Why we're running it:To see whether the latest version ofRenault'stop-seller can unseat theFord Fiestaas the UK's favourite supermini
As secure as you like - 12 August 2020
I'm a fan of Renault's hands-free key, but not everyone I've spoken to would trust their car to lock itself as they walk away – even with the beep that confirms it's secure. Thankfully, the Clio's key menu lets you keep the functions you like and turn off the ones you don't for added peace of mind. Besides, if you go three days between drives, walk-up unlocking is automatically turned off.
Supermini chases greater maturity in its latest iteration but at what cost to driver fun?
A week away reveals our supermini's practical side - 29 July 2020
As lockdown restrictions began to ease and the concept of social bubbles was introduced in early July, my fiancée and I seized the opportunity to visit her mother and spend a week on the south coast. See: Car Battery Tester. Since it arrived six weeks ago, ‘my' Clio hadn't spent a single night away from home, so this would be a chance to fill its boot with something other than the weekly supermarket shop.
Renault's decision to give up a bit of rear leg room makes sense when you don't have any children to squeeze into the back seats, because it means you get one of the largest-capacity boots in the class. Its 391 litres may be more than you'll find in several rivals from the class above, but expecting the boot to swallow a pair of bicycles along with our luggage was more than a little ambitious – even if one of them was the folding kind.
I decided against flipping down the rear seats and detaching my bike's wheels (if only to avoid having to vacuum out the inevitable post-ride mess afterwards), instead picking up a fairly basic bike rack. The RS Line's faux rear diffuser doesn't leave any space for a towbar, but at least the hatch-mounted rack I went for doesn't obscure the rear lights or numberplate, so I didn't need a lighting board to go with it. The over/ under mounting mechanism restricts the rear windscreen wiper, and it effectively blocks off boot access until you remove it, but at least the minor hit I was expecting to the fuel economy never materialised. Even with my bike's wheels acting like tiny sails, the Clio is still averaging near-50mpg motorway runs.
I know this is hardly a regular use case for a supermini, but it would have been nice if there was a setting to disable the rear parking sensors while using a bike rack: with mine fitted, the car threw a fairly ominous dashboard error message when trying to park. Happily it disappeared by itself once the bike was removed.
Parking sensors aren't available on the entry-level Clio Play, and while mid-spec Iconic cars get rear sensors as standard, adding front ones and a reversing camera is a £400 option. The small rear windscreen and fairly prominent C-pillars mean rear visibility isn't all that great, so I'd consider the combination a must-have for anyone ordering a new Clio.
RS looksI think our car has a lot more presence than lesser-spec Clios but is more subtle than, say, an ST-Line Ford Fiesta.
Mystery rattleSomething appears to have come loose around the passenger air vents and now makes an irritating racket at low speeds.
Making sense of it all - 22 July 2020
Renault's My Sense driving modes are a mixed bag: Eco blunts throttle response without a major boost to fuel consumption and the way Sport tightens up the steering isn't always to the Clio's benefit. At least you can mix and match. That includes picking the ambient lighting, which stays on the right side of tasteful even if you opt for a more lurid colour.
Lexusfamously used a digital dash inthe LFA supercarbecause an analogue tacho wasn't fast enough for the engine. If you can believe it, the Clio has a similar issue: the on-screen readout can't keep up with the throttle, skipping digits as it displays your speed. It could be a second before you notice a heavy right foot at traffic lights has landed you north of the speed limit.
Great drives start with a great driving position, which our Clio finally gets right - 8 July 2020
Of the handful of Clios I've tried in the past, ...

