First drive in the 200t, my thoughts

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
 
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Interesting to hear how you feel after coming from a much more expensive car. Early days but overall I get the feeling that pound for pound the Clio is coming out quite well?
 
Now I know what I'll be changing to in a couple of years then!
Interesting views on the 200t - starting to remove the negativity out there. Nice to also see another member in Kent - I'm in Chatham (for my sins) but have a friend in Ashford with a 61 plate 200 in blue, you might see it around.
 
There's also another liquid yellow one in Ashford, my verdict is basically we all know the Clio wouldn't hold a light to the upper end of the hatches like the A45 and RS3 in terms of outright speed I think the Clio is nearly twice as slow as the A45 to 100 mph in stock form. But in terms of driver enjoyment, practicality, and quality it certainly isn't as far off as the 20+k the price suggests. Yes ok door plastics are poor and lack of arm rest, wheel hubs rust etc but then you get loads more as standard to counter that.
 
A set of KW V3s will sort the power on under steer, standard suspension is good but it does let the car down a bit when you start to push it.
 
i may be getting one for my courtesy car while mine gets serviced and im getting quite worried ill like it.
 
i may be getting one for my courtesy car while mine gets serviced and im getting quite worried ill like it.

200t courtesy car? Really lol?

glad you like it, don't forget the a45 is a merc so is going to be a far nicer interior etc, end of the day the Clio is a Renault, completely different market/quality.

Yeh the handling could do with a bit of tweaking to get it a bit better, I'm putting coilovers on mine also.
 
to be fair the roads were wet so I'll forgive a bit of understeer, the tyres are pretty crap aswell I'd like to get some supersports on but they are discontinuing them for pilot sport 4's which I'll chuck on.
Again to be fair to the Clio the buttons and switches seem no worse quality than the merc or BMW, I'm quite happy in the Renault cabin it's quite focused which is what i like about it, the cup suspension is quite rigid much more than than the A45 but again I like it, makes you feel more involved with the road. It seems a great little car, I was tempted to go straight for a remap but I can imagine with the FWD the front tyres getting quite overwhelmed
 
well actually a 220 trophy, i asked if they had one i could try out. The chap just said he would do his best so sort it out.
 
There's also another liquid yellow one in Ashford, my verdict is basically we all know the Clio wouldn't hold a light to the upper end of the hatches like the A45 and RS3 in terms of outright speed I think the Clio is nearly twice as slow as the A45 to 100 mph in stock form. But in terms of driver enjoyment, practicality, and quality it certainly isn't as far off as the 20+k the price suggests. Yes ok door plastics are poor and lack of arm rest, wheel hubs rust etc but then you get loads more as standard to counter that.

That would be me.
 
to be fair the roads were wet so I'll forgive a bit of understeer, the tyres are pretty crap aswell I'd like to get some supersports on but they are discontinuing them for pilot sport 4's which I'll chuck on.
Again to be fair to the Clio the buttons and switches seem no worse quality than the merc or BMW, I'm quite happy in the Renault cabin it's quite focused which is what i like about it, the cup suspension is quite rigid much more than than the A45 but again I like it, makes you feel more involved with the road. It seems a great little car, I was tempted to go straight for a remap but I can imagine with the FWD the front tyres getting quite overwhelmed

They are discontinuing Pilot Supersports [emoji853]

The car actually is not a problem when it is mapped, just don't go for an aggressive map. My tyres have nearly done 18000 miles on the original Dunlops, and pedal it a bit. That is with 244 bhp and 285 ftlb of torque going through them.

http://youtu.be/fV-cJH-7ch8

Obviously in the wet and no problems, that is with 3mm of tread on Dunlops. Smooth progressive map.