► Month 3 with our Clio
► Great interior and effortless cruising
► Read month 2 here
One of the things I love about the Clio is how it does it all. It’s great round town, it’s fun when you thrash it, but it’s also a good long-distance car.
That’s mostly down to its magnificent 1.0-litre engine. Just as it’s surprisingly zesty when you wang it along a country road, this turbocharged three-cylinder is also astonishingly good at high-speed motorway work. Of course I never go over 70mph… but hypothetically I can tell you the Clio is happy to cruise at 85mph, never feeling overstretched or harsh, the six-speed manual gearbox giving it the long legs it needs to cruise all day long.
A good interior is critical on a long-distance drive and here too the Renault scores highly, with comfy seats, lots of cubby-holes and cupholders and – crucially – it has Apple CarPlay for Google maps and binge-listening to Spotify podcasts.
Why do manufacturers still offer their own interior tech, when all we want is phone integration? Here you get both, but I never use the built-in option.
Anyway, this is all to say that a recent drive to Bournemouth – a seven-hour round trip – went very well. The sun shone, making the car look like a lolly.
Logbook: Renault Clio TCe 90 Evolution (month 3)
Price: £17,995 (£18,695 as tested)
Performance: 999cc turbocharged three-cylinder, 89bhp, 12.2sec 0-62mph, 112mph
Efficiency: 54.3mpg (official), 44.7mpg (tested), 118g/km CO2
Energy cost: 14.6p per mile
Miles this month: 1039
Total miles: 2866