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It’s a curious thing with hot hatches – they’re much lusted after when they’re the cars of the moment and the best of their breed.

But when that moment has gone and the next superheated hot hatch arrives, they fade as fast as a tropical sun. They get used up until suddenly, there are hardly any left. And fewer still that you’d give drive-space to. 

The X85 generation RenaultSport Clio has yet to reach the decimation phase, but its X65 predecessor has despite this car being the hot hatch to have in its day. You’ll occasionally find a crisp Clio 182 with low-ish miles. But these are the exception - most have been thrashed, trashed or crashed.

But there signs that its successor may not quite go the same way. A tempting trip through the classifieds reveals several that have clearly been pampered, come with all the right bits and have a heap of life left in them. So perhaps the X85 Clio RenaultSport is going to buck the hot hatch trend, allowing a decent number of coveted and cared-for examples to survive. High prices potentially make it too expensive to track-day these machines to oblivion.

That said, a track is where you best experience the superb handling of this car, especially if it’s equipped with the coveted Cup option. Though if you’re shopping for an X85, you need to know that there were two ways to acquire this confection. In its most extreme form, the Cup option was not only about recalibrating the springs and dampers for still greater agility, but also about paring weight, specifically 20kgs-worth.

To make that gain, Renault deleted the air conditioning, keyless entry and curtain airbags, and installed the lower-rent dashboard of the most basic Renault Clio, complete with steering column adjustable for rake only. You could order the air conditioning and curtain airbags as options, but not the higher-grade dash, reach adjustment or keyless entry.

You paid £1000 less for this version – a refreshing contrast to Porsche, which will charge you (loads) more for an RS with less, but better still was that the Cup chassis could be ordered with standard car. In this form the Clio weighed only 1.6% more, making this the optimal choice. But if you’re shopping, you need to be sure of what you’re getting.

And what was so special about the Cup suspension? It wasn’t as if the standard car shortchanged in the gripping, turning, swerving and stopping departments. But those reworked dampers and springs tightened the Renault’s body control, deepened its athleticism and sharpened your impression of the tyres’ intimacies with the road below. And all without ruining the ride. The steering could still have weighted up more informatively when you got some boldness on in a bend, but the Clio Renaultsport Cup was unquestionably top of the pile, not least because of the lift-off, tuck-in liberties you could take with this wonderfully game chassis, and a revvy engine to goad you on.

It’s still hard to beat even now. One major reason for that is that its paddle-shift only, five-door successor doesn’t quite continue the magic, despite Dieppe’s effortful fettlings. But the main reason is that the X85 Clio RenaultSport remains one of the best-handling front-drive cars of all time. With luck, that will mean plenty of survivors.

Changan is the latest Chinese car brand to launch in the UK, doing so with a new £39,990 electric SUV that has been engineered in the UK and designed in Italy.

The Changan Deepal S07 will be in the first of the 20 new Changan dealerships this month and will be followed into showrooms later this year by a smaller Deepal S05 model, which will be revealed at next week’s Munich motor show.

Ex-Nissan executive Nic Thomas is Changan’s UK managing director and told Autocar that the British engineering in the brand’s cars would shine through in how they drive.

“You will see the difference versus some of the other cars that are coming to market,” he said.

Based in Chongqing, Changan can trace its roots back to being a trading arm of the Chinese government back in the 1860s but moved into cars in the 1950s when it started manufacturing Jeeps under licence. Its first own-brand cars followed in the 1980s.

In 2010, it laid the groundwork for a global launch of its models with a UK R&D centre in Birmingham that's home to 100 engineers. This is seen as crucial in ensuring its cars are ready to launch in the UK – as is a design centre in Italy that's home to around 300 designers. 

Work on the Deepal S07 from the UK engineering team included a full rebuild and redesign of the suspension in just three months to make it more suitable for UK roads and driving tastes, plus extensive calibration work on the automated driving assistance functions to better tailor the software. 

"Our software works really well and has been properly tailored to provide a customer a really usable experience," Thomas said. 

The Deepal S07 is a Tesla Model Y-sized crossover that will be sold in just one, fully loaded trim level. It's rear-wheel-drive with a 215bhp, 236lb ft motor and an 80kWh battery that’s good for a 295-mile range. 

While Changan is launching with the Deepal S07 as an EV, a plug-in hybrid version is also set to follow as part of plans for the brand to offer a full range of powertrain options across its line-up.

Deepal is a sub-range of models under the Changan brand, but while in China there are saloons as well as crossovers under the Deepal badge, the range in the UK is set to include only crossovers.

The Deepal S07 is the largest planned for now and the Volvo EX40-sized Deepal S05 is next to follow. Smaller models are also planned that will be priced in the £20,000s.

There's another Changan sub-brand of lower-cost models called Nevo, and these will be launched in the UK also under the Changan badge in the future, which will be the entry point into the brand.

To that end, Changan models will be either a Changan Deepal or a Changan Nevo. 

A third sub-brand, Avatr, exists as a joint venture between Changan and battery maker CATL. Thomas confirmed this brand does have European plans of its own but will exist under different leadership and not be sold in the same showrooms as Deepal and Nevo models.

Changan was the fourth best-selling car-making group in China in the first half of 2025. It has already exported models to the likes of South East Asia and the Middle East before a recent launch in Norway started its European push. The UK launch is one of several others planned into major European markets over the next few months. 

Thomas, the first commercial employee for Changan in Europe when he joined in January 2024, said that the European and UK market preparation had been more than 18 months in the making and included a “contracted and stocked” parts warehouse at East Midlands Airport; work with CAP on residual values to get to what’s claimed to be a best-in-class figure of 47%; work with Thatcham on insurability; and a banking partner.

“We’ve done the things we need to do to make sure that before we deliver a car to a customer. We’re actually ready to look after that customer and are ready to look after the dealers with all the services they then need to look after the customer,” said Thomas.

An initial 20 dealers should be followed by another 25 later this year, with a goal of around 100 targeted in total by Thomas across around 25 different dealer groups.

The likes of Ancaster, Parks, DM Keith and Stoneacre have been signed as dealer partners.

Thomas said Changan doesn't require dealers to give the brand its own bespoke showrooms to ensure that investment costs were kept low, and they can continue to work with other brands in the same space for aftersales. 

“We’ve got a lot of dealers with a legacy brand who will divide a showroom in half and spear them out [for new car sales] but then they’ve still got the aftersales work coming through,” he said. “We believe our products stand up against anybody and are happy to have the opportunity for people to look across and say: ‘What’s that?  We’ll take one of those, please, at least for a test drive.'”

Vehicle quality and customer service are big differentiators for Changan in China, said Thomas, with JD Power ranking Changan as the number-one brand in China for initial vehicle quality. “We need to bring the same level of quality to Europe,” he said.

To that end, Thomas said Changan won't be pushing for quick short-term volume gains that could undermine profitability and residual values.

"The message from China is to build a quality business for the long term," he said. "Do not rush to market. Don't push the product before it's ready. Get it right by adapting to the local market. Build a local team that understands the market. Get the elements in place to deliver quality customer service. That's a very, very clear message from the top.

"Our ambition is not limited. We expect to be one of the leading global automotive companies. We're investing more than $10 billion in new products to support globalisation and new factories."

Thomas said the long-term plan was to be in the top 10 car brands in the UK but didn't put a timeframe on that goal. He believes the focus on quality is what "differentiates us from other new entrants".

European production is possible for Changan in the future too, said Thomas.