Why is everyone buying this car?
this is the new Renault 5 and it’s Renault’s sake moment isn’t it and what I mean by that is finally they have surprised people by making a car that everyone seems to want but there could be a huge problem with this car is this car going to just end up as style over substance well we’re going to find out but before we do I need to explain this car’s backstory because this isn’t the first Renault 5 like the Mini and the Fiat before it Renault has resurrected a long deadad model to capitalize on the huge demand for cool retro throwback cars in a market saturated by generic looking hatchbacks and SUVs the original Renault 5 was brought to market in the 1970s but was going to be called the Renault 2 or maybe the Renault Dur however Renault thought so much of their car the marketing department decided two wasn’t a grand enough number with that and so the Renault 5 was born launched with the choice of a 782cc engine producing 33.5 horsepower or a larger 956cc engine making a whopping 44 horsepower uh you wouldn’t exactly be setting any land speed records well that was until the Renault 5 Turbo arrived with its 160 horsepower and was then followed up with the more readily available GT Turbo with a slightly lesser but still respectable 120 horsepower and that’s where this new Renault 5 takes its inspiration from these classics cemented their cult status in the likes of James Bond’s Never Say Never Again and Alley G in the House films they were also the main staple for Max Power Builds in the 90s and early naughties ah I remember those days well anyway back to today and will this car live up to all the heritage let’s start off with the fact that Renault has totally and utterly got the design of this car bangone really good blend of the modern with the retro i just love the contours i love the shape of the lights i love how it just looks like an old Rena 105 but way more modern it makes me want it i tell you who wants it my partner Joe got a Tesla at the moment she likes the car to drive but she says it’s a bit old manny she wants one of these and I can see a point the headlight design on the edge level car slightly different than this highspec version but it’s hard to tell it’s not hard to tell that look cheeky little trickle or flag in there now on the bonnet you have this area here which illuminates when you’re charging the car it’s got the number five in it when I first saw the car when it was originally unveiled I didn’t like that i’d rather just have it complete bonnet that is silly it’s actually meant to mimic the air intake on the classic Renault 5 it’s grown on me and here’s an image of it charging it actually shows you how much battery you’ve got left anyway moving down the side all models get 18in alloy wheels you just get slightly different designs these are diamond cut there’s your charge port there certain models come with different graphics and you can mix and match various graphics you get contrasting door mirrors you get contrasting side skirts on all versions there’s a choice of different roof colors you can choose different colors for this little strip here around the windows as you move towards the back you think “Yeah it looks really cool because it’s a three door but no it’s not handles there it is in fact a five door really nice.” Although to be fair the actual usability of that handle is not as good as a classic handle but it’s well worth that little bit of pain the gain of the side profile that you get on this car lovely lovely lovely speaking of which I like this little element here these contoured tail lights and this little element there these sort of fake vents they hark back to the Turbo too see what I mean normally I wouldn’t like fake vents but I’m going to let this car off because it’s got so much personality it makes you like it and other things to notice the bumper on the entry- level car is blacked out there so it doesn’t look quite as nice but overall this is a great looking car this one has actually been lent to me by caraudioc.com i’ve no idea what they do no idea at all the good news is that the interior of this Renault 5 lives up to the exterior once again we’ve got a cool modern retro design just the way you’ve got this cockpit here with the screens yes they’re sort of stuck on but it all looks good it’s nicely integrated i like this little bit here on the dash like it’s soft materials you got stitching in it and I know you don’t go squeezing dashes unless you’re me but it just looks nicer than the harder plastics which are evident around the place up here and here and here but you sort of let the car off because most of the places that you touch do actually feel nice and expensive speaking of which yeah the switch gear is nicely damped feels way more expensive than in modern BMWs to tell you the truth i also like this because unlike in a BMW you can control the climate controls through physical buttons here look there yay well done Renault we love that you can also control them on the screen as well but what is odd is this while I can control some of them what I can’t do is control other bits like I can’t change the fan i can’t change the actual direction of the air flow i have to do those down here what what what’s that all about and have to turn it off down here can’t turn it off or on up there it’s like whoever was designing or programming this just went home early