Renault Clio

Start with what the Renault Clio is: a 3-door hatchback (Clio I – III) / 5-door hatchback (1990–present) / 4-door sedan (Clio II) / 5-door estate (Clio III & IV) with Petrol engine, built from 1990, when airbags, anti-lock brakes and Japanese build quality became the world standard. What it meant takes a little longer.

The story

The Renault Clio () KLEE-oh is a supermini (B-segment) car, produced by French automobile manufacturer Renault. It was launched in 1990, and entered its sixth generation in 2025. The Clio has had substantial critical and commercial success, being consistently one of Europe's top-selling cars since its launch, and it is largely credited with restoring Renault's reputation and stature after a difficult second half of the 1980s. The Clio is one of only two cars, the other being the Volkswagen Golf, to have been voted European Car of the Year twice: in 1991 and in 2006.

The car is named after Clio, one of the nine Muses in Greek mythology. In Japan, it is sold as the Renault Lutecia because Honda retains the rights to the name Clio after establishing the Honda Clio sales channel in 1984. Lutecia is derived from Lutetia, an ancient Roman city that was the predecessor of Paris. The Renault Lutecia was formerly available through Yanase Co., Ltd., but in 1999 Renault purchased a stake in Japanese automaker Nissan. Following Renault's takeover, distribution rights for the Lutecia were handed over to Nissan in 2000, and the car was sold at Nissan's "Red Stage" dealerships.

What is underneath

The engine is Petrol engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 930 kg. Drive goes through a 4 or 5-speed manual / 3 or 4-speed automatic. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 2472 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

Its place in the line

In the Renault line-up the Renault Clio has a clear place: it replaced the Renault 5; the factory was Flins-sur-Seine. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Ford Explorer, the Honda NSX, the Opel Astra. Nearby in the Renault catalogue sit the Renault 10 and the Renault 10CV.