordable tires on this car.
How much does the new Renault Clio cost?
The cheapest new Renault Clio with TCe 115 engine and manual gearbox costs from 19,890 euros. If we want an automatic, then we will have to part with 23,490 euros, but we will get the powerful hybrid by paying 27,890 euros. So, as if we are starting from a relatively cheap price, but this well-equipped car, at least in terms of price, is already starting to look into the territory of the next class car. But for the sake of justice, it must be said that for this money you will get a car that is cool to drive, even if it is not too big, but quite a joker and technically very well equipped.
