1994 Renault Clio RN Liberte D review from UK and Ireland

One of the diesel injectors started leaking heavily - £30 to replace.

Glow plugs were past their best and the engine struggled to start - rectified by replacing them at £8 each.

Alternator failed - £90.

The power steering reservoir isn't holding its fluid.

CV joint is starting to grate in hard driving.

I bought this car to replace my dead old VW Polo, and for £500 it isn't too bad especially for the specification - electric windows, remote central locking and power steering.

Although it's had a couple of problems they haven't been disabling other than the alternator and have been easily and cheaply fixed.

Costs-wise, the car constantly gets 50mpg despite being driven quickly over rural roads and wearing snow tyres, the parts are relatively cheap and insurance is acceptable even for an 18-year old (just over £200 per quarter with Pass Plus).

The car handles brilliantly, despite the weight in the front end. To dial out its natural progression to understeer all you have to do is drive faster and the tail will swing out gently. You can take practically any corner at any speed without any troubles. In the snow it's nearly faultless, it'll plough through foot-high drifts fairly happily - probably helped by the skinny little 155-section M+S tyres, but the tail tends to break away quite sharply. I've even taken it for a bit of light off-roading and it took to that easily too (despite the lack of ground clearance).

The interior is well-appointed and fairly well-built - nothing has broken off, but there are a couple of rattles. It's fairly comfortable, but on longer journeys I get backache, smaller passengers haven't complained though so it's probably to do with my height. It's also very spacious for the size of the car, with easily enough room for four six-footers and a boot big enough for a week's family shopping.

It still looks sharp, despite the rusty old 13" steel wheels. I guess the foglights and colour-coded bumpers on this spec-level help, and in my opinion the Phase 1 Clio looks a lot better than the Phase 2 (with the ugly headlamps). There's a little surface rust around a couple of the arches and on the driver's door bottom, but nothing half a day's work with a sander and some primer wouldn't fix.

Maintenance is relatively easy, but the engine bay is very cramped and a job such as changing the alternator involves removing the bonnet, side-light, headlamp, and one of the radiator hoses (necessitating a bleed of the system - I just pushed the hose away from the alternator bolt and hoped for the best). It just adds to the irritation.

To sum up it makes an excellent small car, with constant 50mpg economy and a lot more guts than the god-awful, whiny, gutless 1.2litre Clio you'd get for similar money.