for dinner anyway the rest of the infotainment system is generally easy to use you’ve got Google Maps unfortunately though you can’t actually run satellite view why not it’s a shame the system itself is pretty responsive and it’s easy to go through all the different menus all logically laid out very very easy to use digital driver display bit interesting so they’ve gone for a a quirky design you can move through different views which are quite handy and I do like the map view here which mirrors the map view in there what is a bit odd is that you have this little line there where it shows your speed now we have to do a cut away from when I was driving cuz it actually shows like a speed mark and then your numbers are sometimes just recessed behind this line it’s kind of a bit unnecessary design really and I don’t need to have the speed limit warning and then a little marker of where it is as well but other than that I do quite like the system now you can control most things through the steering wheel once again easy to use and on all but the entry- level car you get adaptive cruise control it’s a shame they didn’t put it on all versions just like in a Porsche you got your driving mode select button here on the steering wheel i don’t know why Renault calls it multi-ense rather than mode the seats got a cool retro look to them they feel lovely they’re comfortable the seat position is good it’s highly adjustable as well which is great so too is the steering wheel look lots of adjustment and big shout out to the lumbar support some cars you don’t get enough this is like really like sticking a cushion behind your back and you can alter it quite quickly the motor is fast let’s have a look at some other things yeah vanity mirrors nothing really particularly interesting storage under here is is okay that’s a bit floppy so you got cup holders there and you can take out the divider now they’re deep a bit loose mind you maybe you did it that way that’s a bit better the door bins are quite shallow but they are big enough to hold a big bottle and it’ll wedge in there so even when you break it won’t come out and like get stuck underneath your brake pedal which would be a very bad thing we’ve got some storage there i’m not sure about that and then we’ve got wireless charging for your mobile phone don’t know where my mobile phone is i’d illustrate it if I had it unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have cooling let’s have a look no there’s no cooling shame you got two USBC’s there old school 12vt socket and then this recessed area there to put I don’t know what one thing I really like is a square patterning on the headliner it just gives this car character oh want to just tell you about this little thing so see if I can get it up it’s your digital voice assistant called Renault spelled R E N O no that’s Google hey Renault there he is hello look I actually call him Diamond Geyser because he’s the Renault Diamond but he can actually connect to things like chat GPT so you can ask him questions and he’ll he’ll give you the answer sometimes the answer will be wrong you know like Chat GPT so it’s fully authentic it’s also quite intuitive so I was driving this car early in the morning and the windscreen was starting to fog up i didn’t really think about it and he said “Oh wait a minute um it looks like your windscreen is going to fog up shall I just put the um demyister on?” So I was like “Yes thank you very much you’re on that before me.” Unfortunately I had the climate control off and he wasn’t able to turn on the climate control to do what he said it was going to do but um there we go at least he tried so Renault has nailed the design both inside and out but there’s one area where it has slightly shot itself in the foot you see by keeping a small overall size rear passenger space is compromised it’s a real real shame you can probably see look I’ve got no knee room and this seat is in my usual driving position what would it be like with someone taller jack do you want to have a quick look see I’m going to put on my meta glasses and you can see what’s going to happen to me
uh are you comfy
need a little more
go on bit more are you all right there is that how you normally drive okay i can’t live with this at all what’s making matters worse is that I like to have my seat quite low down and there really isn’t much space underneath this seat at all and this is the kind of trade-off you make when you build an electric car the large battery pack has to go somewhere and in the case of mass-produced cars such as this it’s usually underneath the floor in what is known as a skateboard design the reason they do this is to keep the center of mass as low as possible so the car drives nicely these platforms are also shared across a number of models to help save money in the case of this Renault the car is built on their new amper small platform and will be used in the upcoming Renault 4 Alpine A290 and future Twingo but the underfloor battery isn’t all to blame for the lack of space back here as you can see when there’s three people in the back look at your legs i don’t think we need to wear seat belts do we look at his legs this is actually the best seat in the house bizarrely okay you all can get out go on okay that’s it out you get storage isn’t great back here either there are no rear door bins and you do have some pockets on the seat backs which I can’t really show you because my legs are too much in the way and where are the USBC charging ports what where are they i bet the windows don’t even go all the way down do they kell surprise it looks cool though in here it looks cool just doesn’t feel particularly cool
