Renault 5 review

As with the outside, it's very much design-forward: a distinctive and well-crafted place to be. Lots of knowing winks to the past are there if you're hip to them. But all is ruthless modernity where it counts.

The front seats can drop very low, so the driving position is sporty if you want, although people in the back might ask you to raise the seat three or four notches to give them extra foot space.

Renault calls them H seats; one-piece backrests with rectangular bolsters. They were called tombstone seats back in the day, but maybe that's too morbid for modern sensibilities. Anyway, they support well. A hazy yellow colour comes with Iconic trim, and yellow stitching on the dash. Techno trim gets black denim with blue seats. These materials are recycled, by the way.

The base Evolution trim gets a seven-inch screen for the driver, and above that it's 10.25-inch. All get a 10.25-inch touchscreen. The upper spec has built-in Google which does some clever navigation, minimising charger time and traffic delays. But it also runs Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Screen menus are eccentric in some menus, but they do all you need.

Best of all, you can do most of what you need without menu-diving, as Renault is as big on physical controls as almost any manufacturer. Climate, driver assist and volume have their own buttons. The driver has a mushroom-field of steering wheel buttons and no fewer than four stalks – lights, wipers, stereo and drive. Oddly, even though the drive/reverse stalk has the most consequential job to do, it feels a little flimsy compared with the others.

Back seat room is supermini-average, even though this is smaller than most superminis. It doesn't suffer much from a high floor provided the front seats aren't set right down. And there's no central hump. Headroom is fine. But it's not luxurious: central armrest, cupholders, vents and fabric door trim are all absent back there. Also, the rear head restraints block the driver's mirror, so you might take them out when no-one's there.

The boot is a decent 326 litres, including a useful cable (or whatever else rucksack-sized) bin under the floor. Which makes up for the lack of froot.