The Michelins cost ΂£360 fitted and immediately reminded me why we like the Clio so much. Bizarrely, within days of fitting the new boots I came the closest I have ever been to spinning the 172 on the public highway. I'd grown so used to the imbalance between front and rear grip that I nearly came unstuck ΂- literally. Turn-in had become a rather hit and miss affair and the tenacity of the front end surprised me when attacking a roundabout at an 'enthusiastic' pace. The nose nailed itself to the apex, inside wheel picked-up nicely and then I thought I'd have a little fun and lift the throttle. Well, let's just say it's a good job that it was a big, wide roundabout.

Once my pulse had reached normal levels again, I realised that similar antics when the Contis were fresh had never resulted in quite so much tail-wagging. So I tried it again ΂- with similar results. Since then I've been learning to exploit this new-found agility. It seems the Michelins bring a welcome dose of throttle-adjustability to the Clio 172's armoury, and wet-weather performance is still excellent. I'm sure the Clio's good showing against the Cooper S was helped enormously by the tyres. Meaden's old 172 long-termer showed similar improvements when he switched to Michelins.

Soon the Clio was due its first, 12,000-mile service and I wanted to sort out the airbag light that had been glowing on and off for the last 1000 miles. My nearest dealer is Camden Renault in Northampton and the Clio was duly booked in. There was a little confusion when I arrived because they thought it didn't need attention until 17,000 miles! I was ready to drive off shame-faced at having read the manual incorrectly when they realised mine was a 172 and required more regular fettling.

I collected the car the same day and stumped up a rather surprising ΂£150.25 for the first service. Considering Meaden's ΂£36K M Coupe cost the mighty sum of ΂£35.67 to service after 14,000 miles of hard use I can't help thinking that a ΂£15K hatch should be a little cheaper to maintain ΂- especially when you consider the cost of the tyres too.

On the other hand, the fuel economy is excellent and simply refuses to dip below 30mpg over the course of a month. Even a flat-to-the-boards cross-country thrash rarely sees less than 28mpg. Shame Camden didn't bother to clean it, really. Perhaps then I wouldn't be moaning about the service costs.