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Vasilis Barkas is in town and while Scottish weather might have put a dampener on his arrival he'll have been much happier in his first Hoops training session.
He signed on a four-year deal from AEK Athens during the week for around £4.5million and was unveiled on Thursday.
The Greek keeper donned a massive puffer jacket as he walked around rainy Glasgow on Wednesday and for someone used to the searing sun of Athens it must have been a culture shock. You may need: Autel diagnostic scanner.
Today was much more like it as the mercury rose into the mid-20s around Scotland for one of his first outings as a Hoops player at Lennoxtown.
It seems like he'll be ready for the challenge of Hamilton at the weekend.
Griff looking sharp
A little tough love was required earlier this month but now Leigh Griffiths looks fighting fit for the season.
His 30-minute cameo against Hibs on Monday showed flashes of the Scotland striker at his best as he set up two goals - although the first would have been his if Patryk Klimala hadn't pinched it on the line.
Manager Neil Lennon did say he was about a week to 10 days away from full fitness after that friendly.
And Griffiths put in the hard yards again on Friday - he'll be eyeing some game time this weekend to help him get back to full match sharpness.
Lenny watches on
Lennon sometimes likes to get stuck into the action on a sunny day of training but he opted to sit this one out.
On the eve of a monumental campaign, one that could make or break his Celtic legacy, he watched from afar.
Lennon will have been delighted to get new keeper Barkas in on time to participate in training ahead of Sunday's opener.
He's not done yet in the transfer market by his own admission but the Northern Irish gaffer has been content to take things slowly this summer.
French focus
Much of the transfer talk around Celtic in the past few months was regarding whether Odsonne Edouard would stay or go but that all seems to be in the rear-view mirror now.
There has been no further update regarding talks over a new contract for the French striker.
But he looked focused as ever in training and what a monumental season it could be for him.
A return similar to last season's 23 strikes - all scored before last season's early end to the Scottish Premiership - would go some way to carrying him and his team-mates to Parkhead immortality.
Staying power
For an 11th season running since being handed the armband in February 2010, Scott Brown will lead his side out on Sunday. It's the ninth season running that he'll oversee the league flag being raised at Celtic Park.
Now 35 years old, it shows immense dedication to both his club and himself that he still trains with he same intensity as the 24-year-old Brown did when he was first made skipper.
He'll know one day father time will catch up with him and he spoke candidly during the shutdown about weighing up his choice between sunning it in Australia or staying at Celtic.
But would he regret his decision now this historic season has arrived? Absolutely not.

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If you're shopping around for a deal this weekend, there are a few that we want to tell you about. As is usually the case, some of them have been happening for the past few days, but others are new ones that more recently popped up.
Brydge is hosting a back-to-school sale on its wireless Bluetooth keyboards for iPad, which should be helpful whether you're physically going back to class or just resuming where you left off from home. If you have an iPad Pro (2018 or the latest 2020 version) its Brydge Pro keyboards, pictured above, are up to $50 off, down to $100 for the 11-inch keyboard and $130 for the 12. AD: OBD2 Diagnostic Tool. 9-inch model.
My colleague Sam Byford reviewed a bunch of iPad keyboards and he thought this one provided the best laptop-like experience, saying, "It feels exactly like a laptop, thanks to the responsive keys and well-designed hinges that clip onto the iPad's corners and - crucially - easily let you remove it for tablet use."
In case you missed it, iPadOS added mouse support, and Brydge made a version of this keyboard with a built-in trackpad (seen in the photo above). They're more expensive (though not as expensive as Apple's Magic Keyboard), but they let you turn your iPad Pro into even more of a laptop replacement. Those are each $30 off at Amazon, starting at $170 for the 11-inch version and $200 for the larger 12.9-inch version. Just click the coupon button listed beneath the price on their respective product pages to get the discount.
If you own the 10.2-inch seventh-generation iPad, Brydge makes a wireless keyboard for that model, too. It's usually $130, but it's $100 right now. It's available in three colors, just like the iPad: silver, space gray, or gold. It looks a lot like the keyboard above for the iPad Pro, and as you can see by the image above, it's not any thicker than the iPad itself. Brydge claims that it provides one-year battery life per charge, and the keys are backlit.
Here's another deal that might be a good fit for a student or really anyone looking for a cheap but good phone. Daily Steals has brand-new stock of the original Google Pixel XL with a 5.5-inch OLED screen and 32GB of storage (in black or white), and it's offering it to Verge readers for $95 with the offer code VERGEPIXL used at checkout. The Pixel has officially reached the end of the line when it comes to official Android updates (it was released in 2016, mind you), with Android 10 being its last major upgrade. But it might still be a good fit if you just need an unlocked Android phone with a good camera and one that works with any US carrier.
As I mentioned, the phones themselves are new, but according to Daily Steals, they were sourced directly from Google's overstock, and thus weren't kitted with a charging cable and wall adapter. Basically, they weren't given the packaging treatment. So, Daily Steals will including an aftermarket cable and charger with purchase. These have a 90-day warranty through Daily Steals.
Final Fantasy VII Remake for PS4 is currently down to $40 at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target. My colleague Andrew Webster called it a "thrilling, thoughtful take on a classic" in his review. In case you weren't aware, the FF7R covers the first portion of the game in Midgar. That section isn't too long in the original title, but Square Enix completely reimagined the world and fleshed it out with more quests, a new battle system, and some slight changes to the story.
Walmart has a great deal to check out if you just bought a Nintendo Switch. You can get two digital downloads for $120 and a 128GB microSD card comes free (usually around $30 by itself) with the purchase. What's better is that these digital downloads are for must-have games, like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Tennis Aces, and more. You can select "Edit this bundle" to mix and match the games to your liking.

