If you’ve come to the idea that you won’t actually have enough money to fully retire, but will have enough money for a lot of fun cars, there’s a 2001 Renault Clio V6 Sport on sale right now. hemmings For $92,000. If that sounds like a lot for a 25-year-old French compact, remember that this is no ordinary econobox. This is the V6, Renault’s mid-engined hot hatch that it has boldly created.
Other high-performance Clios existed and were sold after this one, but they were all fairly conventional front-engine hatchbacks that never matched the rear-drive nattiness or, frankly, the legend of this one. Don’t let its commuter car size and 230 horsepower fool you; Clio V6s are known to be a handful to drive, especially the car you see here in pre-refresh Stage 1 guise.
According to the listing, this specific car was imported from Japan (so you know it was well taken care of), has only 30,883 miles on the odometer, and is said to be in excellent condition. It has recently received a “full tune-up and major service” and is a turnkey car, ready to enjoy the intrigues of back roads and passers-by with great French quirkiness. Given America’s 25-year import rule and it’s from 2001, this is as new as an imported Renault gets, and it’s already here – the car is being sold in San Mateo, California with a Washington title.
compound interest
And this is a typical, quintessentially European performance car from two decades ago, you’ll put a clutch in it because of the nearly 3.0-liter naturally aspirated V6 mated to a six-speed manual transmission. (Many outlets call this engine a 3.0-liter, but others err on the side of accuracy and say a 2.9-liter because it’s 2,946cc.)
French hatchback fans will remember that the Clio V6 is not Renault’s first mid-engined hot hatch. That title belongs to the vintage R5 Turbo of the ’80s, whose Clio V6 serves as its spiritual successor. Well, it seems like the “Renault does a wild, mid-engined hatchback every 20 years” is starting to become a pattern. It recently introduced the new Renault 5 Turbo 3e, a 536-hp EV with two in-wheel electric motors at the rear, retro styling and a limited edition of just 1,980 examples starting in 2027.
This means that it will be at least 2052 when people will first start coming here so that people can spend a lot of money on them. At this rate, we’ll never really retire, will we?
