The Clio was such a successful design from the start that only a minor face-lift was needed to refresh it's appeal. The main exterior changes were 'Renault 25' style body coloured grille and headlight trims, Profiled/smoother rear light lenses, Carbon-fibre effect boot trim and relocated badging, Thinner rear wiper arm and new windscreen wiper arms and Bigger door mirrors from the Renault 19.

A new 1.9 litre 65bhp diesel engine was introduced to compete against the many other diesel engined cars in the Clio's UK 'Supermini' class of cars. This engine has a miserly 60+mpg fuel consumption, making it very cheap to run. There were minor changes under the bonnet to the petrol engines. Safety was uprated with the addition of airbags, seatbelt pre-tensioners, and side-impact bars. Equipment levels on cars was increased. Specification and model ranges stayed much the same as the Phase 1 cars although, confusingly, Renault replaced the excellent 4-speed auto transmission with a more traditional 3-speed in all automatic Clios, except the Bacarra, which retained the 4-speed unit. The option of Bosch Anti-lock brakes (ABS) became available on selected models. The limited edition 1.2RN ZOOM was sold which had a semi-automatic gearbox - a 5 speed manual shift with an electronically controlled clutch which was very effective in use.