Best Clio engine

[colin86]

Looking at possibility buy a Clio to be used to get to work at will be doing 5k miles a year . What engine is the best and the most reliable ? 1.2 petrol or the 0.9

[Salamura]

The 1.2 non-turbo D4F engine has been around forever and is pretty bulletproof. It is a very simple engine with little to go wrong. I owned a Clio with said engine and over 4 years it wanted for nothing but fuel and oil. Its biggest disadvantage is power: it has none. You have to rev the tits off it to get the car going and on the motorway it is rather loud. Overtaking would require some planning. even when it comes to lorries. But this sort of underpowered engine has its own charm as you're flat out pretty much everywhere and you'll need to learn about conserving momentum. Around town it's completely fine, however. Clios of any generation have a good chassis, so you can have fun with it on a twisty road even with this engine.

The 1.2 turbo D4FT is much nippier, noticeably so. It likes a drink (old-school turbo, so tends to run rich under load to cool the exhaust), but if you keep on top of oil changes it should be pretty reliable.

I've had the 0.9 in a rental Clio in Madeira. There it felt a bit underpowered, but that's not very fair as Madeira is extremely hilly and I think any small car will feel underpowered there (unless it's a hot hatch). What I noticed was a pronounced turbo lag with this engine, but otherwise very refined and smooth, much more than the 1.2. I've heard of issues with the timing chain and sprockets, as well as turbos, so frequent oil changes will be important.

If you find one with the 1.6 petrol K4M I would recommend to go for that one. It is an incredibly solid engine, good power for the weight of the Clio, not great on fuel but not terrible either.

[colin86]

Thanks for such a detailed feedback. A will go a test drive both my self but getting other peoples views will really help especially with the reliability part .

[A500leroy]

Test driving a 0.9 tomorrow and will likely be buying it unless anyone tells me its going to be an awful mistake.