Hi JimmyB,
astonishing to hear that 3 main dealers did not know this basic product knowledge. Tsk, tsk, pathetic, it weren't like that in my day...
CMark
1996 povety spec Clio 1.2
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JimmyB, is there a particular reason why you want the Clio? I ask because although I have the one mentioned above, it was bought as a second car. If I was going for a supermini under £12k to use as my only or main car, I'd look closely at the Seat Ibiza TDi SE with 100 bhp. It's a bigger car with similar equipment levels to what you want, for not much more than the price of the Clio dci 80. Fully adjustable steering, better adjustment on the seats to get a perfect driving position. You'd definitely recoup more at trade-in time.
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Andy,
I very much agree with you about the new Ibiza - I test drove and was very close to ordering a TDi Sport 130bhp from Holland www.unitedmotors.net and saving £3,000 off the list price. I decided for a Clio as they seem not only to hold good money, but are starting to look like a nice car (never been a big Renault fan, sorry). I'd love a mkIV Golf TDi PD, but a 1998 S plate 110bhp is still commanding £9,995 with close to 100k on the clock. I can't justifyt spending that on a car thats close to 4 1/2 years old!
How do you rate the Seat for long journey's?
James
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JimmyB, I don't understand - are you intending to buy the Clio from a UK dealer? If so, you'll end up paying more than your import price for the Ibiza. The Sport Ibiza's UK price is £13495, which would bring the import price down to £10495. The 80 hp Clio is £11145 in the UK and has 50 bhp less. The £650 difference would pay for the extended warranty on the import and still contribute over £400 to your insurance. Believe me, the Ibiza won't depreciate as fast as the Clio. Alright, the diesel Clios would have the best (ie slowest) depreciation out of the Clio range, and they are good cars, but they still won't perform as well as the new Ibiza, in terms of depreciation or on the road.
I love my Leon - thanks for asking! I have a 50 minute commute on A and B roads, which is a lot of fun most days. It's also good for the five-hour trips I take to see my folks - the driving position is so good that I'm never as tired as I used to be in my old car, a 1.2 Punto (never again). The sports suspension means you do notice the bits and bumps in the road, but it's not a bone-shaker and handles well.
Most importantly, it stops on a sixpence. I was driving home last night and a tractor turned towards me from the right hand side with his full beam on. As tractor lights are set higher anyway, this meant I was totally blinded. I slowed down to 30 and went past as far left as possible to avoid colliding with any plough or trailer he might have been pulling. Just as I got beyond the beam, I made out a pedestrian about ten feet away with his back to me, ambling along in happy ignorance. I hit the brakes as hard as possible and thanks to the ABS I stopped with about two feet to go, even with muck all over the road. Words were said, voices were raised ...
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whilst i have to agree that an ibiza would be nice don't foregt that the 65hp clio will be cheaper to insure and has 1 yrs free insurance which can be worth a lot to certain aged drivers. Plus they give you no claims bonus from when you begin driving ie when i get a quote next year as i will have a supposed 3yrs no claims (as long as i don't crash this year). The fact that my local dealer said he coulnd't tell the differencae and the fact that the 65 hp version runs the rr at 72 hr and the 80hr runs at 82 then it maybe that the two engines don't have that much difereance in power. The ibiza is a nice car and i would love one only differance is 3500 and the price of insurance which i guess would be about 2500 so is it realy worth that much to you?. One last thing how high is the gearing in the sport my clio does 3000rpm at 80 but the ibiza is supposed to be very highly geared is this a problem on the motherway or is the engine powerful enough at low revs to cope?
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o yes one last thing why not compair the price of an import clio wiith an import ibiza it only seems fair
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Sorry, my mistake.
I wouldn't buy a Clio in this country, but was just using the dealer for a free test drive and advice before purchasing abroad. I previously bought a Saxo VTR in Belgium (saving £4,000 in the process) and found it so easy to import, that I would certainly do it again.
The 65hp Clio Dynamique does have some strong points: Currently a years' free insurance, which gives 2 years no claims at the end of the policy.
I'd much rather an import Ibiza for £10,495, but could get a 65hp Clio from Trade Sales in Slough for £7,995 with Met.paint (usually £295 extra). Hard decision, although I've heard that the Clio could go EOL as early as next August (HJ, could you confirm this please?).
Cheers,
James
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Don't worry Edd, that's why I was asking whether or not JimmyB intended to buy a Clio from a UK dealer - the UK price of the higher-powered Clio would have been above the import price of a Sport Ibiza. Originally though, I mentioned the SE version with 100 bhp rather than the Sport, which may be possible to import for less still. I'm not scoring points, just trying to help out by looking at all the options. However, the free insurance is obviously a key factor here - it was one of the things that influenced my own Clio-buying decision. Hadn't realised the 2-year no-claims was part of that - it's probably why my renewal quote from Renault Insurance was about £90 less than from anyone else!
As far as the current Clio being replaced goes, I had heard a rumour to that effect but I'd also heard it was quashed. If I can find where I was reading about this I'll post here. It may even have been on this site!
JimmyB, I got my Clio Dynamique from a local dealer this time last year for £9400 including climate control (normally a £700 option), a dealer fitted alarm, flaps & mats and a year's insurance. Didn't bother with the metallic paint cos I like the Andalou red. If you can get a new one for £7995 with full UK spec and full UK warranty, I'd say it's a reasonable bargain even without the options, especially if you can get 2 years no claims after the first year. Probably shouldn't be saying all this, as I'm (probably) looking to sell mine as of today!
