Renault Captur II is quirky and cheaper
The French maker’s baby SUV is still colourful in many ways, says David Linklater.
The Renault Captur is a car that seems very French – or at least what seems stereotypically French to the Kiwi automotive eye.
It’s styled with idiosyncratic flair, the driving experience takes some getting used to and it’s full of clever packaging ideas.
Very French means very niche to us of course and that’s reflected in the modest sales figures of this model in New Zealand.
But make no mistake, the Captur is an utterly mainstream machine in Europe. The first version was launched in 2013 and by the end of that year it was Europe’s best-selling small SUV.
It’s continued to be a major volume player throughout its life... in Europe.
Actually, it’s not totally French because it’s very much a product of the Renault-nissan Alliance, being based on the same platform as the Clio and Nissan Juke (see, Japanese makers can be weird as well).
There’s an all-new Captur due next year. But in the meantime, Renault has tweaked the current version with what it claims are 150 changes.
To be honest, 149 or so of them won’t be obvious, but it’s also been an opportunity for Renault NZ to take the price down from the $30k bracket to a much more appealing $29,990.
That at least makes Captur much more of a contender against Nz-mainstream models like the Holden Trax, Honda HR-V and Mazda CX-3, not to mention fronting up against other slightly left-of-centre Euro babies like the Citroen C3 and Seat Arona. But what’s changed? There are new bumpers with comedy underbody-protection-look mouldings at the bottom.
Up front the Captur also now wears Renault’s corporate C-shaped daytime running lights. They’re actually pretty cool: when the car is off they look like massive pieces of chrome trim, but then the car starts up and they’re illuminated.
The Captur was famous for its outrageous body/roof colour combinations and those are still available, with 28 different hues to choose from if you really must.
But it’s not such a thing for the model in NZ any more, as you can see by this ‘‘hero’’ demonstrator model in deep red with a black roof.
Other upgrades are buried deep in the detail.
There are changes to interior trim/texture and the company says there has been much work tightening and strengthening the detail build of the car – a more solid ‘‘thunk’’ when you close the doors, stuff like that.
The car featured here wears side steps, a $1200 option.
Not sure we’d bother with those: they look pretty silly and all they really do is make your clothes dirty when you’re getting in and out in bad weather.
Sure, it’s an inexpensive little city car.
But there’s still plenty of surprise-and-delight practicality and packaging to be found in the Captur.
The upgraded model retains the zip-off seat covers of the previous version.
When we say ‘‘covers’’ they’re the actual fabric of the chairs, it’s just that you can remove and wash them.
The chunky zips around the side are quite a nice styling detail as well.
It’s a nimble little thing in corners and the chassis is well capable of maintaining the momentum needed to keep the fizzy little engine on the boil.
Storage on the front seatbacks is via a system of bungy cords, which looks minimalist-cute.
The rear seat slides so you can trade off rear legroom for luggage-carrying capacity (which is impressive anyway for a car of this size).
The cargo compartment floor is removable and you can either have a secret compartment underneath or reposition it as a partition to stop smaller items rolling around.
You do get a touch-screen infotainment system, but the display is small and the graphics are a bit murky.
There’s no phone projection (Apple Carplay or Android Auto), but you do get a Tomtom sat-nav system as standard.
Our car had a $1200 upgrade to ‘‘live’’ services (there’s a SIM card embedded in the car), which gave real-time traffic information and other functions including weather.
The driving experience is still a little quirky.
The 1.2-litre turbo-petrol engine is matched to a six-speed dualclutch transmission that can be a little indecisive in city running, hesitating away from the line and becoming confused when you play with the throttle.
This is a very French characteristic: you’re supposed to drive like you’re charging through Paris in a manual Clio. By which we mean throttle flat to the floor and brake for nobody.
Do that and the powertrain comes to life, the little engine revving freely and the EDC gearbox swapping cogs sweetly.
It’s still OK if you’re going slow, as long as you keep it smooth.
It’s a nimble little thing in corners and the chassis is well capable of maintaining the momentum needed to keep the fizzy little engine on the boil.
It’s front-drive of course: this pseudo-suv is not offered with allwheel drive.
The ride’s not brilliant on broken urban surfaces, which is one thing that runs counter to those French automotive stereotypes.
It’s OK for a sub-$30k supermini/suv, just not brilliant for a Continental car.