I have done some extensive research into the clio 182 and owners give it a good review for reliability etc. (Mostly at least!). I love the ST but for £200 extra on insurance per year I can have the clio 182. With my budget I can comfortably afford a 55 reg clio from a Renault dealer with the "Cup" pack thats done about 10,000 miles. (It's £9299). I can also afford to pay the insurance up front. Obviously the clio is faster but I would greatly appreciate what you guys thought to this issue. Cheers.

i hate renaults so i reckon you can guess my opinion lol

get a mazda rx-8 hehe

Apart from that it is faster and also fun to drive i really do feel that the ST is the better car...feel,quality,reliability, i know a few people with 182's and apart from the fun factor thier cars are falling apart, with a crap after sales. So it's gonna be ST all the way. Just my 2p's worth anyway!!!

You will always get a bias opinon on here. The same as if you asked the same on a clio forum. Personally i'm a ford man. Have driven the older 172 when a mate that works at renault bought one over and i broke the seat runners on it.

huge issues with reliablity and quality, after sales service is terrible, my mate has bought a 02 Megane and has starting problem that they can't fix, some days just will not start. The 182 I beleive is made elsewhere than the standard clios. probably Renaultsport factory, so should be better built, the Cup is the best car, reckon you should be paying a lot less though.

I can fully understand the attraction to the 182 comparedto the ST with regards speed. As a package though the ST is better. I considered a 182 but I just don't trust renault's anymore, always something going wrong.

The 182 is a faster car hands down. I bought an ST - its the better package

Oh - anda new ST should set you back about £10.5 (last time i checked) so save your £200 extra insurance and find another £300 and you've got a new car with 3 years trouble free motoring

I'd pick the ST over the clio because i really dislike french cars and their clutches! lol plus the ST handles so well its untrue!!

and gearboxes!

yeah french gear boxes are like a bag of spanners.
i also considered a 182 b4 i got my st, and yeah the 182 is quicker on paper, but the st is better lookin in my opinon.

I tell you what mate, i have a clio only a 1.2 and i do admit i will not be getting another 1 in my lifetime i agree with Strick and Bradders,
the clutches suck i had to get a new one before i even had it a year also
in the same year i bought the car the gearbox broke and i had to get a completely different one which cost a bomb. If i was you mate i would get the Fiesta

my laguna went through 2 gear boxes in 18 months, i sold it to an inmate at sudbury for £100 to get rid of it. i wasnt prepared to put a third box in it.

not completely, they are wank cars. my cousin works at renault and he says its a common complaint on that particular gearbox.
me giving it some stick probably didnt help things but a gearbox lasting such a short lifespan speaks volumes on the quality of the car.

Renault have decided to re-badge all of their new models due to customer feedback.

It's now called Ren OH NO !!

well i had one, was my first car and i loved it, rapid, looks good (not as good as the fiesta though)and drives well. You can get em cheap as chips now as well

Im in a similar predicament myself mate.

Ultimately the ST is the better built car. However the Clio will outhandle and outdrag the ST without a problem. Those are the facts.

not sure about the handling, ive left a 182 for dead around the twisties

outhandle the st :-s nah no chance

Never driven the 182 myself, but left plenty behind me on the B-roads. The ST is quite simply awesome on the twisty stuff

Don’t get a Renault I had a 182 cup packs and a V6 and both went back for warranty claims and both were very cheaply put together.

The 182 is quicker standard for sure but there is so much more QUALITY tuning products available for the st. With a 190bhp power upgrade and lower better coil over’s the ST will easily beat a 182 no doubt.

i am so so happy to be back in a ford.

u used to own a clio V6? interior was the same as any other clio and also its very rare guess I could live with a car like that even so there not the best in reability

That’s right exactly the same interior as a 182,, they try to claim it was a hand built supercar because it was put together at the Dieppe motorsport factory but it was just the same as all the others.

that’s not to say it’s not a good drive I really enjoyed mine it was very rare and felt special,, but at the end of the day like most Renaults it had lots of faults.

I would not like to be picking up the repair bill once it gets past 5 year old,, cambelt change £1200 and a clutch was about £2000 and they are very weak and prone to failure.

piccy.
http://www.trackaction-online.co.uk/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/80/cat/500/ppuser/4

did look well nice and a phase 2 model as well better than the first series but still a great looking to see rather to own I guess

it would be close, i would say yeah it would out handle a 182, a 182 was only 1 second quicker than a st round the nurburg ring, and with the 182 being quicker on the stright it just goes to show how much the st makes up round the bends.

ST def handles a lot better than the clio but the clio is quicker off the mark

i havent driven 1 but my mate has the 182 and hes driven mine and he says the st has alot better handling plus hes tried to keep up on the bends a few times and i always get him on the corners

have you driven one ? lol

I went from an ST to a 182. Then from a 182 to a 197 R27.
That was back in October time. Sold the R27 as we needed 2 cars so now own a 1.4 Fiesta Climate and a (don't laugh), MG ZS180 - 2.5 V6.

My original review on the change can be found here:
http://www.fordfiestast.co.uk/showflat.p...=true#Post95920

My views haven't changed. I maintain that a standard 182 will be quicker than an ST.