fitting a baby seat in this car isn’t particularly easy either the doors don’t open very wide and the lack of space back there makes fitting a rear-facing seat a bit of a chore you’ll also need to move the front passenger seat forward to get it in and there’s some other really annoying things which I’ll tell you about later in the video a Citroen EC3 let’s find out if the boot space is better than the space in the back seats thankfully it is the capacity is 326 L which is about average for this kind of car though it’s not quite as large as a Highend Instas boot and if you want to see my full in-depth video review of that car click on the pop out banner in the top right hand corner of the screen or scan the QR code on screen now so underneath here you have some storage for your cables and stuff but apart from that let’s see how practical it is and I’m going to test it with my carry-on suitcases there although I’m not sure whether they’re a bit too large for Ryionaire even though they are Ryan Air Color in fact this one this is Rhyer Color isn’t it can I fit this other one in if I can that’ll be quite good need to be able to get it underneath the load cover without that sticking up so here’s a test that’s a win success now let’s see how easy it is to lift stuff out obviously quite easy because there’s nothing in these but you can probably see there’s quite a large load lip there so if these were really quite heavy could be a bit more problematic now let’s fold down the rear seats just take this out wonder if that will fit underneath there if it does you’re geniuses Rena you’re not geniuses you’re not You didn’t do that did you it’s not too big though we’ll just leave it there for now fold down the rear seat oh gosh there’s not much space in the back i have to move this seat forward there we go now you can see that there’s a massive ridge there so if you want to load stuff in like this and then slide it to the front you sort of going to have to do something like that not ideal wait a minute i’ve noticed appears that Renault really likes there’s another one just here look and there’s some more here there’s one in there seems everywhere I look there’s let’s just have a quick look under here surely there’s going to be some storage go on front boot oh there’s not the Renault 5 starts at £23,000 which is really competitive this particular car which is essentially the rangetop model with a bigger battery and lots of kit on it £29,000 now if you thinking about changing your car to one of these Renaults there are some annoying things you should know about first the definition of the reversing camera is just so 1990s it’s a bit retro like the car to tell you the truth also it doesn’t have a cleaning system so when it gets covered in dirt which it will do cuz it’s quite low down you’re going to have to get out and wipe it clean something makes me think that the French don’t really like the British very much because whenever they build a right-hand drive car they never bother to move the fuse box across with the steering wheel as a result the glove box on French cars smaller than they would otherwise be now here’s a look at the glove box on a lefthand drive French version of this new Renault 5 see it’s bigger renault for some reason is wedded to the idea of having this little stalk behind the steering wheel for the stereo controls rather than having on the steering wheel itself like every other manufacturer and really you don’t need that anyway because you’ve got volume controls up here which it’s quite easy to reach to and the problem is is that it means you get three stalks here on the right hand side of the steering wheel it’s almost like it’s an octopus it’s just a bit odd and while I like a column mounted gear selector like they have here that’s good because you’ve got these are the stalks it’s positioned quite high so it’s quite hard to like reach with one finger when you’re holding the steering wheel another problem with it is for some reason there is neutral but no park mode on there you think you press that for park no there is no park mode and another thing that’s a bit odd is the way certain things are dotted around the cabin so you’ve got the gear selector there and then you’ve got the start button there and then you’ve got the parking brake there it’s all just bit half hazard the seat belts don’t have a separate runner so they actually rest on the rear seats like that it means that sometimes when you fold down the rear seats you do it quickly sometimes the seat belt actually locks like that so you can’t put the seat down from the back so you have to walk around and and do it and as you can see they then flop down and so I get trapped like that this shiny black plastic trim behind the steering wheel is very reflective when you’re driving along you get like reflections flickering away it’s distracting and occasionally if the sun’s behind you you can reflect off the corner points there and it can almost blind you a little bit it’s a touch like this actually don’t worry there’s still plenty to like about this car here’s a car five core features there’s ISOIX on the front