TBH owning a 182 FF at 19 was epic. 5000 RPM is a joy. Handling is incredible. Looks brilliant. Sense of pride & achievement knowing it was 100% mine, my money, my hardwork, no-one elses, was massive. Comfort & sophistication compared to the usual 10 year old student car is off the scale. Knowing you've worked hard to achieve a mini "dream" was amazing. You see Fiesta STs, Golf GTIs, Focus ST170s, at junctions and rather than "nice!" you think "holy s***, I'm in a 182, and it's mine and it's not a dream."
I'm sorry if this comes across as biggoted (sp?) but I'm pleased that (unlike a lot of young people on CS) you want an RS for your love of Renaultsport and Clios - not just wanting to have a faster car than your mates, show off or "get looks." As a result I say if you get a decent quote go for it & all the best. You will love owning one.
This is a different thread admittedly & it's a clique but I'm the same. I know I'm sensible. I knew what I'd be like. And I was sensible. I did take amazing care of it. I never did a standing start. I don't speed. I don't get road rage. I never even dreamt of "racing" any friends let alone random strangers (The "driving stories" part of this forum sums up everything I'm not). IIRC my exact thought was "I don't drive around like an idiot all the time and a fast car won't change that, so I won't crash." It didn't take "all the time" or a fast car. It just took one innocent wrong decision that I'd still have made in a 1.2 or even on a bicycle. One split second decision and a few moments later it was all gone. Boring stuff all this I know, but perhaps here's the most important part:
I'd do it all again. Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. Or something like that.
Back to trying to be helpful, here is your list of ingredients:
3x older drivers with impeccable driving history
2 yrs NCB
1x grade A postcode (See
http://www.carinsuranceexplained.com/car-insurance-explained/car-insurance-postcode-risk-list.html)
1x lump sum (Crucial & worth delaying the car purchase for 3 months etc)
0 modifications
5000 miles a year only
Keep it on the drive
1x RS clio worth over £xxxx (Find the threshold. For me a sub £3k clio was £1800 to insure but a £3k clio was £1500. Instantly saved £300 for the sake of 1p market value)
1x fully comp policy (often cheaper than TPFT!)
1x being insured as a named driver on another car as well as your own
1x job (even if you're a student with a part time job, put that down as well. insurance is cheaper for the employed)
Persistance. Bell, Admiral and Elephant may be exactly the same company but one is cheaper than the other. Some people even suggest weird things like calling on a friday afternoon or the last day of the month as they'll be desperate to hit targets and will knock a bit more off. One hilarious thing I found was the "have you already had a quote?" [in which case we'll try to beat it] box: get quote from bell for £1550. re-do the quote entering £1550 as your best previous quote and lo and behold the very same company will beat it's own quote by maybe £20. Clearly there is a limit to this, maybe they only beat quotes within £50 or a certain % but finding all these little tips helps. I'm lucky, I have a big drive, a double garage and an empty road so I could legitimately play around and see which gave the cheapest quote and then keep my car on whichever piece of land (all within 10m of each other) was cheapest. Likewise I was also insured on another car at no cost to myself & the fact I also drove something of lower risk than an RS Clio brought my premium down.
Sorry to bang on and I'm sure I'm supposed to reply "use the frickin search!!!!!!" rather than type this sort of reply in every topic, but you seem really genuine so I hope at least something I've said helps.
P.S. If you're still in doubt watch MarkCup's "Stolen and Recovered - The 172 Cup that Lived on" video & some of his earlier-pre-majorly-modified trackday vids on youtube. That was the moment I decided I
was going to own an RS.