A word or two about Cleo, our Renault Clio4. This is a nice little car and, like its Citroen and Peugeot siblings, puts paid to the reputation that French cars deservedly earned in the United States in the 1960s. Who can forget the Renault Dauphine, or the Citroen DS-19 or any of a short line of Peugeots, cars of dubious reliability, design, comfort and appearance? Those days are gone.
This Clio4, a new Clio model, is a bit smaller than our Prius, to give you an idea of its size. Back seat legroom is not its strong point, but it has a much bigger trunk than the Prius. It’s well-built, looks great, has a lot of pep, handles like a sports car and – here’s the clincher – is getting 49 mpg average for the first couple hundred miles (or, as the French measure mileage: 4.8 litres/100 km). That is better mileage than we get with our Prius, and I can guarantee you that Cleo is a whole lot peppier and fun to drive.
Here’s the Clio4/Prius summary: the Prius has more rear legroom. The Clio4 has more luggage space, more pep, and better mileage. I don’t think you can touch a Prius in the United States for less than $22- or $23k; a baseline Clio4 (which is what we have, except we added GPS) is about $18,000. Makes me think Renault could succeed in the United States.