passenger seat so there’s three ISOIX locations in total really handy i like to have the baby next to me although don’t forget to turn off the passenger airbag which is dead easy to do in this car you can tell this car is designed by people who like driving because they’ve given a dedicated button there that allows you to turn off all the safety systems in one go all you have to do is press it twice like that they’re off no beeping no bonging just pure driving pleasure you can change the pedestrian warning noise the car emits when you’re driving around at low speed so this is the normal sound right stop stop stop stop stop stop now you can change it to something else called expressive and there is one more setting now it’s actually composed by Jean Michelle Ja who’s a Frenchman who did like kind of digital music a bit like Franc’s version of Hanzimmer you know how BMW uses Hanzimmer for its kind of car sounds or the French have gone and done that with their composer interestingly Jean Michelle Jar had the largest live concert in the world ever it’s like 3.5 million people in Moscow madness anyway let’s hear what he’s composed with the Renault 5 go i think that’s the winner isn’t it if you’re wondering why we’re doing it in reverse for some reason it’s louder in reverse the car will grade your driving for safety and efficiency so let’s have a look at my safety score it’s 86 out of 100 it’s good keep up the effort let’s improve trajectory control look at give me some advice consider using your indicator when you change lane in order to inform other road users oh dear I spent too long driving BMWs um assistances are available in your car to help improve your trajectories lane departure prevention no I don’t want those thank you um around 30% of drivers had an accident or near accident due to loss of vehicle control often caused by excessive speed on curves i think I’ve been going around corners a bit too quickly but hey I’m a motoring journalist i’m supposed to do that to test the car’s handling anyway let’s check out the bit about economy i’ve got a horrible feeling it’s too bad that it can’t even calculate it fortunately here’s one that I did earlier and yes I don’t think I’ve been very efficient you can actually power household appliances from the car’s battery so you you
you need a special adapter and we haven’t got it
ah what we do have with the Renault 5 though is a very easy choice between two power outputs there’s the urban model which has 120 horsepower 225 Newton meters of torque and can do naugh to 60 in a claimed 9 seconds and should do 190 mi on a full charge then there’s this car the comfort it gets 150 horsepower 245 new m of torque and will do a claimed naugh to 60 in 7.9 seconds which I’ll test a bit later in this video this model is supposed to be able to do 248 mi on a full charge so which one should you go for i’ve configured my right from the get- go this new Renault 5 is a real joy to drive the engineers have got this perfect balance between comfort and cornering ability you know you drive down the road it deals with bumps so well it makes it a real pleasure to just cruise about and then when you get to some corners want to have some fun it feels sharp and responsive win-win also the throttle pedal it gives you just the right amount of power that you’re expecting there’s no slop in it now this is one thing that you find with some Chinese cars they can’t quite get the steering and the throttle pedal quite right now it’s a little bit like when you’re cooking a meal you can have the best ingredients in the world but unless you’ve got a good chef that knows how to mix them together you can end up with something not that tasty but I’ll tell you what Renault’s engineers are Michelangard when it comes to cooking up a car that’s tasty to drive yum yum yum i really like it now full disclosure I’ve always been a bit of a fanboy for Renault Sporty model so I always preferred the Renault 5 GT Turbo over the 205 GTI now most motoring journalists won’t agree with me but that’s how I feel also the Rena again R26R is one of my favorite hot hatches ever i remember going on the launch of the Ford Focus M2 RS thinking that was brilliant and then I brought it back to the UK and I put it headto-head against the R26R and then actually felt oh my god this this Ford is nowhere near as good as the Renault the Renault felt like a racing car and you can just tell that Rena’s put all that expertise that is built up over the years into making this car good to drive now there is one slight problem and it’s the brakes so with electric cars you often have this problem where they can feel grabby and the reason for that is that the first part of your braking is regen effect so it’s actually the motor slowing down and putting energy back into the battery and then you press the pedal a bit more and you get the actual friction brakes grabbing at the discs and that bit can just that transition can make the car feel jerky so to prevent that from happening Rena decided to actually make this car have brake by wire so the braking is actually done by a computer program depending on how you’re pressing the pedal and while it does eliminate that kind of grabby feeling there’s something just slightly unnatural about it takes some getting used to it’s not terrible it’s just that when the throttle and the steering is just so spot-on that stands out as being not