Month 4 of CAR magazine UK's Renault Clio long-term test: what the French supermini is really like to live with, as we spend half a year in a TCe 90 Evolution
They say you should do more of what makes you happy, so this month I have two Clios. The orange Tic Tac is our base-spec TCe 90 with a three-cylinder engine and a six-speed manual; the car beside it is the top-of-the-range Clio featuring Renault’s E-Tech hybrid drivetrain and Esprit Alpine trim. Altogether it’ll set you back £25,495 – roughly £7k more than our car. Is it worth it?
These seats make the Clio feel more like a hot hatch, with big side bolsters. However, before you start feeling racy, there’s the drivetrain… And yet, and yet… I find it frustrating. The E-Tech gearbox, originally called the LocoDiscoBox, was designed by Renault engineer Nicolas Fremau, using technical Lego over a Christmas break. Lovely back story, but it doesn’t make for an enthusiast’s car. There are four gears – three for most use cases, plus an extra gear for higher-speed driving which disengages the electric motor completely, to reduce drag.
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