Posted on: Oct 22, 2012 | 3,919 reads

Renault Unveils Clio Mercosur in Sao Paulo

This isn't the new MkIV Clio. This isn't even the MkIII. What you're looking at is the 1998 Clio MkII with a fresh face and some stripes, and it's still being sold in South America.

Where do old cars go to die? South America, that's where. Volkswagen is known for continuing to build old Beetles and Microbuses in Latin America, and as it turns out, so does Renault. Well, not Beetles and Microbuses, of course, but the old version of the Clio. Now you might look at these photos and think, this looks like the new Clio. And indeed it does. Only it's not. In fact it's not even the previous Clio. It's the one that came before, introduced way back in 1998.

Renault Unveils Clio Mercosur in Sao Paulo

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Renault has, however, given it a new-look face, along with some stripes and white mirrors like the Gordini edition, and called it the Clio Mercosur. The facelifted and bestriped Clio MkII takes its name from the Mercado Comun del Sur, the South American equivalent of the European Union that units Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela politically and economically. Unveiling the car this week at the Sao Paulo Motor Show, Renault has apparently forgotten to release details along with these photos, but we expect the Clio Mercosur to be powered by the same flex-fuel 75-horsepower 1.0-liter engine as the existing Brazilian-market Clio.