quite perfect in terms of performance this car’s got it going on as well so this 150 model has plenty of get up and go you put your foot down and it’s nippy enough for overtaking on the motorway but what about when you want to accelerate from a standstill this 150 version of the Renault 5 is supposed to do not 60 in 7.9 seconds let’s see what it can really do here we go 3 2 1 oh the stability control killed that one yeah let’s just do this swipy swipy traction control off this might be better loads better yes success right let’s do a brake test from 60 mph hoping for around 35 m let’s go oh it is a bit wet 36 m that’s okay the ABS did a good job and that brings me on something else to do with the stability and traction systems now one of the issues with many front-wheel drive electric cars is that because electric motors produce instant torque the moment you put your foot down when you’re pulling out of a junction with some steering lock on they can spin up their wheels quite quickly and then the traction control comes in stops the power and it can all get a bit jerky and a bit hesitant while this does spin up its wheels a little bit the traction control manages it very very well that said you don’t get that sensation of the car pushing you out of a turn like you get with an MG4 because that is rear wheel drive and as a result can feel a little bit sportier if you want to see my full in-depth video review of the MG4 click on the pop out banner up there or scan the QR code on screen now however based on my recollection of the MG I think this Renote 5 is a better drive overall now at higher speed it just seems a little bit more planted a bit more grown up it’s also slightly quieter you got really good sound insulation the only thing I can really notice is a little bit of wind whistle from up there hardly any road noise at all though special mention though to the efficiency so this car is averaging 4.2 m per kowatt hour which is very very good when you multiply that out by the battery capacity of 52 kW hours you’re looking at a real world range of about 280 mi which is pretty close to be fair to the claimed range of 252 mi so well done Renault this car is really easy to drive in town as well so it’s agile it’s nimble it’s compact also visibility is good both forwards and backwards even though the rear window is quite shallow it’s wide enough you get a good view out of it also the turning circle really helps as well it’s just 10.3 m it’s almost like a blooming London cab the only slight let down is that you don’t get full one pedal drive so while you’ve got a B mode which increases the regen braking a bit more aggressively it won’t bring the car to a complete stop you do have to touch the actual brake pedal and that’s a bit of a shame for a car that’s actually designed for mainly use in town because just being able to control the car just using your one pedal is actually quite useful that aside overall I think Renault have absolutely nailed the way this car drives i like it a lot so then what’s my final verdict on the new Rena 5 should you avoid it should you consider it should you shortlist it or should you just go right ahead and buy it well as long as you don’t need to carry people in the back of your car very often I think you should go right ahead and buy the new Renault 5 sayiel
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This is the all-new Renault 5!
The original Renault 5 was released in the 1970s, but it went out of production way back in 1996. However, it’s now been resurrected in the form of an EV! The question, does the new Renault 5 do justice to the legacy of its predecessors? Let’s take a closer look…
Starting with the exterior design, there’s no denying that Renault has got it bang on! It’s modern yet retro, with several design cues taken from the design of the original Renault 5. Along the side, you get contrasting side mirrors and skirts, and there are different colour roofs available as well! At the back, there are contoured tail lights and fake vents that harp back to the Turbo 2.
The retro-modern style continues through to the interior. There’s a dual digital dial-infotainment screen on the dash that looks smart and integrated, while there’s a striped design across the rest of the dash to help give it some definition. There may be some hard, scratchy plastics within the cabin, but you have to remember this is still an entry-level car. Thankfully, there’s also a selection of physical buttons on the centre console! The seats not only look retro and cool, but they’re comfortable as well!
There are two power output choices for the Renault 5. The entry-level is the Urban, which delivers 120hp, 225Nm, and has a claimed 0-60 time of 9 seconds. It also has a claimed range of up to 190 miles. Then we have the Comfort, which delivers 150hp, 245Nm, and a 0-60 time of 7.9 seconds. The claimed range of this edition is 248 miles.
The entry-level Renault 5 starts at £23,000, rising to £29,000 for the range-topping edition. So is it the best small electric car you can buy for under £30,000? You’ll need to stick with Mat and see for yourself!
Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:22 History
01:35 Design
03:30 Interior
08:03 Back Seats
10:14 Boot
12:26 Price
12:58 Bads
15:17 Goods
17:47 Powertrain
18:27 Country Road Driving
20:47 0-60mph & Brake Test
21:48 Driving Continued
22:57 Town Driving
23:41 Verdict