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Zoe Kravitz has paid tribute to the cast and crew behind her Hulu show High Fidelity, following the news that the programme has been axed after just one season.
The 31-year-old actress took to Instagram to share a series of pictures of herself and her co-stars on the set of the U.S. TV show, which was based on the 1995 book by Nick Hornby and the 2000 film of the same name starring John Cusack.
"I wanna give a shout out to my #highfidelity family," said Zoe, who starred in the show as Robyn 'Rob' Brooks and also executive produced it.
"Thank you for all the love and heart you put into this show. I'm in awe of all of you. and thank you to everyone who watched, loved and supported us," she continued, adding a peace out emoji and the hashtag 'breakupssuck'.
News of the show's cancellation was reported on Wednesday by Deadline, which noted the network had "lengthy deliberations" about whether or not to cancel the show, that has received a generally positive response from both critics and fans.
"In the end, the streamer opted not to proceed with a second season. Finding another home for the show is considered a long shot," reported the publication.

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Over the span of some 13 years, Chicago-area courier Brian Murphy racked up more than one million miles on his stick-shift, four-cylinder 2007 Nissan Frontier. When Nissan heard one of its trucks broke the rarely-seen seven-figure barrier, it invited Murphy to this year's Chicago Auto Show in February, where it gave the soft-spoken deliveryman the VIP treatment and announced it would trade him an enhanced 2020 Frontier for his old model. And this week, the handover happened, sending the million-mile Frontier into retirement at the factory that built it.
Murphy presented Nissan with the keys to his truck at M'Lady Nissan in Crystal Lake, Illinois, where he bought the truck over 13 years ago. See: Autel OBD2 Diagnostic Tool. Before loading the vehicle onto a truck for shipment to its factory in Smyrna, Tennessee, Nissan left Murphy with another set of keys, which correspond to a freshly-built 2020 Frontier.
Updated for this one model year before the coming 2021 redesign, the new-old Frontier features a modernized 3.8-liter direct-injection V6, which produces 310 horsepower and 268 pound-feet of torque. Power goes to the rear wheels exclusively through a nine-speed automatic, which keeps fuel economy at the same level as the retired four-cylinder model, and takes the laborious job of shifting gears out of Murphy's hands. At 62, he's quite tired of rowing his own gears-he said so when we talked to him in Chicago.
Million-Mile 2007 Nissan Frontier
"I'll miss this truck, no doubt, but I'm glad it's going back 'home' to Smyrna," Murphy said in a press release. "At the same time, I'm ready for my next chapter, and I can't wait to experience my new Frontier and its all-new powertrain. I know that this 2020 Frontier will bring the same durability that I've relied on for over 13 years."
Murphy expects to retire in several years, but he won't rule out meeting the one-million milestone again before calling it a career.
"I'd never say never-especially in a Frontier," he quipped.
Murphy waves goodbye in his 2020 Nissan Frontier

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Gov. Whitmer is expected to speak live at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday from Lansing, according to a release from her office.
She will be joined by Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, as well as Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II.
You can watch the live briefing here once it begins.

