Faults:

The sunroof started to leak the day I got the car!

Tappet noise when the engine is cold.

General Comments:

The sunroof was fixed by tightening the bolts that hold down the sunroof surround.

This car is seriously quick and handles like it's on rails.

I have lowered it and have 16's on, and it flies round ring roads.

In first and second gear, it will out leg most if not all GTi's, and will beat most RS Turbos (and last longer).

Faults:

The fan stopped working at 30,000 miles causing the engine to overheat, contributing to an oil leak in the head gasket, which was quite expensive.

The sunroof motor came loose and the sunroof wouldn't close, but this wasn't expensive to fix.

Otherwise not much, besides a bit of surface rust round the back wheel arches.

General Comments:

The car is great fun on country roads and over 4000 revs it can accelerate - overtaking two or three cars at a time is not a problem! It sticks to the road and handles predictably. I've fitted a Magnex exhaust which gives it a great sound too, otherwise the car is standard.

Drivers of seriously fast cars like Imprezas or M3's tend to underestimate the 16V and it can be fun when you surprise them, although if they really try forget it.

A heavy clutch makes it a pain round town (especially in London where the traffic is stop start) and the Magnex exhaust makes it noisy on the motorway. The car rattles and squeaks a lot and isn't that well put together (well it is French) and repairs can be expensive, otherwise I love it.

Faults:

Had a very bad blowout the first morning I owned it.

Had a very bad leak coming through the front of the sunroof through the remote locking sensor which I believe caused the following faults:

Never got the remote locking working; the sensor was presumable corroded from all the water leaking through it.

Radio reception was non-existent. Presumably because the wire connecting the aerial to the radio was corroded. It was "fixed" three times. Workman said that Renault aerials are infamous. Seemed to eat tapes as well. Worked fine with external input.

Gearstick shook violently under acceleration.

From 57,700 miles the car would not go into 1st while still moving.

Soon after 2nd and 3rd became very sticky.

The string holding the back board kept coming off.

General Comments:

A deceptively powerful car. Deceptive because it is not nippy at all. Most unresponsive small car I've ever driven. I think this is due to a long gear box and loose gear ratios. A fiesta Zetec may speed up to 40mph, but a Clio RT will continue accelerating uphill from 40mph. Never had to drop a gear climbing up even long winding hills.

I wasn't to keen on the Burgundy colour. Despite other reviews arguing the contrary, this isn't much of a boy racer's car. It looks bland, the back end more than the front (which at least had foglights). Lowering it would probably make it look a bit snappier.

Clutch was lovely. It's a little late, but it doesn't suddenly catch up with you when easing your foot off. It means it doesn't lift off like a Ford, but equally its hard to stall.

The interior was very grey, fitting in with the geriatric market that snaps these cars up, but it was very comfortable. I loved the seat, which had lumber and rocker control as well as the usual slide and slope adjusments. Very comfortable all round.

Left footrest is a nice extra for the longer journey or to tap your foot to your favourite tunes.

Steering wheel looked as though it was too close, but I never had any problems with it.

The gizmos were great - the stereo remote control was fantastic, although I only got to use it to control the volume for my MP3s. Sound was very good, bass never seemed to distort. The stereo had an external input 3.5mm jack - great for those (like myself) who get annoyed with tape conversion kits.

Electric mirrors and windows were a fancy extra, but in the end how many times do you need to adjust mirrors? The nearside window goes up with one tap, whereas you have to hold down the button for the offside window.

Misting up inside was a bad problem, it happened within a few seconds when driving. Eventually, along with a squall shower, it meant I ended up writing this car off.

Not having a working radio really soured my opinion of the car - every other problem I had with it was bearable.