Renault Clio review - Reliability and Safety

The latest Clio is the safest yet – it achieved a full five stars when tested by industry body Euro NCAP, with impressive adult, child and assistance ratings of 96, 89 and 75 per cent respectively. By contrast the Ford Fiesta – another five-star car – achieved 87, 84 and 60 per cent in each respective category.

Part of the Clio’s success in this area is down to its impressive range of active safety features. All trim levels get standard automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane-departure warning, lane-keep assist, traffic sign recognition and emergency brake assist. Highlights from the options list include the Techno Pack, which brings a 360-degree parking camera and sensors amongst other upgrades. The Traffic and Motorway Assistance Pack is available on TCe 130 cars only and brings adaptive cruise control with stop and go functionality and lane-centring, amongst some interior comfort features.

The latest Clio is yet to feature in our Driver Power survey but Renault itself achieved a mid-table 19th-place finish in the 2019 survey. Owners were impressed by their cars’ low running costs, quiet engines and good ride quality, but seat comfort and storage space did not score highly, nor smartphone connectivity and build quality. The latest Clio seems to have addressed many of these concerns, however.

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Warranty

The Clio is covered by Renault’s three-year, 60,000-mile warranty and three years of roadside recovery. This is more or less on a par with rivals like the SEAT Ibiza which is covered by an identical warranty, but which loses out on a year of roadside assistance; the Ford Fiesta also gets standard three-year/60,000 coverage but just one year of recovery assistance.

Servicing

Renault offers fixed-price servicing that can offer coverage for three or four years and 30,000 or 40,000 miles. The former will cost £449 as a one-off payment, the latter £699. This is broadly competitive with similar rivals and undercuts the Ford Fiesta by a considerable margin.