I am contemplating on purchasing a clio, 1.2 lr Expression Model, reg 2004. However, asl have little knowledge on cars, l was wondering if £3000 was a reasonable cost for the clio? It has done 55k on the mileage clock and has two owners ( first owner being the Renault dealership).
Any advice will be much appreciated especially on the pro is and cons on clio's.

..now that is the question.
knock it down £250...not a bad car,cheep for parts and running costs.go for it.

Before you buy anything, get a free valuation at http://whatcar.com/valuations.aspx

£3,000 is far too expensive. about £500 maximum. Whoever is selling it has seen you coming.
remember that with this car and any similar type, the re-sale value will be NIL.

Its French. They should stick to cuisine, beer and winemaking.
Cars ? Mon Dieu !

Renault. maybe modern Renaults are not so bad but in the 80 is and early 90 is they were notorious for turning into rust (modern cars do not rust - not much anyway) and they've always been a bit cheap and nasty.

l agree with Cyclops, most French cars are a bit temperamental and it is only the Peugeots that l would feel comfortable buying.

No go for a vauxhall corsa. MUCH better!! (the new one is.)

here it is plain & simple, l used to work for renault, all staff at our dealership had a 30% discount on new cars..not 1 of us owned a renault.
the clio like nearly all renaults r dogged by reacuring problems & poor build quality.
if ur looking at spending £3k go for a golf, fiesta zetec, corsa or pretty much anything asian so honda toyota ect they have great models that r cheap & last for ages compared with french & italian cars.

im not saying all renaults r crap, l know some people buy them & own them for years without any problems, im speaking on the whole & in general

Sounds like a reasonable enough price. You did not say if it was a private sale, a dealer or a motor trader, but with the credit crunch & all that, dealers r generally looking to get rid of as many cars as possible, So there should be scope for a bit of haggling.

l had a 54 Clio 1.2 Extreme which l bought from new & it was a really good car. Cheap to buy ( l got it on a special offer & saved well over £1000 off the list price), cheap to insure (group 2 or 3 or something), economical (40 mpg in the town & as much as 55 on a long run), adequate power for a normal driver, good at maintaining their value (as is the way with most small cars).

Despite what everyone says about Renaults (and French cars in general) my Clio was very reliable. l had a problem with the back wiper, which was fixed under warranty at the local Renault dealer & a minor rattle at the dashboard which l fixed myself (when l eventually located the loose bit of trim). Other than that, it ran perfectly for the 3 years l had it.

Servicing is only every 2 years so that keeps costs down (although l got the oil & filter changed every year anyway).

The only downside, in my opinion, was the lack of space in the back seats. Although, most of the time it was only me in the car so it did not matter.