Well, now the car looks alright again it gave me the incentive to get it on the road. MOT passed this morning and I'm now rolling around in it.

I am going to really miss the little Clio - the MG doesn't appear to handle nearly as well (although, that wil be, in part down to the tyres) and I'm going to miss my creature comforts like auto lights, climate control etc. but the MG is a fantastic cheap run around until I find another car.

Clio better handling than the MG? Are you mad? lol (I think it was Top Gear who said the ZS was one of the best handling front wheel drive cars on the market ;)) :p

I've never heard of an MG being used as a "cheap run around until I find another car" either :) - I guess its a 120 you have?

I can assure you my Clio handles much better than my MG.

I entered a roundabout that I frequently pass, thinking I was going reasonably sedately - the MG was understeering a good 15 MPH slower than the Clio would have breezed it. But like I say, this will, in part, be down to the tyres - the MG has some crap Federal 595 SuperSteels. The Clio was not entirely standard, either, to be fair (not heavily modified though - AD08s, cup dampers, eibach springs, polybushed and quite a funky geo setup).

I think understeer on the limit is also a bit annoyance - the Clio leans heavily towards oversteer.

If I keep it more than five minutes, I may be tempted to chuck some decent tyres on and have a crack at the geo setup - in theory I should be able to get a more favourable setup with the MG and it's double wishbone suspension.

It's a 180, by the way.

180 as a cheap car! Wow :)

To be honest, the Clio's I have driven have been complete waste of time, they didn't seem to handle very well or brake at all well... but then they have all been entry spec "run of the mill" cars and I have no idea how they were looked after by the owner... plus you can't really compaire them to the ZS as they are in completely different leagues, if your Clio was a bit more special then its most likely you managed to sort the niggles out, in which case I would be interested in seeing how it handled :) - BTW which clio was it? the V6? (Never driven a v6 clio)

A standard RS Clio 182 Cup/FF should feel a bit more chuckable and alive than the MG. It certainly should not feel like it handles worse!

The standard brakes aren't great, but some DS2500s and some braided lines almost completely alleviates that concern.

Mine is a 182 FF (A cup with the creature comforts left in, basically).

I suspect your experiences, assuming you drove a 172/182 were down to crap tyres and/or worn suspension. I've never had crap tyres on the Clio (or anything, until now!), but a full suspension refresh including all bushes and top mounts saw a huge improvement when I didn't think it was that bad to begin with!

The suspension, bush, geometry, wheel, tyre changes etc. all add up to quite a difference though, I suppose.

Here it is :)

http://image.wightbay.com/extra/item...b7268ffcca.jpg

Ha! My experiences are with the bog standard Clio :) - I didn't realise you had a Cup or the 182 and never having driven one of them (the cup edition I mean) I couldn't comment on the handling, but I suspect its pretty go-cart-esk? Wheel in each corner with decent tyres and suspension....

If you're doing it right, there's only ever three wheels down ;)

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