There was moderate collapse of the door aperture. After the test, the driver's door could only be opened using tools. The passenger's door opened normally.

The Clio's steering wheel was pushed back by a limited 105mm. It had also been forced upwards by 133mm under frontal impact, which is judged to be moderate.

Driver
Because of this rearward and vertical intrusion of the steering wheel and an unstable head contact with the airbag - the dummy's head slid off the bag and scuffed the windscreen pillar - head protection was downrated to marginal. However, the neck protection was good.

The facia intrusion and structural instability meant that the driver's chest protection, otherwise assessed as adequate, was downrated to weak.

Protection of both upper legs was downrated to poor because of the number of stiff structures which could concentrate loads on the knees in an impact. In the frontal crash, the dummy's left knee hit the bonnet release lever, rigidly mounted on the steering column. The right knee impacted against the headlight adjuster knob, displacing it so that loads strutted through to the engine compartment bulkhead. For both knees, further penetration into the facia would have resulted in sharply increased loads.

Protection of the lower legs was assessed as adequate on the left side and weak on the right side. Intrusion of the footwell during the frontal impact caused feet and ankle protection to be rated as weak.



Front passenger
Data from the passenger-side dummy showed protection for the head, neck, knee/femur/pelvis, left lower leg and feet and ankles was good. Adequate protection was provided for the chest and right lower leg.



<=== The steering wheel moved both rearward and upward, while the knees hit the bonnet release lever and the headlight adjuster


Side impact
High loading on all the dummy's ribs in the side impact crash test resulted in a chest protection rating of poor, with only marginal protection being provided for the abdomen. However, the head protection was judged to be good.

An instrumentation failure resulted in no data being available to assess pelvis protection. But information supplied by the manufacturer indicated that the ratings would have been within the range adequate to weak. Within this range, the overall rating for the car would not vary.

The child seat was well restrained in frontal impact but poorly in side impact. In both, the head was allowed to move too much

Child restraint Renault recommended a Renault Argonaut rearward-facing child seat for the Clio. However, the restraint was too large to fit on the rear seat with the front seats in their standard position for the test. Renault's second recommendation of a Britax Freeway forward-facing child seat was therefore used The forward movement of the child restraint under frontal impact was well controlled. However, there was insufficient restraint provided for the child's upper body which allowed a large degree of forward movement of the head to occur. The lateral movement of the child restraint under side impact was poor, with the upper part of the restraint moving nearly to the mid line of the car. The child's head then moved well beyond the sides of the child restraint.

RENAULT CLIO FACT FILE
Model Body Car tested Build date Kerb weight UK on the road price	Renault Clio 1.2RL Three-door hatchback 1996 model year March 1996 Ł8375 (with driver's airbag)
Model history The Clio was introduced in April 1991. For the 1996 model year the Clio RL is fitted with door beams, front safety belt pre-tensioners and height adjustable features as standard. Driver's and passenger's airbags are optional, with a driver's airbag being fitted to the test car.

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