Possible Clio 182 Newbie

[Mr Knighty]

Hi all! I have been a member for a little while (A big fan of the project section) and now want to ask a few things about the Clio 182's. This will be a bit long do please bear with me

Basically for the past month I have been looking to upgrade to something in the hot hatch category from my current runaround (Corsa SRI CDTI) and was originally looking at 3 different cars, namely the Corsa VXR, Fiesta ST and Clio 200.

I was in talks with the members on the Renaultsport forum who gave me a great deal of confidence in the 200's abilities which I was severely lacking due to being constantly under the idea of the Citroen Renault And Peugeot stigma which is that that the French only build cars that are very cheap, very tacky and will fall apart within 3 years if they even manage to last that long :dead:

Anyway I was looking in to buying a nearly new 200 as there is a Renaultsport dealer literally around the corner. Sadly after meeting a few friends on a Friday night, my car was smashed up the back end by someone who wasn't paying attention and ended up hit me full speed. I was injured and the car was nearly written off (VERY suprised it was not considering the repair bill).

Anyway lifes story aside, I am now looking at something a bit cheaper than the 200 in the hot hatch region and the 182 sounds like a pretty good motor so just wanted to clear some things up.

• Build Quality? - This is the thing I was most concerned about, I understand you guys are probably rolling your eyes at someone coming from a Corsa background saying it but how well are the 182's put together? Has anyone had any build quality issues? Interior creaks, rattles, falling apart etc?
• Tuneability? - I understand you could class the 182 as a factory tuned car considering its 'standard' output but how much extra room is there for you to have a dabble? I have seen the videos of 182 Yozzasport's and fell in love with the rally car style rasp it gave off. What sort of work can you do on the 182's on what budget?
• Driving Experience? - This is an odd one really, but how do you find the car to drive? Is it one of those cars where you have to only be in the right mood to drive it at all or is it a happy runner no matter the mood/situation?
• Image? - Not really too fussed about this but its more curiosity thats making me ask. What kind of image do you feel the car gives off? An example is my current situation of being instantly branded a chav because I drive a Corsa (It's a Diesel!!!) so what kind of impact does the Clio have?

Sorry about all the questions but I hope you guys can give some insight as current/previous owners which I won't be able to get from a car salesmen or a test drive.

Any info is greatly appreciated :star:

 

[jenic]

Build Quality: It will most likely rattle more than a corsa and the standard stereo is no where near as good as a corsa's, but from a reliability angle most owners will probably agree its quite a reliable car. Aslong as they are maintained things dont tend to go wrong that often.

Tuneability: Can get big power for big money (s/c for £3.5k) or you can do small mods like filter and exhaust which wont really add any noticeable power.

Driving experience: You have been driving a corsa so you wont have experience a decent driving experience for some time now. They are a hoot to drive whether you are going for a blast around some b roads or just driving around town, always fun. If you put a loud exhaust on it can become tiresome when pootling around but you'd get that with any car.

Image: You are a young person in a clio, chav tbh. Who cares? Its less chav than a corsa, and most people on the road will just think its a 1.2 that some chav has put a twin exhaust on.

 

[Benny06]

The general consensus is if you want a really powerful car buy one straight off as opposed to rinsing cash upgrading a less powerful one.

Remaps come highly recommended and make the car much more driveable, so I've read, and also sorts out the drop in power delivery around 3k rpm these are around £250 (for a custom map). Don't forget you don't need to make a car more powerful to make it more fun. Strip it out, upgrade the brakes (sub £300) and lower it/collies (£100 for springs to £1000 for collies, though you can get much less expensive ones for nearer £400) and you'll still have lots of fun. After market exhausts are anything from £320 - £450.

 

[JamboM3]

Which Corsa do you have?

Build quality is not bad per say, but things tend to buzz alot? If that makes sense. It rattles alot less than my 1999 Corsa did though.
Tuneability, its N/A if you want decent gains its either ITBs, Turbo or S/C
Driving experience: Just as much fun as an E46 M3, one of the best cars i have ever driven and don't ever want to sell it, ever.

Image, as Jenic said really. Mine gets LOTS of head/fist shakers and flashes of lights because it has a slightly raspy exhaust and its yellow. Kind of thing where if you overtake someone in my M3 nothing happens. Exact same situation but in my Clio and get lights flashed, sworn at and beeped etc. Halarious what image does to peoples perception/tollerances. But as said, who cares?!

 

[Mr Knighty]

Which Corsa do you have?

Its a Corsa C SRI CDTI, not the fastest thing around but is great fun for suprising people passing you in Saxo's/Corsa's on the motorway thinking that they are proving a point only to find you pulling away :clown: Obviously not nearly as much fun as your M3 but hey

I understand what you saying about a 'buzzy interior' as mine has it, especially around the rear mirror so I can live with that as long as it doesnt sound like a bee's nest behind the dash.

