I went for a test drive in one of these the other day... Ended up having a passenger ride because not 25 yet... FFs.
anyway; I wanted to like the car, I really did. But I found the interior shockingly cheap and lacking something, the seats were supportive enough around the waist but the bolsters are a massive step down from the outgoing 200s. I hate the dash.
even as a passenger, I could see that the gear changes were lacking. The car seemed to want to stop and think what it was meant to do after the flap was pulled. It felt like it accelerated like any other clio RS, but there was an inckling of the extra torque initially, nothing special though.
One of my concerns was rev matching on the way down as I heel and toe near enough every downshift. After a couple of minutes trying to explain heel and toe to the dealer, I got him to shift down while braking. Gladly it matched the revs itself on the way down.
i still hate the looks, I saw one the other day on the road and the only way I knew it was an RS was down to the blade on the front. And I keep mistaking Leon's/ibizas for new Clio's on the road.
the engine noise function was brilliant. For all of 5 minutes. Massive **** up on Renaults part IMO.
The ride, in cup guise felt a hell of a lot softer than my r27 and surprisingly even softer than a non cupped 200. On the plus side, it seemed to hold the road well and brake well, even if the dealer wasn't driving it as hard as I'd have been.
so yeah, did not connect with the car at all, not like when I sat in a 200 in the show room and had to have a mk3 RS. I was struggling to be nice about it afterwards to the dealer who was chuffed with this new hot hatch. Then I sat in a fully specced (heated/electric leather seats rather than recaros) meg 265 and I need one. That will be my next car... Does anyone know if you can get heated leather recaro sportsters for the megs?
meg 265 > clio 200edc
any RS clio > clio 200edc
based on looks alone, fiesta st > clio 200edc
imo