One You Can't Buy Here, I...

The Renault-Sport Clio is a neat little car in all its incarnations, from the 172, to the current 197. If you include the legendary Clio Williams in the group than the little Renault has an enviable reputation as one of the hottest of hatches that dates back fifteen years. In that time, power has never fallen below 150bhp, and has never been above 200bhp, always from right around 2.0liters of displacement. Weight started at 2227lbs for the series I Williams, and now stands at 2535lbs for the Clio 197. Fuel economy has always been in the mid-thirties on average, and the lates cars are some of the lowest emmiting hot hatches in Europe. Combine that with performace like 0-60 in 6.9 (6.0 for the newest Clio Cup) and a top speed of over 130, and it becomes the kind of driver's car you might well find youself shopping for.

Except of course that I live the the U.S., so of course I can't. Renault left these shores in 1989, perhaps never to return. All in all it didn't seem like such a bad deal at the time, after all, Renault were hardly setting the U.S. on fire (Le Car engine rooms excepted) with their slim lineup of cheap, but fragile and gutless econo-boxes.

Thing is, even at that point, Europe was getting all the good stuff, including the Renault 5GT Turbo and the Alpine GTA. And over there things continued to improve to the point that when the Clio Williams debuted, it knocked memories of the Peugeot 205 GTi, and the Volkswage Golg GTi MkII out of enthusiasts heads. the Williams performance was a wakeup call to other hot hatch manufacturers, but it was the handling and road holding of the perked up clio that really got journalists foaming at the mouth. Light, direct, supple and focused and agile, just like a great hatch should be. And those valuse have been handed down to the Clio Cup of today.

I think Renault should give the U.S. market another try. With gas and oil where they are, there's every reason to expect some success for cars like the Clio, and the emmisions and crash safety restrictions are now much more even between the U.S. and E.U. There's no reason to suspect that cars like the Clio couldn't keep almost all of their performance and handling for the American market. After all, Alfa Romeo is doing the same thing next year, and may even bring over their full line in a couple years. The world needs for the U.S. market to have these choices. If U.S. consumers have quality economical cars available to them I believe they will start to buy them. It worked for the Japanese largely because durring the last energy crissis their cars had a percieved (and largely factuall) difference in quality to the economical European competition. these days that perception might just be reversed.

It's time for Europe to import cars other than Exotics, Luxury Sedans, and odd-balls like the Smart. The Mini has shown what clever marketing and a decent product can accomplish, lets just hope Renault is watching.