{"id":1801673,"date":"2026-03-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1801673"},"modified":"2026-03-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T21:00:00","slug":"renault-5-long-term-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1801673","title":{"rendered":"Renault 5 – long-term review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I don\u2019t really like electric cars, but I\u2019m thinking about buying one of these.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If I had a pound for every time I\u2019d heard that sentence (or similar) since I started running the R5, I\u2019d probably have enough cash to buy the thing before it goes back to Renault. And that would make me very happy indeed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In fact, if I was being paid even a very small conversion fee, I might have earned enough just from the R5\u2019s recent showing at Bicester Scramble. The little Pop Yellow hatch took pride of place between Editor Rix\u2019s long-term Maserati GranTurismo Folgore and the only Kimera EVO37 in the UK on our very own Top Gear stand. The magical reborn Lancia was clearly the star of the show, but I\u2019d argue there was far more interest in the \u00a325k Renault than the wildly expensive Maserati.<\/p>\n

Bicester\u2019s Scrambles are full of hardened petrolheads, but plenty had already been down to their local dealer for a test drive of the 5, while others were keen to hear about real world range, efficiency and rear seat space. The first two perfectly acceptable by the way, the latter slightly less so, but I very rarely carry passengers back there.<\/p>\n

Of course, lots of the initial interest is down to the looks. The new 5 manages to hark back to the cuteness of the 1970s original, while its chunky arches and surprisingly sharp front bumper remind hot hatch fans of the later Turbo. But here\u2019s the thing, the modern day 5 couldn\u2019t actually look this good if it was powered by petrol.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I arrived at Renault in 2009, I got a lot of questions about the\u00a04\u00a0and the\u00a05,\u201d Renault\u2019s design boss Laurens van den Acker told me recently.\u00a0\u201cI used to say, look,\u00a0I have been\u00a0hired for the future, not for the past.\u00a0And I believed that at the time. But EV platforms allow us to get close to the proportions of those days.\u00a0At that time you\u00a0didn’t\u00a0really have front overhangs, crumple zones, pedestrian impact zones and all\u00a0this\u00a0stuff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cCars\u00a0had\u00a0their\u00a0wheels in the corners\u00a0and\u00a0good drivability.\u00a0And with EV platforms, we can replicate this.\u00a0The\u00a0motors\u00a0are more compact, so you can have bigger wheels that are closer to the corners of the car and that turn more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf\u00a0you\u00a0put an internal combustion engine in it, you would have to add\u00a0100mm\u00a0to the front end, and\u00a0then you would make a caricature of those cars and not really get close\u00a0to the actual design.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, you want your little French hatch to look this good? It really does need to have an electric motor. But with all that nostalgia, an easy-to-use interior and a genuinely fun drive, I think the R5 might just be the best EV for converting petrolheads.<\/p>\n

In fact, one lady I spoke to at Bicester had already been converted and loved her Pop Green example. She was just desperate to know how we got our hands on the highly coveted baguette holder\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t really like electric cars, but I\u2019m thinking about buying one of these. If I had a pound for every time I\u2019d heard that sentence (or similar) since I started running the R5, I\u2019d probably have enough cash to buy the thing before it goes back to Renault. And that would make me very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-1801673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1801673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1801673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1801673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1801673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}