Renault Clio review - updated supermini still a fine choice - Design

Arguably the Clio’s strongest point, as – without wishing to dip too much into lazy national stereotypes – the French car is certainly prettier on the outside than many rivals. Renault took styling inspiration from the DeZir electric concept car of the 2010 Paris Motor Show and the result is a striking front end, dominated by the large diamond badge and grille slashes either side, along with tidy rear-end detailing that makes for an appealing car.

There’s also a neat visual trick on the Renault, which is hidden rear door handles. That makes all Clios look like three-door models; somewhat ironic, as there is no three-door option as a result, all Clios being five-door cars. The facelift has tidied things up further, and models with full-LED headlights look particularly sharp.

The fourth-gen Clio is bigger than its predecessor, as Renault believes most people downsize to it from the C-segment rather than upscaling from smaller cars, but as we’ve already touched upon, brilliantly it is up to 100kg lighter model-for-model than the old Clio.