Mini Review - Clio 197

Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Iridium, managed to produce the following words of wisdom

Cupholders? Squidginess of dash plastics? Did you have to turn the radio down to see if it was running?

Devastatingly awesome cross country weapon scale, we need a rating.

somewhere between 0 "Pikey" and 10 "Golf floorpan"

This is a vague guess at scale ratings;

Bugatti Veyron = 6 - marked down for economy and cupholders Alfa 33 16v = 8 - old, slightly Pikey, s**te when new Passat diesel =9.5 - (10 if in beige with pimp glass and cupholders). Mercedes S500 = 1 - Pub Landlord

Didn't notice - as a petrolhead it's not one of things I look for in a car.

Didn't notice - as a petrolhead it's not one of things I look for in a car.

Didn't notice - as a petrolhead it's not one of things I look for in a car.

Hmmm, well, it handled and went well, and put a smile on my face, so, 2 I guess.

Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Iridium, managed to produce the following words of wisdom

I'll have to dream up a rating scale that's more useful while I'm away.

Hmm.

How about the "Steve H Is The Expert" scale?

Ratings on dash squidginess, Italinate driving positions, cupholder ease of use and tax avoidance abilities.

Perfect.

So, that'll be a 2 for the Clio on the S**TE scale then.

As someone who drinks several coffees a day whilst driving, these are important.

As someone who spends more time in the car per week than anywhere else, a good quality, non dairy milk box interior is important.

Hold on..... the 2.0TDI was described as 'rough', I counter with evidence that it's not and now that's a bad thing?

New shape Clios are great cars, for a shopping trolley.

Horses for courses, though - if you're doing silly miles / year and spending most of your working day in the car, obviously a 'petrolhead' car isn't what you want.

However, at weekends, I tend to drive either of the Alfas instead of the Passat - it's a great business tool, but when I'm driving for the sake of driving I take something else.

Thankfully I'm a pretty light mileage user so my primary concerns are your weekend concerns heh :-)

Which is what some around here don't appear to appreciate.

Might go try a Corsa VXR and a new Civic Type-R at the weekend...

LOL, genius :D

Good job you didn't mention this in uk.rec.driving, that is several counts of driving without due care and attention.

See, I spend the majority of time at home. I prefer a quality of life and a cheap car to life on the road, and a lease car.

Damn I *must* stop drinking tea when reading this newsgroup.

Who knows their Clios? Did the 172 have cruise control as standard?

Ph1s did not. Later Ph2s did. 53 plate onwards, full fat ones, not Cups, should have Xenons, Cruise and Climate - there are some 53 plates that don't though.

Phase one? The earlier ones, right?

Cups are for psychos heh. :)

Gotcha: thanks.

The ones with the same front end as my Vee.

Fastest of the lot!

Np. They may or may not have a 6 cd changer as well heh. Although information was taken from memory, i think it originally came from ClioSport heh, so might be bollocks.

Any colour is fine by me - so long as it's a dark metallic. Which is fine, 'cos that's what they'd prefer us to order. If my director had his own way - we'd all have pearl black estates with tints.

I wouldn't take the cash, 'cos that's a gamble, and paying something like £1300 / year for a car and fuel card is cheaper than buying a banger and running it for a year. I have thought of opting out, but, really, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

In terms of what's on the list - base Mondeos and Vectras were the only other options - complete with plastic wheel trims, wind down rear windows and no cruise control. Faced with those options, everyone chose the best car on the list - Passat, SE spec. If you paid 8 quid a month towards it, you could get the 2lt rather than 1.9. The fleet is split half and half on this one.

If the Octavia vRS is added to the list for my replacement in April, I'll have that - if not, I'll get another one identical to what I have at the moment.

Well, maybe. Whilst I like the stripped out aspect of the Cup, it's a track day plaything. Yes, cheaper than the ordinary, but not critically quicker and it wasn't as though the ordinary model was expensive of course.

'Tis okay, cruise control or lack thereof was all I wanted to know.

Oh, so they have.

Must have looked at the wrong spec. - pre-TDCI Mondeos didn't have it, TDCI ones did.

Learn something new every day.

The rest still applies, definitely no alloys and windy down windows in the back.

This is for a car which spends 90% of its life with just you in and the rest with you + missus, right?

clive

Out of interest why do you care about the back windows? I'd imagine you'd spend most of the time in the car alone and I can't ever remember opening them myself when I had them.