Renault 5 - long-term review

It turns out the new Renault 5 is the slowest car I’ve ever driven.

Nothing to do with the powertrain – in fact, we’ve gone for the bigger 52kWh battery which also means 148bhp and 181lb ft of instant torque through the front wheels, so it’s perfectly nippy.

No, the Renault is supremely slow because literally everyone stops you to talk about it. This started on the R5’s home turf on the drive back from the factory, but thankfully my grasp of the French language meant I could only quickly share that it was “très bon”.

Back in London I’ve been stopped by cabbies and Uber drivers alike, plus a family of four who wanted a full photoshoot of it outside Ikea. It is the correct colour, in fairness, and I agree that it looks brilliant. It’s a piece of retro design that still manages to look modern and catches the eye of those who couldn’t claim to remember the original.

Thankfully I’ve been more than happy to talk about the 5 so far too, because it’s proving very competent, efficient, and the ride quality is excellent on dreadful British roads. Charging has been flawless too, with the 200 miles back from Douai dispatched with no issues. An electric city car that can do proper motorway miles? Hurrah!

My main takeaway so far is that this feels like a properly grown-up car. The steering has decent weight to it, the damping feels reassuringly expensive and you can tell that people interested in driving had a hand in its setup. It’s a fun front-wheel drive hatch to throw around a bit. My only issue so far is that I’m finding the brake pedal to be a little bit grabby, but driving in Brake mode with maximum regen means I use the pedal less in town anyway.

First impressions are really rather good, then, but we’ll see whether that continues as the 5 enters daily life without off-street charging in the big city. Presumably the furore it causes everywhere it goes can’t continue either, this is just a sub-£30k supermini after all…