What's this?
It's the Renault Koleos, the king of the French firm's crossovers and SUVs, sitting - as it does - above both the
Captur and
Kadjar in the company's showrooms. And as the Captur is analogous to a
Nissan Juke and the Kadjar is basically a rebodied
Nissan Qashqai, then the Koleos follows the same pattern - it's essentially an X-Trail in a fancier, Gallic frock.
Weirdly, though, Renault does not offer the Koleos with a 5+2 seating arrangement, as found in the Nissan, instead preferring to make its five-seat-only SUV feel as luxurious and commodious as possible; a ploy which seems to work, because space in the cabin is vast and the boot is a cavern for this class, offering at least 565 litres of cargo-carrying capacity. This impression of premium quality is only helped by the Koleos' handsome exterior aesthetic and high-quality cabin, because again - on both scores - it easily outshines its X-Trail source material. The bodywork of the Koleos is more attractive and svelte, with its C-shaped front lights and wide, almost-meet-in-the-middle rear clusters really giving it some definition, while the interior is very charming, its doors closing with a solid and reassuring thunk, and the dash materials/trims possessing that bit more pleasing tactility than the Nissan's workaday passenger compartment.
Like the rest of the mainstream Renault line-up, the Koleos has a revised trim grade structure, although it has just the two tiers - Iconic and GT-Line, with no room for a base Play model. The Iconic is extremely well-stocked as standard, with kit highlights including (but not limited to) cruise control, Lane Departure Warning, Advanced Emergency Braking System, Traffic Sign Recognition, Blind Spot Warning, all-round parking sensors with a reversing camera, leather upholstery, heated front seats, 19-inch alloys, LED headlights, heated and cooled cupholders, a hands-free powered tailgate, dual-zone climate control, R-Link 2 multimedia on an 8.7-inch portrait touchscreen, an Arkamys sound system and a panoramic sunroof. That's a generous stock of goodies, we're sure you'll agree.
How does it drive?
The suspicion that the Koleos is somehow the nicer car than the X-Trail is also borne out on the roads, too, because the Renault - with the same 177hp 2.0-litre diesel as the last high-power version of the Nissan we drove - felt quicker for step-off acceleration, felt stronger throughout the rev range, felt more civilised and cultured in terms of engine noise and vibrations, and just generally felt, well...
better.
It's not as if the Koleos is scintillating to drive, of course, as it retains the slightly-too-light steering that befouls many an SUV (it's a move designed to make a big, hefty vehicle feel lighter at the helm than it actually is) and the handling is perfectly fine, without ever being truly remarkable. But there's a real pleasure to just rowing the Koleos along at a kind of seven-tenths pace, where it feels decently composed and commendably agile in a way that speaks volumes about its Renault heritage; these guys know how to make a chassis, after all.
And the ride and refinement are excellent for the class, with an easy gearshift only aiding the glossy feel of the SUV because it's almost impossible to fluff a cog-swap and make the Renault jolt. Performance is subjectively strong, too, which is the oddest point of all, as the Koleos 177 dCi is supposedly 1.3 seconds slower from 0-62mph than the X-Trail with the same engine. Trust us, it genuinely doesn't feel that way behind the wheel...
Verdict
Although Renault has decided not to offer seven seats in the Koleos, it remains a mighty convincing five-seat SUV. It's not so pricey as to push it up into the realms where you start questioning why you'd have a Renault when an Audi/Mercedes/Volvo might be in easy reach, and yet the whole vehicle conveys the impression that it is quite a long way upmarket, justifying its windscreen sticker that puts it on a level with some talented seven-seat rivals. For smooth and graceful family transportation, then provided you've not got a large family, the Renault Koleos is hard to beat.
Exterior Design
