“Don't be mad at me for bothering you again, but I remembered that I didn't ask you if you had a hybrid. Do you have a hybrid? And could I see him?'
The automotive world today is changing at lightning speed. Where we were used to simple simplicity without tinsel, it has long since become much more complicated, and especially in the category of small cars, changes are taking place that could perhaps be equal to those after the war.
Massive "hybridization" and electrification are condemned by many as nothing more than indulgence and indulgence by the fascist regulation Č̶t̶v̶r̶t̶é̶ ̶̶ř̶í̶š̶e̶ of the European Union, a necessary EVIL that must be because they ordered it. The last time I wrote how they dealt with threats and pressure at Suzuki , next comes Renault.
Renault's first hybrid is, quite expectedly, the best-selling Clio . The new E-tech technology will help the French not only reduce fleet emissions. It will also help customers how to have a powerful, fast and beautiful car with low fuel consumption. You will read in the following lines that the new Clio E-Tech hybrid is not only about fuel consumption.
WHEN I LOOK AT THE CLIO, I HAVE TO PRAISE IT
"He doesn't really look bad, in short, a Frenchman, as he should be".
The new Clio looks a bit like the old Clio, but it feels completely different. As if the previous model was only a semi-finished product, which they have now brought to perfection. An unwashed potato and the finest mashed potatoes in a Michelin restaurant, that's how different the last two generations of the second smallest Renault are.
Although the dimensions have hardly changed, perhaps thanks to the new design of the bow with "boomerangs" for daytime running lights, the new Clio feels like a much bigger car. Even when viewed from behind, it looks more like a wide and low sports car than a shopping bag. There is a certain detail connected to this that did not leave me completely cold. The current model finally looks like a car for men, for men. Bearded, tall, muscular types that women want, just like me. At the same time, it retains enough delicacy for the fairer sex, but above all it is very dynamic, even sporty.
This is DESIGN. I can honestly imagine someone buying a Clio purely because they like it. It's beautiful, it's gorgeous, it's very photogenic. Seriously, it fits in the Old Town, even among the tower blocks in Pankrác. The tested piece is made even better by the white mother-of-pearl and additional seventeens.
FINALLY A LUXURIOUS INTERIOR
A friend of mine bought a new Renault Clio of the previous fourth generation years ago, so I used to ride with him sometimes. Then, when I had the honor of the fifth generation for the first time at the "Cars on the Embankment" event, I was ecstatic. I remained enthusiastic throughout the test week. So high-quality, almost luxurious, that the interior of a small Clio? Compared to the fourth generation, this is a huge leap. The childish playfulness is there, the new interior clearly says that this is a grown-up car for grown-up people. The materials are high-quality and soft, the ergonomics are impeccable, and the large central touch screen has a grid as fine as the last iPhone.
Until then, the interior would only be great. Our test piece, however, had a beautiful, snow-white interior with blue details and optional ambient lighting that you can choose from eight colors. This should be standard on all new cars, it changes the nighttime atmosphere beyond recognition and suddenly goes from great to amazing. You can buy snow-white joy with the tested INTENS equipment for only NOK 6,000. Search for "Packt Ambiance – Light Grey", send thank you notes to my editorial email.
Colors do a lot and play a major role in the feel of the board. Because someone thinks with their head at Renault, the seats have remained in practical shades of dark gray, which is better kept clean than white luxury. The ceiling is contrasting black, which adds to the luxurious atmosphere, unfortunately, even thanks to the tinted rear windows, the French beauty is as dark as a tunnel.
I was very pleasantly surprised by the seating, the seats are soft! Almost a miracle these days. However, the sidewall during the day is very pronounced and will hold you in corners (and we'll talk about whether it will come in handy). I would only have a fundamental complaint about the rear seats. This is quite understandable for a small car, but taller passengers will lack headroom and the already mentioned darkness
Finally, I will keep the infotainment. At Renault, they call it Easy connect and it also includes navigation. However, it is definitely not easy to find anything in that place, and he doesn't even know many places in Prague. But who still uses built-in navigation these days? Instead, you can charge your phone wirelessly and also connect Android auto/Apple CarPlay wirelessly. The infotainment system is quite slow and clumsy, perhaps as if the hardware lacks performance, you just have to wait a second. However, the system's interface is just as beautiful as the entire Clio, so I really regret that the simpler and cheaper MediaNav system in the Duster was easier to use.
