MOT – Loan Car

While the Saab was getting its MOT yesterday, I got a courtesy car/loan car from the garage. Weirdly, for a Saab garage, it was a Renault.   In this case, a Renault Clio Pzaz (don’t blame me for the fucking stupid name) which I can only describe as a hateful piece of shit.

I’m sure it’s fine for urban driving and commutes where you’re not travelling on fast roads or motorways – but on those roads, it’s a scary, underpowered piece of crap.  I know, I’m spoiled by being used to driving cars with a 2L turbo engine – but I do drive primarily on motorways and fast roads.  If I were doing that while driving something like the Pzaz, I’d be one scared driver – even getting up to 70mph was a struggle for it, and meant the motor was buzzing around the 4,500rpm mark, which is more than double the rpm the Saab uses for the same speeds and more.

Interestingly, I felt the same about the last Renault I drove – way back in Feb 2013.  Obviously both were base-models, and thus the lowest of the low, but still, they’ve not been at all fun.  I’m sort of surprised, because a couple of the car magazines I read recommend the higher-spec and better-performance Renaults. I haven’t played with any of those, so can’t comment – but I’m definitely unimpressed with the lower-spec base-models.

Thankfully, I only had it for a few hours. With luck, I won’t have to drive one again.