kayeabl

Evening,

I love my Scoob, but lately the running costs have been getting me down especially with the price of optimax and the fact that i love doing track days buts its eating tyres and brakes.

Anyway passed my local renault dealer and to cut a long story short, test drove the new Clio Trophy, and was very impressed by it. Dealer offered me £6500 in px for my MY98 UK Turbo so am seriously tempted.

It would make a good track car and small enough to drive round town in. Also hopefully as its a special edition, would hold it's value a little better.

Problem is £15,500 for a Clio!! Would anyone else have one?

Cheers

Ash

chris n`nic

You will get a trophy for a lot less than that m8y...have a ring round and you should get it cheaper

Chris

corradoboy

Last months Evo mag put it up against an 80k Beemer M6, and it held its own Apparantly the Sachs dampers used to get the handling just right are 10x more expensive than the OE ones on the rest of the range. Great little cars, just hate the looks and image

dpb

I Thought that sounded pricey..>!
dont know about holding price only 500 i suppose.
i def think about one if i was workin.....

davedipster

I will never buy another clio. Badly made, cheap materials, and bad choice on my part.
I'm glad I said that. I feel much better now.

Did I say that clio's are rubbish? I did, good.

dipster

davedipster

Get a used civic type r if you want a hot hatch, not a rubbish clio

dipster

dpb

unless its cheap....

C2forWRX

get a 182 and put recaro's in it and cup suspension. save a packet. your fuel bills will still be big, BUT MAN THAT IS THE UGLIEST FRONT CABIN I HAVE EVER SEEN!

C2forWRX

147 ft/lb

mpr

don't know why everyone has a downer on the clio.... its a match for a standard scoob on a decent back road (even if the torque is a lot lower, as it weighs a lot less) , and in the average driver's hands is easier to drive fast IMO. So they're a bit plasticky, but the spec is good, the engine is great, and unless you're some sort of nutter you will never see less than 30mpg in real world driving (I used to get 37 regularly). They've got to be the cheapest way to go that fast, and as they don't look too obvious, you can actually feel safe leaving them in a car park .... unlike my scoob!

I'd have another if I hit hard times and couldn't afford to run the scoob.

Chins

I had a 182 with no problems. One of my guys at work has just taken delivery of a Trophy. Paid 13,500, but you could get one for just under 13k. He has had a couple of rattles, but nowt else. No more than my Honda Type R had and that took a number of visits for them to sort - muppets at Honda

Dream Weaver

People bash Clio's and French cars these days because no-one likes to get their hands dirty or be "uncomfortable". Sports hatches used to be about raw fun, no mod cons and getting your hands under the bonnet to fix things when they went wrong.

Drivers these days are pampered, they want a sports hatch with all the toys that never ever breaks down even when thrashed. Although they exist in Japanese form the new breed of cars/hatches are not a patch on the old original models.

French cars are reliable when looked after.

dtriggs

Dream Weaver - You have to be kidding ? Buy a £15,500 car and then be expected to get your hands dirty and have a uncomfortable car ? Blimey, I would consider it. Cars have moved on and should be incredibly reliable nowadays and still give the performance. No wonder Renault have problems if they expect owners to fix things themselves !!!

chris n`nic

Depends what you want m8. You wouldn`t buy a Westfield if you wanted comfort just the same as you wouldn`t by a Scooby if you wanted fuel econ. People say how bad the seats are in the older Cup but tbh it was sold with trackdays in mind and if you were that bothered you`d probably get different buckets in anyway. (And it ain`t £15,500) Everyone mentions how much more reliable other hothatches are but if you check their forums I think you`ll find that isn`t strictly the case.

Chris

Andy M3

mrp - "and unless you're some sort of nutter you will never see less than 30mpg in real world driving (I used to get 37 regularly)" I get 37 mpg average in my Fabia vRS. Not to delude people, but unless you are a vicar driving miss daisy, I think 25-27 average is more realistic if you are considering one of these cars.

But my answer to the question would I get a 182 Trophy - YES YES YES. But only a Trophy because of the suspension and seats and because they are ltd edition they will hold their money slightly better than a regular one.

kayeabl

Cheers for the feedback guys,

Started doing a little research and there are 5 in my area all for less than £15000 so will have to see if you can get any cheaper.

Does anyone know where to get a 182 Trophy for less than £14k any help is appreciated.

Cheers

Ash

davyboy

Never got dirty hands with our Clio apart from when changing pads discs etc.

