SA Road Tests

Welcome

This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you can get at home.

*To read one of our archived road tests, just select from the alphabetical menu of manufacturers' names on the left. Hover your cursor over the manufacturer's name, then choose from the drop-down menu that appears.

*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


We drive Renault’s 2014 Clio4 900 turbo Dynamique

Posted 20 April 2014

Not just for getting around

“French cars are rubbish. They’re expensive, badly made, poorly engineered, parts are almost unobtainable and, did I mention, they’re expensive if or when you manage to find them? Give me Brand T or Brand V any day.”

Ever notice that the above twaddle is spoken almost exclusively by men? That would be male members of the human race; standing around barbeque fires, inhaling toxic fumes, consuming high-cholesterol beverages and repeating whatever some other uninformed person told them on previous occasions. It’s called popular lore or urban legend. There was a time, years ago, when there was an element of truth in some of those allegations, but things have changed.

The French tossed out those get-rich-quick traders who blackened their names with poor service and don’t-care attitude, and took their brands back. They opened dedicated branch offices in South Africa, laid in decent stocks of spares, jacked up servicing and distribution and hired people who know what to do. Things are immeasurably better now, but those damning legends live on. Among men.

Women, generally, know less about cars so when they start looking they ask their friends, look closely at interesting vehicles and prowl the internet – far from eyes of menfolk – and make their own decisions. That doesn’t mean that all women are honest though. Almost without exception, they will say: “I don’t care what it looks like; just as long as it gets me from A to B.”

Bollocks, Ladies. When pressed, you will admit that it must be comfortable, stylish, safe, reasonably economical, quick and inexpensive to service and maintain, be decently made, offer value for money, have enough room inside for whatever you want it to do, enable you to play your own music, have Bluetooth for the phone, and keep on going. A control centre with an seven-inch touch screen boasting the brilliance and sheen of your tablet, rather than the usual rather dull e-reader look, would be a plus; and preferably without paying a premium as for some other brands. A certain “differentness” or je ne sais quoi is nice too. Ever noticed how unlike most men you are? 

Looking back at the previous paragraph, you will agree that cars are not just for getting around in; style, pizazz and living your life are just as important. Now look at the subject of this review; the Renault Clio4 turbo Dynamique. It looks fantastic – its designer described it as “good enough to eat.” It’s modern with a small turbocharged petrol engine that provides all the pep you need while remaining practical and economical. It has room for five fully grown people and enough space to carry a decent load. Tough and stylish fabric upholstery won’t freeze your back and thighs in winter, the driver’s seat is adjustable for height and reach and so is the steering wheel.

There’s built-in satellite navigation to guide you, USB and auxiliary ports for your music; right there on the front of the radio/MP3 player where you can find them, and Bluetooth for streaming music or answering your phone without fiddling for it. That brings us to a further point. Once the doors have been unlocked you pop the key card back into your bag or pocket, get straight in and start the car by pushing a button – no fiddling. Relocking is simply a case of walking away – the car locks itself as soon as you are about four metres away.

It’s engineered to be safe too. Renault Clio4 offers four airbags, anti-submarining seats, ABS with EBA, EBD and ESP, ASR traction control, cruise control with speed limiter, ISOFix anchors on front passenger chair and both outer rear seats and hill start assist. All three rear passengers have head restraints and three-point belts. EuroNCAP ranked it the “2012 Car of the Year” in the city cars category. With five stars and an overall scoring of 85-percent, it topped its segment with maximum scores for the first three of the four evaluation criteria: child protection, pedestrian protection, safety equipment and adult protection.

The usual suite of powered windows and mirrors (folding), central locking (automatically as you drive off), air conditioning, a brilliant Bass Reflex sound system, LED daytime running lights, front fog lamps, automatic rain and light sensors, special outside trim and 17” alloy wheels  are included in the Dynamique package. Our test car was fitted with optional back-up radar (R 2000) and a fixed glass sunroof at R 8000. As always, the parking assistance was useful and the sunroof, while flooding the interior with light, still left more than enough headroom for tall people.

Driving impressions: The little 900 cc, three-cylinder turbo engine drives like a conventional 1400 but with more low-down power. It isn’t a racing car by any means, but once you have some revs wound in, it’s responsive and taut, the engine note snarls pleasantly and it’s possibly the most motoring fun you can have without driving at idiotic speeds. As with any small car, it’s nimble, easy to park and fits in almost anywhere. Vision outwards is pretty good to front and sides, but we found the “C” pillars overly broad and the rear window too narrow. You have to allow one imperfection.

Defying urban legend, Clio4 is competitively priced and parts costs rank third in class on the Kinsey Report - way ahead of the brands mentioned earlier. They’re readily available too. It’s well put together and it’s brilliantly engineered. Renault was the first company to introduce turbocharging on Formula One cars back in 1977; in case you’re interested.
 
It has a five-year, 150 000 kilometre mechanical warranty, six years of anti-corrosion warranty and a three-year, 45 000 kilometre service plan. After that, fixed-price menu servicing means you should never have any nasty surprises. With all that backup you really can't lose, so why buy an ugly, boring car just because some men standing around barbeque fires reckon they would?

Test car from Renault SA press fleet

The numbers
Basic price: R203 900
As tested: R213 900
Engine: 898 cc, three-cylinder, turbocharged
Power: 66 kW at 5250 rpm
Torque: 135 Nm at 2500 rpm
Gearbox: Five-speed manual
Zero to 100 km/h: 12,2 seconds
Maximum speed: 182 km/h
Real life fuel economy: About 7,2 l/100 km
Tank: 45 litres
Boot: 300/1146 litres
Warranty: 5 years/150 000 km
Service plan: 3 years/45 000 km; at 15 000 km intervals

For the launch report and more technical details click here

To see the parts survey click here then scroll down to Kinsey Report 2013, then to Supermini

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.


Comments?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you thoroughly disagree with what I say? That's your privilege, because if everybody agreed on everything, the world would be a boring place. All I ask is that you remain calm, so please blow off a little steam before venting too vigorously.