Renaultsports in France.

[Macca172]

Ive just come back from a 5 day trip driving in France, and what surprised me was the lack of Renaultsport cars in France, or should I say complete non-existence! I didnt see either a RS Clio or Megane in the 1300 miles I covered..... This was highlighted in La Rochelle, where the 172 was parked amongst the other hundreds of Clios in a public carpark, only to have the top of the door levered away from the car leaving dents and scuffs, probably by the local chav!

Any idea why these cars dont sell in France, they must be able to pick them up for peanuts, but they still insist on driving diesels! strange....

Mac

 

[jtrenaultuk]

Hi i was in france at lemans 24hr a month or so ago, that was a motorsport event and i saw practically no renault sports at all infact i saw one 16s and not one 172 182 etc. they all drive diesels an 1.2s becuase they mostly not arsed about cars and just want cheap fuel and reliability.
I was surprised as well

 

[Day]

They all drive the diesel variants over there.

 

[MATT BLACK]

when cliosport went last august on holiday the attention the cars got was unreal - it was like they had never seen a clio v6 before !!

 

[blink172]

The figure is something like 70% of RS cars are sold in the uk. Hence us getting 500 trophies and the swiss getting 50 and no one else getting them

 

[Macca172]

It is bizarre, I didnt even see a valver over there...

The other bizarre thing is that 98 ron fuel is available at EVERY garage, so they wouldnt even have to hunt around for Optimax!!!!

 

[edde]

You only have to go on the foreign CLio forums to see how unpopular the petrols are the dcis are the cars they buy.

 

[Mondial172]

its there a law in france about only driving a diesel until 21?

Hence why Button got caught in a 330d

 

[Clio172.fi]

Here in Finland there are about 45 RS Clios sold in 5 yrs and only one V6 (mk1) ever sold by renault and one imported my from germany.

Lots CTRs,Turbo Seat Leons and IV-GOLF GTIs.

RS is very rare and very unknow car and is a true sleeper in finland.

And basic Clio Sport costs 20 300£ due very high car taxes and we also get 98 ron in every gas station.

 

[blink172]

Quote: Originally posted by Macca172 on 25 July 2005
<FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #407db6">It is bizarre, I didnt even see a valver over there... <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #407db6">The other bizarre thing is that 98 ron fuel is available at EVERY garage, so they wouldnt even have to hunt around for Optimax!!!!<FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #407db6"> <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #407db6">


They also get 100ron petrol as well.

 

[jonnyboy]

The uk are nutters for performance cars and coupe cabrios which is amazing when you think the countrys riddled with speed traps and it pisses it down all the time!

I went to france last year around Normandy. Apparently the north and north east of France is actually quite poor. We hardly saw any new cars let alone sports models. The 172 got a LOT of attention from the locals. Even got a freindly flash a couple of times from frogs in normal clios (with alloys etc Le maxpower style)

 

[matty w]

Theyve got really strict laws in france they have to keep engines standard etc

 

[daveio]

i have never seen any when i have been over and i used to go once or twice a month...someone told me that they dont sell them over there which i thought was b****cks ....but looked on the french website and no sign so maybe thats right

 

[jonnyboy]

arent their insurance costs really high or something?

 

[tomboy]

On the visit to Spa - we saw a Clio Ragnotti (cup) in a supermarket carpark. The only other one we saw was Eds at the ring, again another Ragnotti.

Dont know why we (the brits) are suckers for sporty models, considering our petrol prices, speed cameras and insurance costs

H

 

[rsclio.172cup]

http://www.twoc.co.uk/news/articles/140/a_limited_edition_clio_renaultsport_182_trophy.htm

"The UK market is the most important in the world for Renaultsport as we take 50% of all production from the Renaultsport factory in Dieppe"

Ive only seen 2 other Cups since Ive had mine, a handfull of 172s, and 2 182s.

 

[rich[182]]

even more remarkable as weve got some of the worst road surfaces in europe too

 

[steveV6]

Quote: Originally posted by j3ned on 25 July 2005

when cliosport went last august on holiday the attention the cars got was unreal - it was like they had never seen a clio v6 before !! .......



.......And they didnt see that for long

I drove to Spain a few weeks back, covered 2300miles and in that time i spotted just 2 renaultsports. One mk1 172 and one 182. They love the Vel Satis out there though.

 

[Mondial172]

I saw 1 completely battered valver in Naples. No mk2 RS Clios at all.

Due to their heavy tax laws (still not as high as here!) very few buy petrol engines over 1.6. If someone did buy a 2.0 then it wouldnt be a clio. Most new cars are diesels.

Southern Italy is poorer than the north though. May see RS Clios in Milan