All in all, there is not enough headroom in the back and the infotainment is sometimes slower, but these are the only two small shortcomings of the otherwise beautiful and perfect interior of the new Clio.
HARD AND FUN CHASSIS
It's been some Friday since I tested the Ford Mondeo ST-line , which had a hard chassis that didn't suit the character of the car at all. It is usually an unwritten rule – any sports package will turn a tame and pleasant couch into a jumpy and sick racer. This is somewhat the case with the tested Clio, although there is no sports supplement.
The new Clio with a standard chassis is definitely not a boring car without juice. Thanks to the long wheelbase and modern chassis, it maintains a large amount of agility even for more passionate people. The agile chassis is very easy to read and neutral, it creates an incredible feeling of lightness in the driver, although it is not a complete feather with its 1200 kg. The flip side of the coin is worse driving comfort. The dampers are hard as a rock even in COMFORT mode. How this could happen in a French city car, I have absolutely no idea. I recommend forgiving yourself the extra charge for the beautiful seventeens and checking to see if they happen to be running on run-flat tires. I can't explain it otherwise. The tire pressure was correct.
I drove a small-large Renault for a whole week, mainly around Prague, and even though the hard chassis is not suitable for the city center at all, after a week I was so used to it that any other car seemed like an old Lincoln. Although the driving comfort was rather worse, there is such a small detail that justifies all this. Of course, in the name of consumption and ecology? The hybrid Clio E-Tech can be pretty fast!
STRONGEST OF THE LITTER
And I get to why it's good to have a hard chassis. The E-Tech hybrid version is by far the most powerful variant of the current Clio. Gasoline TCe with 130 horsepower , unfortunately, recently disappeared from the price list, I would guess that it is forever hunting and fleet emissions are the killer. The entire hybrid system will extract a very interesting 103 kW, or if you prefer, 140 horses. The torque in the combination of both aggregates is 349 Nm. These are excellent values for a car weighing 1200 kg. A paper acceleration of just under 10 seconds per hundred won't make you the star of a pub verbal battle, but you'll usually win imaginary races from the traffic lights anyway. The key is, as you correctly guessed, in the electric motor .
You always shoot electricity from a traffic light and it's a joke. With the sounds of a tram (or a spaceship, according to your own imagination), the Clio catapults you up to somewhere around 50 km/h, then the four-cylinder 1.6 joins with a distant hum. If you have a lot of electric energy in stock, it will let you go up to 80 and a full 4 km in electric silence. The system works similarly to conventional hybrids (read Toyota ), so when it can, under favorable circumstances, it does everything to ensure that you only drive ecologically and economically on electricity . It's such a game. You randomly press the button all week hoping it will work this time. It's like 60:40.
You can also choose other driving modes – MySense, aka normal mode. Among other things, it will allow you to configure the stiffness of the steering, another is ECO, which recuperates more, and finally, the already mentioned SPORT, which tries to imitate a hot hatch quite well. Sport mode really turns the Clio into a pocket racket and thanks to the hard chassis you can always be VERY fast everywhere. You just have to cover your ears. In this case, the system revs the gasoline engine very high and is turned on practically all the time (except for starts), which makes unprecedented noise, but also speed. I ended up using it more to charge the battery.
Most of the time I drove in the basic MySense mode, I left the use of the electric motor "on it" and concentrated on smooth driving, proper engine braking (there is a B option on the selector for stronger recuperation) and as high an average speed as possible. Here, the hard suspension really came in handy, I braked only sporadically, in order to conserve kinetic energy. After a whole week in congested Prague, the average was 5.1L/100km, while I was driving really fast and it was fun.
BEAUTIFUL LITTLE ALMOST-SPORT
The new Clio in its fifth generation has very little in common with its predecessor. A much more mature and mature car, yet even more beautiful than before. It shines as the brightest star among its competitors. The beautiful Clio grew out of, um, just a pretty duckling.
In the E-Tech hybrid version, it is the most powerful and fastest model, I wouldn't be afraid to call it as fun as possible – even without a manual transmission and without a turbo. It also has a lot to offer among its competitors. At a basic price of 480,000, it is only slightly more expensive than the Yaris, while it is bigger and more powerful, beating even the Honda Jazz, which is more expensive and less powerful. (But it has other advantages, which I already wrote about here ).
Next time we will see together how the all-NEW Golf TDI drives. By all accounts it should be great, are you looking forward to it?