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If you don't mind me asking how much did you pay insurance At your age of ? i have yet to hear a price of how much the insurance quote is from anyone but renault. I take it you have the 1.2? The clio is set to be replaced but i have read differing introduction time some say late october 2003 other say early next year but my guess they will introduce the new model for the 53 reg cars. do you know if the 2 yrs no cliams can be carried accros to other cars when you leave the renault insurance?
PS id your alarm as sensitive as mine which is set of at the sligest sensation of anything (better than not at all) and what are those sensors that are postioned on the door pillars? i would guess they are microphones but they seemed to detect when i reached into the car to retrive the keys from the seat when I had left the window open and the keys on the seat so i wan't sure if they were microphones.
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If you don't mind me asking how much did you pay insurance At your age of ? i have yet to hear a price of how much the insurance quote is from anyone but renault. I take it you have the 1.2? The clio is set to be replaced but i have read differing introduction time some say late october 2003 other say early next year but my guess they will introduce the new model for the 53 reg cars. do you know if the 2 yrs no cliams can be carried accros to other cars when you leave the renault insurance?
PS id your alarm as sensitive as mine which is set of at the sligest sensation of anything (better than not at all) and what are those sensors that are postioned on the door pillars? i would guess they are microphones but they seemed to detect when i reached into the car to retrive the keys from the seat when I had left the window open and the keys on the seat so i wan't sure if they were microphones.
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Don't mind at all - renewal was £717 in my name for me & my wife fully comp with business use. I'm 30 and am still contesting a claim from an accident which happened 18 months ago, so I am treated as having only 1 year no-claims until this is resolved(looks like going 50:50 too, worse luck). The car is a Dynamique dci 1.5 with 65 bhp - same as yours? Alarm isn't excessively sensitive, unfortunately neither is the remote locking, which means I have to be standing next to the car for it to work. Dealer claims this is a security feature to prevent drivers unlocking the car by accident as they walk away. What I would say is nice enough car, shame about the very, very shoddy dealer. I won't be giving them business again - their loss.
Not sure about the little things on the door pillars - probably could be motion sensors alright. Maybe they're cameras watching my every move...
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A mate of mine has 3 Clios, on S, X and Y plates. Sexy? No.
The S plate has infra red remote locking, like my G-plate R19. You have to be right next to the car to unlock that, like a TV remote control.
The radio controlled locking, on the other hand, works from a good distance on the X and Y platers. I think your dealer is spinning you a line...
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Unfortunately not, it would seem - mine also uses infra red according to the dealer. Anybody know of a way you can "boost" the signal from an infra red key, or will I just have to put up with it?
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Andy,
Sounds daft, but apparently this was a "known fault" with Renaults up until very late 1999. On my Dad's Espace (1994 L), he simply changed the battery and it made the alarm distance increase by well over 100%.
Sounds too simple to be true, but for a few quid, it could fix the problem.
James
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Cheers JB, thanks for the tip. I'll try this out on one of the keys this week & post here if it works!
On another point, I mentioned previously that I've decided to sell the Clio, as my wife needs a bigger car due to her back problem. Any suggestions as to what price I should advertise at? 8900 miles, 3 doors, alarm, climate control as optional extras, alloys, leather wheel & gearknob (those last are standard on the Dynamique but thought it worth mentioning!). I was thinking of somewhere around £7750 - list price would've been £10150, although I got the discount down to £9400. I've seen used ones with 6k miles and no climate control or alarm advertised for £7995 on Autotrader, although that itself might be a bit optimistic considering the free insurance offer.
Anyway, if anyone thinks I'm aiming too high/too low, let me know! Thanks.
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It can't hurt to try for £7750, especically with that spec, assuming the car is an 02 plate. However, nearly new cars don't sell well privately, so you might have to more or less give the car away. If you really have to sell it privately, you might even have to take £7k. I know that normally it's not a great idea to trade in, but if a dealer has a lot of new stock to shift they might give you a very generous price against, say, a new Megane.
Unfortunately, people who want the security of buying a new or nearly new car, rather than a cheap banger or something flash but old, almost always want to get that security from a dealer, even though the manufacturer's warranty is transferrable.
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Actually, it's last year's plate as I took delivery at the end of October last year. If that makes a real difference then I'll probably drop the asking price by another couple of hundred. I had a bottom acceptance figure of no less than £7k anyway, so dropping the advertised price a little may help with attracting a buyer. At the same time, I'm not in a huge rush to sell it so I could always see if someone is actually willing to give me what I ask for!
Problem with going to the dealer is that they do have a lot of used stock in already but mainly it's that I don't want to buy another Renault - the current Clio was the only one I ever liked, plus I don't want to be tied in to buying from them again. They have shown that they will try their best to wriggle out of anything, e.g. when the car arrived it didn't have the leather steering wheel as it should have had in standard spec. I asked them to rectify this and they initially refused, saying it was only an option. I had to show them the spec list from the then current brochure and the description of the car we'd agreed before they did the right thing. What annoys me is that they would try on something so stupid. They had also agreed to fit an alarm after delivery, but tried to hike the price by £100 once the car arrived (six weeks late) and basically said take it or leave it. The original price wasn't in writing (I know, I know) and I ended up paying some more, rather than waiting for a new car from a different dealer, although I did get it brought down to £60 after a lot of argumentative phone calls. Like I said before - I like the car, not so keen on the dealers.
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And Dealers wonder we take our money either abroad or to "Car Supermarkets" :-)
James
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