I had a brief go in the colchester demo today and I actually thought it was a pretty good car. It actually would suit me quite well as I am in the market for a 5dr hot hatch. I didn't mind the fact it looks pretty similar to a 1.2, it went well, handled nicely and was easy to drive quickly. There are, though 3 issues which put me off, and the fact that I am certain renault are working on 2 of them doubly puts me off as I'm sure they will be fixed in a year or so (as with the 197/200 changes):
1. No recaro seats - imagine these will be available within year or so.
2. Gearbox, while better once you get used to it is too slow and unresponsive. It really needs to fire through up shifts and the engine needs to blip faster on downshifts. I think this is a software problem and will be fixed when renault are happy it won't impact warranty claims. It just takes too long to have a think once you request a gear.
3. The finance deal - a c200pm monthly payment, which I could do, requires a 4 year term and a big deposit (even more than They were willing to value my 182 at).
Brembo brakes would be good too...
They would love to be selling these cars more, but the guy to took me out acknowledged that the ford finance deals, coupled with the negative sounding reviews compared to the fiesta st, mean that they just aren't getting numbers through the door to try them in the first place. I went in looking for a 3yr old 200, which I'm still in the market for (golf gti in competition and the 5dr is a big plus there) and when asked why I wasn't interested in the new one, listed half a dozen reasons off the top of my head. But he offered me a drive of the new one anyway and, like I say, it's a much better car than I thought. He's even offered me a day long loan if I wish and I might take it up. The demo was fully spec'd with leather, monitor, cup chassis etc and it was a really nice place to be and rode the awful local roads well even with the cup chassis. But the bottom line is that at c3.5k down, then 200pm for 4 years (more like 250 with a decent spc) and a 6k balloon, even with the dealer incentives, it's just a bit too dear for me particularly when I have concerns that renault will resolve the issues above in the next couple of years.