Review: 2019 Renault Clio

Perhaps Mark V Clio will change all this, perhaps not. Certainly Renault has concentrated hard on the most criticised part of the outgoing model, which was its stripped-out cabin. It gets the most love in this all-new car, with lots of soft-touch plastics, better design, an upright touch screen, limited custom colour panels and selectable ambient lighting on the upper trim models, along with a smaller steering wheel and seats with longer bases.

This is the debut of the Renault Nissan Alliance’s CMF-B platform, which will be shared across Alliance brands and models. Suspension is class ubiquity of MacPherson-strut front and a twist-beam rear, and there's a 22kg weight saving in the bare bodyshell.

There are three UK trim levels: ‘Play’, which will be about 23 per cent of sales; Iconic (53 per cent); and RS-Line, which gets go faster bits of trim inside and out (24 per cent). The new car goes on sale in August priced between £14,500 and £20,500 with first deliveries in October.

While it looks much like the outgoing Mark IV model with more extravagant headlamps, it's all new and 12mm shorter and 8mm lower, with a wheelbase reduced by 5mm. The rear overhang has been increased to allow the boot to expand to a class leading 391 litres.

In the cabin there's a feeling of space and air in the front seats, but the rear bench is cramped and six footers sitting behind the same will fit where they touch. The new-design cabin is pretty nice from the front seats, with a classy full-width vent across the facia and (optional) colour highlight helps lighten the mood. Shame the light coloured inset panels will not be coming to the UK, however. The new seats are comfy, supportive and height adjustable, and the storage space is well thought out and decently upholstered. There's a genuine feeling of endeavour here, with a big-car feel to the interior which will attract a lot of people more familiar with the down rent appearance of many supermini rivals.

That said, the quality feel falls of markedly as you move to the rear, with rather more prosaic materials around the rear seats and boot and our test car's doors shut with different sounds and varying amount of force required.

The switchgear and connectivity have both been updated, too. There's an optional 10-inch TFT-screen digital cluster in front of the driver and an upright 9.3-inch centre touch screen curved and angled towards the driver. Renault’s Easy Link connectivity system has been reworked to provide faster access to multimedia, sat nav, audio and customisable functions like the adjustable ambient lighting. The new steering wheel has a smaller air bag unit and the space saved has more function buttons and there are nice piano-key switches under the touch screen. Some of this is gimmicky and pointless, but there is genuine merit, too. To come next year will be an optional SAE level-two semi-autonomous driving, which we got to try and is frankly one of the best on the market in its sophistication and refinement.

Engines will be small in capacity, but not in power. Only the entry-level unit is naturally aspirated, a 1.0-litre 72PS, 95Nm three-cylinder. Up from that is a similar but more sophisticated and turbocharged three pot, which with a five-speed manual makes 100PS and 160Nm and is good for 116mph, 0-62mph in 11.8 seconds, 64mpg in the Combined cycle and 100g/km of CO2 – a continuously variable transmission option is on the way for this engine.

The top engine for the moment is a 130PS, 240Nm 1.3-itre TC3 turbo four-cylinder, which comes with a revised Getrag seven-speed dual clutch gearbox and steering-wheel paddles. There will also be a single 1.5-litre turbodiesel with either 85bhp and 220Nm or 115bhp and 260Nm, both with six-speed transmissions and delivering Combined economy of 78.5mpg. By next year they'll be a petrol-electric hybrid with a gearless transmission and eventually a replacement for the current RenaultSport Clio RS using a down tuned version of the Megane RS's 1.8-litre.

The UK's best seller will be the 100PS 1.0-litre three pot with a five-speed manual priced in Iconic trim at about £16,500. It's far from the best sounding triple in its class, but in the cabin it's well damped and the turbo gives it adequate low-end grunt.

It's not an engine that likes to be extended too far up the rev counter and you need to row it along with the strangely stiff gear lever, but you can make good progress. Like a lot of these three cylinders, however, the economy benefit is largely illusory; driving reasonably we could only get 44.8mpg.

It rides reasonably, but those optional 17-inch wheels give it a shimmering, vibrating ride over small bumps with loud reports over motorway expansion joints. For the most part though this is a highly assured car, fast or slow. There's ride composure across dips and bumps and good body control through the turns even if you might be well advised to try a car on 16-inch wheels for their superior small-bump absorption.

The handling is a similar story, feeling secure, although it lacks the edge of rivals such as Ford's Fiesta. You never quite get that confidence-inspiring feeling as you turn into a corner and the steering doesn't have enough feedback and feels marginally over assisted. The disc brakes are powerful, though, and the pedal feels nicely progressive. The RS-Line car we drove which has small suspension improvements, feels a bit more connected with the road, but again Fiesta is more communicative and agile.

For most people Clio's relative dynamic shortcomings won't put them off and the cabin is a very definite improvement, but is it enough? Renault UK is hoping so, but I've got a feeling there's more to the Brits reluctance to buy Clio that we are seeing here. Come this autumn we're going to find out.

Stat attack: Renault Clio TCe100

Price: £16,500

Engine: 1.0-litrec, three-cylinder turbo petrol

Transmission: Five-speed manual, front-wheel-drive

Power/Torque: 100PS @ 5,000rpm/160Nm @ 2,750rpm

0-62mph: 11.8 seconds

Top speed: 116 mph

Kerb weight: 1,178kg

Economy: 64mpg