Picked up the mini beast today from Milton Keynes Renault, I live in Ashford Kent so decent drive to test her out.
Some may know my last two cars have been a stage 1 A45 AMG and M135i, just thought I'd post some thoughts in comparison to say wether I think it makes its bigger counterparts seem over expensive in comparison.
First of all the looks and feel: the car looks great in liquid yellow, it gets loads of attention both positive and negative ie racing, the black wheels finish it off nicely. The interior again is deceptively nice, the cloth seats are no oil painting but they do the job superbly and hold you brilliantly, better than the M135i's. The buttons feel pretty sturdy and nice to the touch, the steering wheel is a nice size with nice soft leather. Some of the door plastics are a bit cheap as is the lack of center arm rest but overall again a pleasant suprise, the metal paddles are fantastic the M135i doesn't have metal paddles even as a option just plastic and to get metal paddles in the A45 requires a 'pack' that cost me £600.
Other gadgets such as keyless entry, sat nav auto wipers and lights etc would all stack up to around £4,000 on the German cars.
noise: what a great little noise this little car makes! Even from the drivers seat you can hear the little baffles and cracks the exhaust makes I wasn't expecting anything TBH but it sounds like a mini version of the A45. Big difference in sound between normal and sport aswell. Bit of wind noise on the motorway but that's probably down to the huuuuge mirrors.
Performance: again surprised I was thinking that coming from something that was over twice as powerful with nearly three times the amount of torque I would be disappointed but I couldn't be more wrong it feels really lively yes the sensation of speed in a smaller car is probably greater than the numbers say but still I didn't buy this car to set records I bought it to put a smile on my face.
First dual carriageway and an old shape fiesta 150 wants to play and the Clio blew it into the weeds, pick up is strong but the car does run out of breath over the 80 mark.
The performance though was a very pleasant suprise after the dealer showed me under bonnet and I caught a glimpse of the size of the turbo lol it's tiny!!!! The A45's turbo was like a babies head and this in comparison was like a garden snail!.
The gearbox thus far has been great, it seems every bit as fast as the A45's DCT, it holds gears nicely and changes on request every time, put it in race mode and again it was spot on, the lack of ESC meant the car got out of corners quicker than sport. The car does understeer slightly when pushed but it's a predictable understeer so not a problem.
All in all the car is great, big smile factor only downside has been finding out it doesn't come with a DAB radio? On a 15 plate car?!? But apart from that no regrets so far about tech purchase, we'll see if it can be the first car I've kept longer than a year lol
Some may know my last two cars have been a stage 1 A45 AMG and M135i, just thought I'd post some thoughts in comparison to say wether I think it makes its bigger counterparts seem over expensive in comparison.
First of all the looks and feel: the car looks great in liquid yellow, it gets loads of attention both positive and negative ie racing, the black wheels finish it off nicely. The interior again is deceptively nice, the cloth seats are no oil painting but they do the job superbly and hold you brilliantly, better than the M135i's. The buttons feel pretty sturdy and nice to the touch, the steering wheel is a nice size with nice soft leather. Some of the door plastics are a bit cheap as is the lack of center arm rest but overall again a pleasant suprise, the metal paddles are fantastic the M135i doesn't have metal paddles even as a option just plastic and to get metal paddles in the A45 requires a 'pack' that cost me £600.
Other gadgets such as keyless entry, sat nav auto wipers and lights etc would all stack up to around £4,000 on the German cars.
noise: what a great little noise this little car makes! Even from the drivers seat you can hear the little baffles and cracks the exhaust makes I wasn't expecting anything TBH but it sounds like a mini version of the A45. Big difference in sound between normal and sport aswell. Bit of wind noise on the motorway but that's probably down to the huuuuge mirrors.
Performance: again surprised I was thinking that coming from something that was over twice as powerful with nearly three times the amount of torque I would be disappointed but I couldn't be more wrong it feels really lively yes the sensation of speed in a smaller car is probably greater than the numbers say but still I didn't buy this car to set records I bought it to put a smile on my face.
First dual carriageway and an old shape fiesta 150 wants to play and the Clio blew it into the weeds, pick up is strong but the car does run out of breath over the 80 mark.
The performance though was a very pleasant suprise after the dealer showed me under bonnet and I caught a glimpse of the size of the turbo lol it's tiny!!!! The A45's turbo was like a babies head and this in comparison was like a garden snail!.
The gearbox thus far has been great, it seems every bit as fast as the A45's DCT, it holds gears nicely and changes on request every time, put it in race mode and again it was spot on, the lack of ESC meant the car got out of corners quicker than sport. The car does understeer slightly when pushed but it's a predictable understeer so not a problem.
All in all the car is great, big smile factor only downside has been finding out it doesn't come with a DAB radio? On a 15 plate car?!? But apart from that no regrets so far about tech purchase, we'll see if it can be the first car I've kept longer than a year lol
Last edited: