Category: Hot Hatchbacks 
Price Range: No data available
Good value for money, stonking performance for the price, high credibility with the boys, lots of grip and decent agility.
Not terribly refined or spacious, plenty of torque-steer.
Sometimes a hoot, sometimes a bore, the Clio 172 is a hot-hatch of the old-school. You've gotta like it though.
Visibility from within the Clio is good, with large window areas and well-sized mirrors. And because it's as compact as the usual supermini, placing it on the road and parking are a doddle too, aided by (standard) electric power steering. The controls are well laid out, with standard fingertip buttons for the stereo. Show the 172 a smooth, dry and preferably twisty road and you'll have a ball, swapping between second, third and fourth gears, with plenty of steering feel, strong performance and huge amounts of grip. It's a challenge to drive smoothly and quickly, as it can get untidy, unbalanced and out of shape if you're clumsy, but it's always easy enough to catch. It's not ultimately as well sorted as, say, an Audi A3 quattro Sport or Peugeot 206 GTi, but it's fun nonetheless. We haven't driven the Dynamique yet, so driving impressions will follow when we do, but we don't expect it to be more fun than a Fiesta Zetec S, based on our experience of the rest of the range.
The 172 has oodles of grunt, from 2.0 litres, its engine generates a gruff 172 bhp (our test car didn't have many miles on it, so its engine may grow smoother later in life) which gives it performance aplenty in any gear. Zero to 62 comes up in a whisker over seven seconds, while the top end is 138 mph. The 1.6-litre Dynamique is Renault's warm hatch, giving out a more sedate 110 bhp, but then, it's also five grand cheaper than the Sport 172.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Renault Clio RenaultSport
wrote on 28 08 2007