Going to buy my first car - Renault Clio - What to look out for?

cyclonebri1

vax2002 wrote: »

You will Regret buying a Renault !
Do not say we did not warn you.
Common things that go wrong with Renaults: Everything: All of the time

Cut the crap, the clio is a perfectly accepable car to consider. Also, speak for yourself and leave out the "we" Only scaremongers, you being 1, detract from their value.

You go ahead and slag them off at every opportunity, it only makes them more "available" for folks with eyes wide open and brains engaged,

fadetogrey

Going to buy my first car - Renault Clio - What to look out for?

First and foremost look out your local bus timetable.With any renault your going to need it....:cool:

funkycoldribena

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Cut the crap, the clio is a perfectly accepable car to consider. Also, speak for yourself and leave out the "we" Only scaremongers, you being 1, detract from their value.

You go ahead and slag them off at every opportunity, it only makes them more "available" for folks with eyes wide open and brains engaged,

You're having a laugh....go and have a look on Parkers,they're pretty much swamped with Clio owners problems.

pendulum

"Swamped with Clio owner problems"... well, as Clio's are popular cars, there will be a lot of problem reports about them.

As a current Clio owner, and previous Citroen owner, I'm happy to admit they're not the best in terms of reliability, but they're not as bad as some people make out either. I'd say they are about average for reliability - certainly not fantastic, but not too bad either. If you learn to get handy with the spanners, you can fix most things yourself for reasonable cost too.

The only car you should never consider buying is a Rover. The criticism about them is well deserved TBH.

knightstyle

Do you have any mates, contacts, Clio owners who could look at the car with you? If buying privately make sure the person selling it is named as the owner and how long for? Otherwise could be an auction £250 job bodged to fool you.

jase1

pendulum wrote: »

"Swamped with Clio owner problems"... well, as Clio's are popular cars, there will be a lot of problem reports about them.

It goes a lot further than that on Parker's for whatever reason. At one point the number of complaints they were getting there for Renaults was biblical; unless you're one of these people who seems to think that 90% of all cars on the road are Renaults, the percentage of posts they were getting about Renaults was a real eye-opener; probably 75-80% of all posts at one point a few years back.

Currently, 95% of all "Ownership Problems" posts on the Parker's website are in the Renault section.

As to why that was happening, I'm not sure. Perhaps it was a self-fulfilling thing, as more and more folks discovered Parker's forums on the search engines.

Even at its worst though the Clio wasn't the main area of complaint; that honour went to the mid-2000s Lagunas and, to a lesser extent, Meganes. The Clio was always acknowledged as one of the more reliable models.

pendulum

I've just checked the Parkers forums.

Ford owners problems: 172 posts.
Peugeot owners problems: 273 posts.
Renault owners problems: 23,363 posts!

Your theory about Google ranking seems a good one. One thing's for sure though and that is that Renault's do not incur 85 times more problems than Peugeot's so there must be other reasons to explain why that section has so many posts (How To's / Guides and FAQ attracting links, search engines, the same users posting over and over again in discussion threads, advertising of the forum to Renault owners, etc)

blinkythefish

Lots of old wives tales about the Clio. Basically a sound car, the only issues that appear really common are coil springs on the suspension - but they are as cheap as chips. It comes number five in the top 10 of most reliable used cars:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/articles/2011/03/cars/peugeot-207-is-most-reliable-used-car
[interestingly Ford don't even figure in this]

Obviously mileage is worth considering. AFAIR the cam belt service interval is 67k or 5 years so budget £250 if this is due and don't leave it. If you find one with <134k or >67k be sure that it has been changed or get it changed. Top end rebuild on the Clio runs at up to £900 (a replacement engine from someone through First Choice is usually the cheaper option). If a seller claims that it has been changed, make sure you see an invoice for it and call the garage to verify it. Then verify that garage really exists.

All cars have issues, hardly anyone sells a second hand car that is totally trouble free (dealers or private sellers). Some really useful resources in checking them out:


Cost of taxing, if tax is due, basic model data from registration:
http://www.freecarcheck.org/

MOT history check (can help verify mileage if you have the right documents)
http://motinfo.direct.gov.uk/internet/jsp/ECHID-Internet-History-Request.jsp

Check the car is not CAT D/C/B/A etc with one of the paid for services like HPI or ICARCHECK:
https://www.icarcheck.net/

Personally I would do a few things when looking at cars. If they are on eBay and advertised as 'private sale' use the advanced search and check the sellers recently closed auctions - if you find a ton of cars in it, the guy is a grey dealer. It is also useful to do this if someone claims to have relisted a car or been messed around by a no show bidder. Use the same search and contact that buyer to see why they left the car. You may save yourself hours and money. For Autotrader run any seller phone number through Google to see if throws anything up. Do this with the registration number too, just in case.

Google is a used car buyers friend, particularly street view. It's not unusual to see traders calling themselves "Quality Motors" but the address street view either does not exists or happens to be a travellers caravan park.

Clio's are great little cars. They drive well, are comfortable and generally responsive. Personally I prefer the 4 door 1.4 - but they are at a bit of a premium in terms of cost and insurance. Good luck :-)

jase1

From my dad's experience of owning an automatic Clio, the problems he has had have related mainly to poor build quality -- lots of broken interior bits and pieces, silly little electrical gremlins etc. Also rust, curiously, as I had been led to believe that these cars are galvanised -- probably just a one-off.

No serious reliability issues to note.

However, a workmate managed to blow his 1.2 Clio's head gasket inside three years. Also had problems with electric windows and the boot refusing to close. I suspect this may have something to do with the car being a "Campus" one, built in Eastern Europe I believe. The build quality was noticably naff on this car -- my old Daewoo was a paragon of solidity by comparison. I've not seen that problem on the French-built ones, so I'd suggest not buying one of the post-2006 Campus models.