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Been offer a 1.2 Clio RN Very clean but 96,000 for £795 good history and nice car as a first car for young lad. What do you think I prefer the VW Polo and a lower mileage. (96K on a 94L is ready for new drive shafts, calipers discs, wheel bearings, crank and cam oil seals and the like is it not. Views Welcome. thanks Peter
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Peter,
My son's 1993 'L-Reg' Clio diesel has over 160,000 on the clock and hasn't needed any of the things you listed, at least not since he bought it at just under 100,000 miles. He has needed a radiator, some coolant hoses, a battery and an alternator but nothing else of any consequence, though it had a new starter motor on it just before he bought it. He's also needed tyres and brake pads etc, as you would expect.
The 1.2 RN Clio could well be a very good buy but I would have it checked over by someone who really knows what to look for. Likewise for *any* used car of course.
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Dizzy - you mention several points to do with Clios' cooling systems, probably partly because (at least for early Clios) Renault did not mention coolant change in the service schedule, so dealers didn't do it. The other thing I think of with Clios is a tendency to go through wheel bearings?
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My wife has a clio diesel 1994 M, 80k miles - she bought it new. Experience with this car is not particularly good:
One or other of the front anti roll bar droplinks seem to fail the MOT every year - they corrode and shear off. 3 x driveshaft failures, 4 x wheelbearing failures (all fronts), 4 x sets of front discs (they seem to warp within 4 months of fitting)- given up trying to cure the judder, one corroded radiator at 4 years, 2 x exhaust systems (hole appears round heat affected zone where hanger is welded on centre section). Generally the paintwork is poor with rust starting to show in the engine bay.
Granted, we live in NE Scotland and there is a lot of salt on the roads. My advice is go for the Polo.
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It's unusual for Clios to rust. I don't have a lot of experience but... what kind of Polo are you going to get for £795. I agree that a new Polo is going to be a lot better, but at this money you're looking
My advice would be to look at the maintenance history of the Clio. The price is right and they are quite tough. It's true that Renault cooling systems have a very bad reputation, but I would suggest that if the coolant has regularly been changed, they're generally fine. My car has a 1.7 litre F type engine (yours would be a DIET or D type - same thing) and it's absolutely spot on at thirteen years and 84k.
Wheel bearings usually last about 8 years or 80k and may already have been done. So might shock absorbers; if not, these will probbaly need looking at soon. That's not because it's a Renault, but because it's an old car. If you can get a 40k, 10 year old Polo it will potentially have all sorts of other problems.
Driveshaft failures may or may not happen, it's just one of those things and if the car has motorway miles and has been driven gently I'd find it quite surprising. Two exhausts in eight years and 80k is not unreasonable, espeically with a lot of salt on the road, and anyway Clio exhaust systems are cheap. Brake life on Clios is usually very good - certainly later cars are well capable of 30k from a set of pads and discs.
A new radiator at 4 years and 40k is bad, of course, but hardly typical of this car. If you can do the work yourself, the parts cost is likely to be £200 for 4 new shocks, bearings and a cambelt (and about the same for labour in a cheap garage). You must change the cambelt if it is more than 5 years or 50k old or if you don't know; it probably won't be though. Add another £50ish for a set of plugs, air filter, oil and filter change and a coolant flush. They're worth doing anyway unless the car's just been serviced, whether you get a Polo or Clio.
For Polos or Renaults, www.eurocarparts.com is very good for cheap bits, and they sell locally as well as online. My advice would be that the Clio is one of the safest, most modern, stylish and fun cars - and cheap to insure - that you are going to get for the money. By and large Clios don't rust, either, despite what Bats says - certainly they're not worse than a pre 94 Polo. Obviously a 95 on Polo is going to be a better car, but it's also going to be a minimum of £2k. At the very least, make sure that you get this car with a new MoT for the price, which will give you some peace of mind.
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Thanks Guys Appreciated my son fancies the Clio but I'm a PVW and Volvo addict, no discission yet. Peter
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