DRIVE COLUMN: MOST minis have grown in recent years, and are still growing.

With every new update, the makers sneak an extra inch or so on the length.

The new Fiesta, due next spring, will be over 2in longer than the current model. And next year's new VW Polo will be more than 6in longer!

All of which is very welcome except that it gradually defeats the purpose of a small car.

Renault's Clio has stuck to that original purpose. It has been around for at least 10 years, with the Clio II arriving in 1998, and selling 200,000 in three years.

The latest Clio (not called III) arrived in June. As you'd expect, Renault say everything is better (faster, more efficient, new interior, additional safety equipment, and more).

But it remains a small easy-to-manoeuvre, easy-to-park mini. It's also one of the best-looking it borrows its rear-end style from the Avantime.

Prices range from £7,495, rising to £15,495 for the Sport 172.

In between are lots more variants, but it's not too easy to sort them out Renault, in its efforts to rationalise its catalogue, has made it more complicated.

First, all models now fit into three separate groups: Freeway, Elegance, or Sport. I'm not sure what the point is none of them will matter to you once you've bought the car but it sounds simple enough.

But soon it starts sounding less simple. The Freeway collection has three models Authentique, Expression and Expression plus. Elegance offers the Privilege and Initiale. And Sport has the Dynamique, Dynamique Plus and the fast 172.

(I reckon that adds up to eight, but the price list offers 10 variants).

Perhaps it's difficult coming up with enough names for all these, but the Dynamique which I have been driving didn't live up to that 'dynamic' handle.

With the 1.2-litre 16-valve 75bhp engine which Renault thinks will be the favourite choice, the car didn't feel sporty, and from the driving seat there was nothing to suggest that those clever Frenchies had endowed it with anything more than today's norm.

And although the Clio is the only car in its class to have the combination of ABS and four airbags as standard across the whole range, my first reaction was that despite its position fairly high up the price list, the car felt rather lacking in equipment levels.

That is plain silly, because the car's spec list makes it clear that it has everything we expect in a car of today . . . so why did it leave me disappointed?

The trouble is that when you start out feeling disappointed, you also begin to notice other things.

Like size.

No one expects a Clio to have vast passenger space, but throughout my week with the Dynamique I felt as if I was living in a rabbit hutch.

This wasn't helped by Renault's decision that cars in the Sport collection don't offer five doors.

And when I had to carry a passenger in the rear, the business of squeezing in through the front door and then climbing through into the back became somewhat tiresome.

Yes, it's obvious that this will be a factor with any three-door car, but many manage to make it an easier business than the Clio.

Perhaps that's why other minis have grown!

All this sounds rather a put-down, and I don't think that's fair. The Clio has been a popular and more stylish alternative to the Fiesta, Corsa, et al. I've driven the model several times in the last 10 years and always liked it.

The key to this appears to be making the right choice from that collection.

Renault Clio Dynamique

Body: 12ft 6in by 5ft 5in three-door four-seat hatch.

Power train: 1149cc 4-cylinder 16-valve 75bhp engine driving front wheels through five-speed manual gearbox.

Performance: 0-62mph in 13 seconds, top speed 106 mph.

MPG: urban 36, extra urban 57, combined 48.

Price: £8,495.

Insurance: Group 3.

Servicing: 18,000 miles, two years.

Warranty: 3 years/60,000 miles, 3 years' roadside assistance.

Your local dealer: Saxon, New Road, Bradford on Avon BA15 1AP. Tel: (01225) 863863. Web: www.saxongarage.co.uk