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Quickshift5 Works Well, Terrific Economy, Only £500 Extra
Makes Modus A Formidable Mini-MPV, But Honda Jazz Still Leads
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“Renault must feel a bit like Andy Roddick, knowing it might be the best in the world, but rueing the day Roger Federer was born”

Renault has come up with a terrific new simple and cheap automatic gearbox – the Quickshift 5 - which does everything a regular auto box would do for £500, or less than half the price of the conventional device.

And Renault has done something which few other manufacturers have failed to do – offered an automatic box with a diesel in a small car.

I’ve been driving the Renault Modus diesel mini MPV with the new gearbox, which has a robotised clutch rather than a more complicated and expensive torque convertor used on conventional auto gearboxes.

When I realised that this was a similar gearbox to that used on the Smart ForTwo little city car I thought that the game was up for the Q5. After all, the auto box on the Smart is a great example of how not to do it. The changes seem to take for ever – as you move from say second to third, there’s an embarrassing pause as the car seems to almost hiccup, wheeze, then, finally, moves to the higher gear. This removes whatever performance the Smart had, which is not much admittedly. Then, when you try and park the Smart, it won’t creep forward or backwards, so you have to blip the throttle. This means that over the life time of the car you are bound to misuse the accelerator and bash the little car’s bodywork as you try and inch into small parking spaces. And this is supposed to be a city car.

Thanks for the creep
Renault has fixed these drawbacks though. The upward changes are a bit on the slow side, but if you floor the throttle, the computer intervenes and quickens the change to suit your need. Also Renault has engineered some “creep” into the system, so you can manoeuvre backwards and forwards by using the engine’s revs against the footbrake. If Smart has now fixed these problems and I’m falsely maligning the company, perhaps they can call and I’ll gladly pass on the information.

The Q5 has a gear shift controller set where a conventional manual gear lever would be. You tap it to the right to engage neutral, or tap and pull down for reverse. You can engage manual mode by tapping the gear box to the left, then pushing the lever forward or back to change up or down. This is useful if you want to engage a gear for overtaking. As you rev the engine to overtake, when you approach the rev limit, automatic will engage if you don’t change up manually.

There a five forward gears.

One drawback which I didn’t like; if you are on a hill and in gear, the car, unlike conventional automatics, will roll back. You have to hold the car on the hand brake.

Piece of resistance
And then of course there is the piece de resistance – the marriage with the diesel engine. The combination is terrific. The 1.5 litre diesel engine is torquey and willing. Renault says that the Q5 will return the same economy figures as the manual version – an average of 62.8 mpg (4.5 l/100 kms). I’m not so sure about that, but the car is impressively frugal. I managed an average of 48.6 mpg, with one tank giving me 56.7 mpg on a run mainly across country lanes with the speed mostly 50 to 60 mph.

Whatever figures are correct, the official data means that the car qualifies for the super-low VED Band B category, which means road tax is only £50 (€75) a year.

Renault has face-lifted the Modus range, but you’d be hard pressed to pinpoint the changes. Inside there is a digital speedometer set in the centre of the dash which gives a big readout of your speed; great for when you spy the speed camera and need a quick fix on your speed. The interior quality was good, but not up to the class leader, the Honda Jazz. The car drove very well, with accurate steering and little roll in bends. The seats were comfy.

When you drive a car like the Modus, or the Jazz, you wonder why people buy more expensive cars. These mini MPVs seat 4 in comfort, 5 at a pinch, with plenty of head and leg room. They drive just fine, with the power to cruise all day on motorways at speeds way past the legal limit. And they have such flexibility that they can be transformed almost immediately into vans for that visit to the dump with the rear seats down, or take in a couple of mountain bikes without having to dismantle them.