Has anyone had any reliability issues with the 182's? Obviously the car will have to get me to work every morning so I need to be sure it will start at the turn of the key every time.

I'm not looking to make an Evo eater out of one, I mean just to make little improvements where possible such as throttle response, tightness in the bends etc etc

 

[Dave..]

Build quality is hit and miss really, some will rattle their tits off every minute of every day, some are solid from the word go. In general they're a lot better put together than some cars I've driven, and get a pretty unfair reputation about it.

If you're wanting to get more power from a 182, buy a different car. You can buy all the electric superchargers and air filters that you want, it won't make a difference. £2000+ to get anything more than 20bhp.

Image? It's a Clio with twin exhaust pipes, fairly self explanitory.

 

[Mr Knighty]

Build quality is hit and miss really, some will rattle their tits off every minute of every day, some are solid from the word go. In general they're a lot better put together than some cars I've driven, and get a pretty unfair reputation about it.

If you're wanting to get more power from a 182, buy a different car. You can buy all the electric superchargers and air filters that you want, it won't make a difference. £2000+ to get anything more than 20bhp.

Image? It's a Clio with twin exhaust pipes, fairly self explanitory.

I suppose thats the same with any car these days, no doubt a test drive or 2 will clearly show if its a rattler or not

I'm not after more power as 180bhp (or is it lowert as I have heard this is an over estimate?) is more than enough in a little car with FWD in my opinion but I'm thinking in terms of subtle changes just to make those little changes.

Point taken on that note, the wider arches and bright colours are probably not going to help either but I have seen a 182 around here that has orange wheels and strangely enough it looks quite smart

Any horror stories with the 182? I have bombarbed with a common few from the owners clubs of other cars and want to know whats the main common ones on the 182's?

Also have you guys noticed any 'niggles' with your cars? Strange way of saying it but what small things about your Clio bother you (apart from people flipping you the bird when you overtake them :rasp

 

[Dave..]

Niggles.... erm every steering wheel fitted to a Renault "melts". You have to see it to believe it really, disgusting quality of materials used for them.

In regards to reliability, I've had no major problems with mine, none that have been caused by the car anyway. Worst I had was an ABS sensor that needed replacing.
The other thing to remember is that no one posts something on a forum saying, "my car was wonderfully reliable today, and nothing broke". You only ever hear anything when something goes wrong, so it gives a pretty distorted view of reliability. For every person saying something has broken, there will be hundreds who havent had a problem.

 

[Mr Knighty]

Niggles.... erm every steering wheel fitted to a Renault "melts". You have to see it to believe it really, disgusting quality of materials used for them.

In regards to reliability, I've had no major problems with mine, none that have been caused by the car anyway. Worst I had was an ABS sensor that needed replacing.
The other thing to remember is that no one posts something on a forum saying, "my car was wonderfully reliable today, and nothing broke". You only ever hear anything when something goes wrong, so it gives a pretty distorted view of reliability. For every person saying something has broken, there will be hundreds who havent had a problem.

The wheel MELTS?? Do you mean it sags/deforms or literally will end up as a blob in the drivers footwell? :lolup:

I'm aware of that mate, shame but then again it is the problems I'm hunting down as where else am I going to find problems being mentioned about a car than from the people who have to live with it, I'm not exactly going to get the same answer from someone trying to sell me one

 

[peterh2]

The leather finish on the steering wheel melts which makes the surface look a bit odd. The actual wheel remains in shape though.

The exhaust system on the 182 is a nightmare. Both the exhaust and catalytic converter on mine have rusted and fallen to bits. A new catalytic converter & full cat back system from Renault will be over £2000! This is why most people go after market when it needs replacing.

 

[blambert]

"A new catalytic converter & full cat back system from Renault will be over £2000! "

:S are you sure?

i was quoted £487 as the renault price for the rear cats & pipes + 1 hour labour @£29.99 to fit it at the indie renault place I got my rear bearings done. He showed my the part on Dialogys and clicked through to the price.

 

[Mr Knighty]

The leather finish on the steering wheel melts which makes the surface look a bit odd. The actual wheel remains in shape though.

The exhaust system on the 182 is a nightmare. Both the exhaust and catalytic converter on mine have rusted and fallen to bits. A new catalytic converter & full cat back system from Renault will be over £2000! This is why most people go after market when it needs replacing.

Well as long as I don't end up climbing out of the car with the remains of the steering wheel welded to my hands :rasp:

The exhaust would the first thing that would be getting changed so not too worried there, its kind of twisting your arm towards going for aftermarket so no worries

 

[kanedandunable]

my 182 has 107k kms on it in dubai and the wheel still looks like new! it was 47´c here today i was the only thing melting!

 

[Mr Knighty]

my 182 has 107k kms on it in dubai and the wheel still looks like new! it was 47´c here today i was the only thing melting!

I'm amazed your tyres don't melt in that heat :lolup: