What a welcome, and loads of excellent advice.
The Clio replaced a Impreza WRX, mildly tweaked to 250bhp. Nice car, but hideous expensive to run, and slightly disappointing. Looked at Mazda RX8, Audi TT, Impreza Sti and a couple of others, and didnt really like any of them enought to part with the cash. I looked at an M3, but out my price range. Only looked at the Clio at the last minute and thought Excellent. good, fun car and relatively cheap. Did a deal with the dealer and got the price I wanted. I made the right choice. It is more involving that the Scoob, and loads cheaper to run....
Live in West Cumbria - turn left at J36 on the M6, and keep going until you fall into the sea. Lots of narrow, windy roads and no speed cameras. These are the roads a small, powerful car loves - I expected problems with FWD, but experience little.
IT/Engineering by trade, ex biker and old fart. I dribble in my minced chicken, and laff about cheap insurance
No points on the licence (did I say no cameras round here...) and the car is black, cup spoilers/suspension and normally covered in mud.