The thing with the N-ring times being a second within each other doesn't really matter. Unless they were driven by the same person on the same day/conditions it doesn't truly make for a good comparison.

Its all very well saying you beat xxx on a 'B' road but driver skill plays 90% of that, not the car. I am sure someone in a 1L polo could keep up with me if don't value their life.

Anyway, I love my ZS. I am addicted to the V6 roar. Handles as well as the others hot hatches I have had (50mph easy on my test bend).
Ok, the image might be challenging to some but its British!!!

21mpg is not great either but thats because I do short journeys.

Wonder what I will get next year. Got to be a V8 or turbo'd (mmmmm mustang).

Anyway, the Fiesta is probably going in September (only had it 2 months) as my wife said it wasn't fast enough and wants a clio 172 or 182 again.

clio's suck balls.

Well, there is a nice informative, un-biased review for you.

I think you should go on the fordfiestanetwork webpage.

197 and 182 are quicker standard no doubt,, they are also more expensive to insure and tax and a dam sight more unreliable and badly put together. All the time I owned a Renault I saw faults commute from one model to the next as they used the same crap parts, and Renault never ever address the issues they just deny they exists.

just one example (I could give oh so many) the temp sender or loom failure that causes the car to run rich and cut out,, that just went on year after year and Renault did jack about it.

I still say get an ST spend about 1.5k to get a bit more BHP and it will wipe the floor with the Renaults.

Also where do you buy tuning parts for a Clio??? most of the companies I saw on renaultsport turned out to be a bunch of second rate cowboys that I would not allow near my wheel barrow. With ford you get Cosworth, Mountune and a host of other top quality tuners to deal with, Renault are just not in the same league for this.

Do not be tempted by figures on paper as being the best reason to buy as the Renault will only bring trouble and breakdowns,, trust me the ST is the better bet long term no doubt about it.

I can probably show just as many posts from people with Fiestas (or any Fords) that have had problems. In fact, last year I saw a Fiesta pull over on the motorway and then catch fire while the driver ran from it as fast as they could!

French build quality is always going to have this stigma attached to it much the same way as Skoda has with there image. Even with all the clever advertising there are still people saying "urgh, its a Skoda". People will always say "oooh, Renault build quality". If they were that bad, they wouldn't be in business would they.

Can't argue with Insurance and Tax though but when you get towards 30, the difference between a group 13 and 17 car is about £50 a year I have found. Tax, well, ahem, skip that one for now.

Why buy a ST and spend 1.5k on it to try and keep up with a 182 (what would 1.5k buy anyway, exhaust, filter and coilies maybe which would get you about 10 bhp). You won't get that 1.5k back at the end of it so that pays for you tax and insurance.

I am not having a go at the ST, I owned one remember and loved it. I still look at the white ones with blue stripes and think they look great but I know from back to back ownership of the 2 cars, the 182 was the better car.

Still, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Look at Revels, I love coffee but 40% of the voters want it gone according to the current poll results!!! I want Maltesers to go. If I want Maltesers, I will go and buy a packet of them.

When someone asks should I buy this or that the best idea is to go and test them both and see which one you like most. And remember, forums are 19% general banter, 80% people with problems that want to know how to fix something and 1% saying "I love my car and nothing has gone wrong with it".

I have had back to back Renaults both brand new a 182 and a V6 and both went back for warranty work on more than one occasion,, it’s not stigma it’s a fact that Renault build quality is very poor.

I know for a fact the 172 had rear dampers fail engine mounts fail and temp sender problems that caused the car to break down. These exact same problems then appeared on the 182 and still Renault made no effort to solve or even accept there was a problem

My brother bought a 182 at exactly the same time as me in 2004 (it was his daft idea and I foolishly agreed),, he still has his and so far he has had all of the above problems plus flashing warning lights constantly appearing on the dash (again quite common).

this is not isolated if you do know your Renaults then you will know the faults I have just listed were common to many owners. Years ago I bought two fiestas one I kept for six years and had NO problems the other I kept 13 years and did 150,000 miles and it was only a 1.1L and it also was perfect no warranty issues ever.

I was a mechanic for 28 years and I am not in the habit of nit picking and looking for little faults but the Renaults were riddled with problems,, I think quite often Renault owners won’t admit too many of the faults because they don’t want to admit their car is crap which is fair enough.

the 197 is quite new give it three years or so and I bet the same old faults start to get talked about and become common.

that’s just my honest opinion,, I would never buy another Renault.

The 197 is amazingly well built - ive driven a lowly 1.2 - and thought it was exceptionally well screwed together.

I think the 182 however is a quicker car - even in the corners (but negligibly so) i reckon though that your average driver could drive the ST quicker through corners as it gives you plenty more feedback and confidence.

The ST is a better package though, the interior feels special and looks special on the exterior, whereas the clio looks like any other clio with two exhuasts. Also the interior is dire - horrible driving position too! The ST is 4 insurance groups below it - so i can insure it much more cheaply and in my opinion, the better car for day to day driving.

The fiesta though is well built, but the older renaults are screwed together by cheese eating bitter french communists. :P