Renault Clio Clio, X85

A comfortable supermini that rides better than most of its rivals and asks very little in return. The 1.5 dCi in particular returns economy that still looks good today.

Overview

The X85 is the hatchback Renault Clio, built 2005–2014 and facelifted in 2009. 2 standard engines are documented here, each with its own issue list, inspection sequence and price band. Asking prices across the standard range run €2,000–€7,100, and 0 of the 2 carry a risk level of 4 or 5; the facelift cars sit at a premium over otherwise identical pre-facelift ones. The 1.2 16V D4F is both the cheapest way in, from €2,700, and the lowest-risk engine of the range, which makes it the obvious starting point. Prices are illustrative placeholders rather than a sourced market sample. See the methodology.

Body stylehatchbackProduction2005–2014
Platform siblingssold in this body onlyFacelift (LCI)2009
What changed at the 2009 facelift
New nose and lights; Revised interior; Euro 5 dCi engines. The engine changes are the ones that matter, a car built in the changeover year can carry either engine, so check the engine code on the block rather than the registration date.

Engine matrix: pre-facelift, 20052008

The 2 variants sold before the 2009 facelift. Power and years come from the variant records; prices are illustrative, not sourced.

2 of 2
BadgeEngineFuelYearsPowerTorqueRiskIssuesPrice bandGood buyVerdict
1.2 16VD4Fpetrol2005200875 PS105 NmR21€2,000€5,400€2,700BuyView
1.5 dCiK9Kdiesel2005200886 PS200 NmR34€2,400€6,500€3,200BuyView

Engine matrix: facelift / LCI, 20092014

The 2 variants sold from the facelift on, priced at a 9% premium over the pre-facelift car.

2 variants from the facelift on, carrying a real market premium of roughly 9% over an otherwise identical pre-facelift car. Variants appearing in both tables were sold either side of the changeover, the build month decides which one you're looking at, not the model year.

2 of 2
BadgeEngineFuelYearsPowerTorqueRiskIssuesPrice bandGood buyVerdict
1.2 16VD4Fpetrol2009201475 PS105 NmR21€2,200€5,900€2,950BuyView
1.5 dCiK9Kdiesel2009201486 PS200 NmR34€2,600€7,100€3,500BuyView

Market availability varied by country; check the engine code stamped on the block rather than the badge on the boot. · Compare every engine side by side →

Model-year availability

Which engines were on sale in which year, from the year ranges in the variant records. Availability varied by country.

Variant05060708091011121314
1.2 16V D4F
1.5 dCi K9K

● full year · arrives or leaves mid-generation. Years from 2009 in the accent colour are facelift (LCI) cars. Verify the engine code, not the model year.

Rating map, price against risk

Good-buy price plotted against risk level for every standard engine, so the value corner is visible at a glance.

Every standard engine in the chassis, plotted at its good-buy price against its risk level. Cheap and low-risk is the top-left; expensive and fragile is the bottom-right. M cars are excluded, they would stretch the price axis and tell you nothing about the rest.

cheap · low risk€2.8k€3k€3.2kR1R2R3R4R5good-buy price →risk ↓1.2 16V D4F: Buy, risk 2, good buy €2,7001.2 16V1.5 dCi K9K: Buy, risk 3, good buy €3,2001.5 dCi
Buy / strong buy Buy with conditions Caution / avoidLeft is cheaper, up is safer. The top-left corner is where the value is.

Prices across the range

Where the money sits across the whole chassis. Every figure here is an illustrative placeholder, not a sourced market sample.

Every standard engine on one euro axis: the bar spans the 10th to 90th percentile of asking prices, the tick is the median and the green marker is the good-buy figure. RS cars are excluded; they sit an order of magnitude above the rest.

Cheapest good buy€2,7001.2 16V D4F
Median good buy€3,200across 2 engines
Dearest good buy€3,2001.5 dCi K9K
Full range€2,000€7,100P10 to P90

Every standard engine · cheapest first · 1.2 16V D4F highlighted as best value

€2k€4k€6kGood buy
1.2 16V D4F€2,7001.5 dCi K9K€3,200

at or under the good buy · good buy · median · bar spans the 10th–90th percentile

Chassis-wide issues, every engine inherits these

Faults recorded against the bodyshell and running gear rather than one engine, so every variant on this page inherits them.

Window motors that stop working, a central locking that misses a door, dashboard warning lights that come and go, and failing exterior bulb circuits. The connectors and small motors age, and damp in the doors and tailgate accelerates it. Almost none of it is expensive on its own, and it adds up on a car worth this little.
Check: Work every window, mirror, light and lock during the viewing rather than sampling a few. A seller who has stopped fixing small faults is telling you how the car has been kept.
ElectricalcommonDetectable at viewingevidence: documented90180k km

Written once against the chassis and shown on every variant page below, so nothing here is repeated 2 times: RS cars included, since the bodyshell and electronics are shared.

Buying summary

Our read on the chassis, built on the records above rather than added to them.

Best value: 1.5 dCi, the most-produced small diesel in Europe and cheap to fix anywhere. Check the injectors and read their correction values, because a leaking one can wash a bore and that turns a small job into an engine. The 1.2 16V is the cheap petrol and it's slow, with a cambelt schedule you cannot skip. So work every electrical function on the test drive, since switches and window mechanisms generate most of the complaints here.

Cheapest and dearest in this chassis

The ends of the range by good-buy price. Useful for sanity-checking anything you're quoted.

Lowest entry price

1.2 16V D4F : from €2,000, risk 2

1.5 dCi K9K : from €2,400, risk 3

Lowest risk

1.2 16V D4F : risk 2, good buy at €2,700

1.5 dCi K9K : risk 3, good buy at €3,200