My Life: My Renault Clio I

For new cars, there are tons of car reviews out there; every main web portal has starting offering research and "reviews" of cars. None of these reviews really offer true opinions on the cars. The magazines, newspapers, websites, etc, that test these cars rely on their relationships with the manufacturers to continue to get cars, to test, to report on, to sell mags or ad space. The LA Times learned the hard way that GM doesn't like any lip. GM pulled advertising from the LAT after carman Dan Neil said that GM should get rid of their CEO, Rick Wagoner. Robert Farago of The Truth About Cars has had his last remaining syndication contract removed by the San Fransisco Chronicle for a less than flattering review of Subaru's new SUV. He goes into detail about this and swears not to change in his column from 1 September 2005.

Anyway, all of this history to say, I have not read any objective reviews of a 1992 Renault Clio in a while. Therefore, in my pursuit of the truth, I will review my lovely 15-year-old car for the greater good of all human kind.

For a car that has lived with French drivers for 15 years, it is in excellent shape. It only has a few patches of matte white paint around the windows and to repair some scratch marks on the passenger side. The passenger's back panel looks like it was hit with a sledgehammer rubber mallet. The driver's side window washer spout doesn't work, the driver's side lock has fallen out and needed to be fixed back in place with generic rubber cement. Like I said, it's in excellent shape.

The performance numbers may shock and surprise you. 1.2 litre engine making a spritey 55 bhp with an earth-grinding 64 lb-ft of torque, this baby really makes you realize there is a god, a god of thrill, when you wind it out to the engine to its redline (which I can't tell you because of the lack of a tachometer). 0-100 km comes before you know it. A mere 15.2 human seconds pass before you are traveling at highway speeds (I'm pretty sure they tested this down a hill with a tailwind, but none-the-less...). The quarter mile, well, let's just say, most days it can go a quarter mile with no problems. A stunning top speed of 150 km/h (92 mph) is well above the US and French legal limits. However, it does scream a bit at highway speeds (if only Renault 4 cylinder engines had the same acoustic properties of an Audi V8).

You can't really go around turns very quickly, mostly because one of the front CV joints are a bit bent so you get some heavy-duty thumping whenever you turn and accelerate at the same time. No one has tested this on the skid pad, but I am almost sure that this is due to special interest pressure from Ferrari and Porsche. If they tested it it may have resulted in some redfaces in Maranello and Stuttgart. Ok, in reality wicked understeer kicks in very quickly.

Basically to summarize, this car is perfect for you if you want to use it anywhere but: On the highway, in situations where you have to accelarate quickly, or any types of turns.

If you're interested in buying a near-mint example, I know where you can find one at a good price...