Used Renault Clio cars for sale

Used Renault Clio pros and cons

Is a second hand Renault Clio a good car?

Need something compact and easy to park, not to mention cheap to run, but don’t want to sacrifice style? Well, the Renault Clio could be the right used car choice for you. Introduced in 2019 (and heavily updated in 2023) the Clio is really good looking, but thanks to a big boot it’s also practical and useful. As if Sydney Sweeney binned off acting and took up carpentry as a trade. 

Like its fellow Frenchie, the Clio majors on those good looks, with its slim wraparound headlights, cool daytime running lights, and chunky chrome Renault diamond badge in the middle. It certainly cuts more of a dash than an equivalent VW Polo, Seat Ibiza, or Ford Fiesta.

The cabin is good too, with top-spec models getting a cool vertical touchscreen in the centre of the dash, while part-digital instruments were also available. Up front, the Clio is roomy but beware the interior build quality, as some of it’s not great — notably the loose-feeling centre console between the seats, and the slightly cheap-feeling ventilation controls. Equally, while that touchscreen might look good, it’s not the slickest to use and doesn’t get the super-smooth Google-based software of more recent Renaults. 

It’s the big boot — all 391 litres of it, which is more than you get in the bigger VW Golf — that makes the Clio such a practical choice, especially if you’re someone who likes to squeeze the occasional mountain bike into their small hatchback. However, the price for a big boot is small back seats, and they don’t adjust back and forth so anyone above primary school age is going to find the rear of the Clio more than a little tight. 

The Clio can be found with a basic 90hp 1.0-litre turbo three-cylinder petrol engine, or a 100hp version of the same engine. There’s also a 130hp 1.3-litre engine, usually found with an automatic gearbox, and from 2020 onwards, there’s the very frugal 1.6-litre hybrid, which Renault badges as E-Tech, a rival to the likes of the Toyota Yaris Hybrid and the Honda Jazz. 

If you’re a townie, that hybrid — with its standard automatic — will make lots of sense, and it’ll be at its most frugal on city streets, but the best all rounder is actually the basic 90hp 1.0-litre engine, which is peppy enough for anyone short of a GTI fan (sadly, the once-fabulous RenaultSport Clio is no more). 

The Clio’s a comfy car to ride around in, but it’s not as refined as a Volkswagen Polo when it comes to noise, and actually doesn’t ride over bumps with quite the same smoothness as the VW. A Ford Fiesta is also much more fun to drive, if that’s important to you, while a SEAT Ibiza has much more space in the back seats. 

Still, the Clio offers lots of Gallic style for not too much cash, and with that big boot it’s an ideal city-centre shopping companion.

What to look for when buying a used Renault Clio

The Clio is actually a pretty sturdy car, mechanically speaking. The 1.0-litre and 1.3-litre engines are robust and thankfully neither uses the ‘wet belt’ design of cambelt so popular with some other makes. You will have to replace the cambelt regularly, but it’s less of a worry. Equally, these engines are shared with lots of other cars on the road — from Nissans to Dacias and even, in the case of the 1.3, with Mercedes — so they’re well-proven.

The E-Tech Hybrid seems to be slightly less solid, as there are reports of niggling electrical issues which need dealer visits to sort out. That’s true too of the fiddly infotainment system. The biggest issue of all is a power steering failure for Clios built in early 2019, for which a recall was issued, but beware of cars which haven’t had the work done. Other common issues lie with the central locking system and the easily-broken (and pricey if you need a replacement) flat credit card-style keycard. The engines need to be carefully inspected for coolant leaks too. 

Worryingly, the Clio didn’t finish inside the Top 50 Best Cars To Own section of the most recent Driver Power car ownership survey, while Renault came 28th out of 32 brands, with 24.4% of owners reporting faults.

Renault Clio FAQs