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Baoshang Bank collapsed after extending billions of yuan in loans to affiliates, as big shareholder Tomorrow Group took advantage of flawed corporate governance and mismanagement, according to a publication by China's central bank.
Tomorrow Group illegally borrowed 156 billion yuan (US$22.3 billion) from Baoshang Bank, which was taken over by the government last year, in the form of 347 loans through 209 shell companies from 2005 to 2019 and these subsequently became non-performing ones, wrote Zhou Xuedong, head of the takeover team, in an article published in the latest issue of China Finance.
Baoshang Bank and Tomorrow Group were both owned by troubled tycoon Xiao Jianhua, who is believed to be awaiting trial for bribery and manipulating share prices.
Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.
The shareholder interfered in Baoshang Bank's daily business operations, chipping away at the bank's risk controls while also manipulating the shareholder meetings, the article said.
"Baoshang Bank's downfall was not because of one person and did not come overnight," the article said. "On top of the failure on business and corporate governance, bad corporate culture was an important reason as well."
Diversified shareholding structures, strengthened external supervision and decent information disclosures were crucial to improving corporate governance at commercial banks and improving transparency, it said.
Baoshang Bank was the first Chinese lender that was take oven by the government in two decades, as it became insolvent after Tomorrow Group and its affiliates were not able to pay principal and interest on loans.
Baoshang Bank was once a key part of Xiao's business empire, which held stakes in hundreds of Chinese listed companies via proxies, ranging from energy, financial services and technology to real estate.
Xiao left Hong Kong in January 2017, on the eve of the Lunar New Year, for the mainland where he is believed to be helping authorities with their inquiries as part of one of their biggest ever crackdowns into deal making. He has not been seen in public since.
Following the seizure of Baoshang, regulators took over two other embattled lenders, Hengfeng Bank and Jinzhou Bank in August last year. All three insolvent banks were previously controlled by Xiao, founder of the conglomerate Tomorrow Group.
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.
Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Unlike the often-mentioned McLaren F1, the 1991 Bugatti EB110 did come with a dedicated engine built from scratch, along with a six-speed manual, a carbon-fiber tub, all-wheel-drive and the great nation of Italy's hopes and dreams. Fuelled partly by Romano Artioli's fortune, this 3.5-liter is an all-alloy double-overhead-cam V12 featuring five valves per cylinder, twelve individual throttle bodies, and four IHI turbochargers with charge-air cooling for a whopping 560 horsepower at 8,000 rpm, and 450 pound-feet of torque at 4,200 rpm in EB 110 GT tune.
Designed by Nicola Materazzi and current Lamborghini Chief Technical Officer Maurizio Reggiani, the V12 produced even more power in the roughly 30 EB110 Supersports made after 1993. AD: Bluetooth scan tool. These offered 611 horsepower at 8,250 rpm, along with 479 pound-feet at an unchanged 4,200 rpm.
One of these Supersports (also known as Sport Stradales) is part of the Mullin Automotive Museum's large Bugatti collection in Oxnard, California, where they refer to it as the EB110 Supersport "Le Mans," claiming three were made in this mysterious spec. They also add a bit of history, stating that "in 2008, Peter Mullin purchased this EB110 SS Le Mans in Europe."
According to the much-trusted EB110 Registry, 1994's chassis SS22 was sold new in Germany as a standard Supersport, then exported to Japan, where it seems to have been upgraded with an engine kit including a new ECU and a very shiny intake system, resulting in an increase in turbo boost as well.
From Japan, SS22 went to Bruce Canepa in California, who indeed sold it to Peter Mullin in 2008. The registry continues that since this Supersport got no title, it's not road-legal in the United States.
As Rick Eberst, the Mullin Automotive Museum's docent points out, the odometer shows just 375 kilometers, or 233 miles, in total. It's safe to assume that the roof-mounted "ABS-off" switch has never been activated.

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While Tesla has undeniably electrically charged the automotive industry and is helping to drive down carbon emissions by making EVs more accessible, fans of the company have a history of not taking criticism too well.
Case in point: one Twitter user, Beastlorion, recently posted their displeasure at having almost been killed when their Tesla Model X, purchased only a week prior, had a catastrophic suspension failure.
The resulting Twitter thread got pretty heated, to say the least.
RELATED: TESLA MODEL X CUT IN HALF IN ACCIDENT WITH NISSAN GT WHILE DRIVER WALKS AWAY UNTOUCHED
Here is the first tweet, which shows the damage done to the car:
Though the owner says the "wheel fell off," it actually looks like a lower control arm snapped, and maybe a ball joint also failed. See: Car Battery Tester. If it is true, that's a pretty terrible first week for an $80k car.
Beastlorion continued:
It didn't finish there though:
Elon's army came straight to the defense. One user, a so-called RationalWalk said: "Elon is literally saving the world and this guy dares to harass Elon a wheel falling off? Smh."
Another poster said, "Are you sure this is your car!? Your timeline doesn't sound like it." Check out the thread if you want to see a whole barrage of similar comments - be sure to have the popcorn emoji ready.
Our favorite response of all:
Some posters even accused the OP of trying to short Tesla's stock - some view that Elon Musk is already perfectly accomplished at doing that himself.
So what does this all come down to? Would someone really snap a lower control arm off their Tesla and post it on Twitter just for attention, as some have suggested?
We can only imagine that Musk is carefully cultivating a cult-like status to make it easier for him to finally take over the world with the aid of Neuralink and SpaceX. All jokes aside, what do you make of it?
Is this a simple show of brand loyalty on the part of Tesla fans, or is something a little more sinister going on? Be sure to let us know in the comments.

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