Jonto

i wouldn't buy it thinking it will hold its value, it won't, they never do.

chris n`nic

Well I average about 32 around town/blasts up the motorway. Motorway in france I managed 45mpg at about 80-90. Around Curborough Sprint Track i got it down to 11 mpg lol. Thats because it was mostly 2nd gear so obviously very thirsty. If you take it upto a ton it sups juice as it is on cam, I suppose the same if you cruise on boost compared to off.

Chris

Andy M3

My bad - i seem to remember them being thirsty than that when i worked for renault. I guess it's my driving

chris n`nic

lol possibly m8! They do loosen up a fair bit and this also helps...daft thing was I was spending nearly £60 a week in fuel (pretty normal driving miles). Got the Rsport Ecu on and some breathing mods and it went down to £30 a week! Maybe it was overfueling or something with the std ecu and the rsport sorted this out. TBH I could probably get the mpg down into the mid/high 20`s but litterally constantly revving the nuts off it

Chris

Danny B

May aswell buy a used GT TDi 150 and get it chipped to 180bhp if you are worried about fuel consumption.
Much better to drive with almost 300lbft torque

kayeabl

Been searching autotrader now, and it seems the Clio Cup is better value for money than the Trophy, as guess if i was really that worried i could spend £2000 upgrading the suspension and it would still cost me less than the Trophy.

What is the reliability like with the Clio's as i've had friends who have had bad experiences with the older Clios?

Cheers

Ash

ewanrw

Dude,

I work for "well known car retailer" as a Renault Sales Exec and the Trophys' are minted but I'd keep hold of the scoob. The clios are nice but they are not on a par with the scoob.

And remember, there will be a new Renaultsport Clio early next year thats gonna be 200bhp.

Although, I considered getting a Trophy instead of my Impreza so your not the only one thats been tempted.

ewan

R1916v

So far since Saturday the fual guage on my 172 is showing 40mpg

I'd say an average week was 35 though, miles better than my old 19 which drank more than Oliver Reed, and was smaller engine/slower to boot!

jonc

I had a 172, thought it was a great car, don't know why people harp on the quality of the build, I had absolutely no problems with my one. The quality on on a classic scoob isn't much better, if anything lego use better quality plastic for their toys.

Considering the performance, running costs are relatively low, though since the Trophy was designed for track days in mind, and the considering the shocks are 10 times more expensive, I wonder how much they will cost when it comes to replacing them.

Tim-Grove

Think if I were to have another now (which I would), I'd buy one 12-18 months old so hopefully most of the warranty gremlins might have been sorted by the first owner.

I had my 172 from new and I only had 1 problem with it but I was a MAJOR one *cough*engine blew up*cough*. It was sorted without any problems by the dealer, and apart from that one (big) problem it was a great little car.

Horico

The mrs has a 182 with the cup packs on and it's a belter to drive fast in....we've had it for a year now (from 3 months old) and there haven't been any problems whatsoever with it.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y187/Horico/big182.jpg

We get a min 30mpg around town and way more on a run....

Best thing to do is get one about 12-18 months old as above so it's dropped in price a bit...ours is nicely loosened up now it's on 12k.

They aint as bad as you think (or hear)....would make an ideal cheap track day / fast road car...

talizman

iTrader: (1)

Bear in mind that you may get a Trophy for less than £15.5k, but you won't get the £6.5k for your MY98 against the cheaper ones!

Swings and roundabouts matey!

wilf

Owned a Clio Cup now for 3 years next month and ran the Cup and a P1 together for a year so feel qualified to answer this.

Averaged 40mpg according to the fuel computer. Covered 25,000 miles. Only thing that has broken is the plastic clip holding the gaiter onto the gear shift.

That is more reliable than my old P1 and 2 prev scoobs before that. It also rattles about the same amount as the scoobs I owned (not that much but a bit). It has had fewer things go wrong with it than the Fabia I used to own which had bits of trim fall off and electrical gremlins. I guess some Clios are more unreliable than others.

As a driving experience its fun and pretty quick. It will just out accelerate an early std bug eye and is more fun to corner in than most scoobs - but on twisty poorly surfaced roads it inspires less confidence than the scoobs so you have to be a bit braver. THe Clio is more fun overall - but for ultimate driving experience I would still rather take my old P1 every day of the week.

I would buy another Clio tho I'll probably wait for the new model. I wouldnt buy the Trophy as you can get a pre reg 182 Cup for about 4k cheaper from a dealer.

I bought my Clio new for 12.5k from a dealer when they werent really discounting them. I have recently being offered 7k trade in. The 5k loss is less than I would have suffered on a Mini Cooper bought at the same time (I know this cos my Mum did just that).