6 It must outshine the crossover class of 2017
NO ONE WAS talking about small crossovers back in 2008. Nissan’s Qashqai had arrived the year before and begun to put the squeeze on the traditional C-segment competition, but in the class below it was business as usual.
Not any more. Now B-segment crossovers are everywhere, eating away at the demand for mainstream superminis. Vauxhall’s Mokka and the Nissan Juke hovered just outside the top 10 on the list of the UK’s most popular models in 2016.
But in terms tangible benefits, what does a car like the Renault Captur, Europe’s most popular B-segment crossover, actually offer above a Fiesta?
You only have to open the two boots to find your first reason for going supersize. The Fiesta’s swallows a meagre
303 litres of luggage, compared to a Golf-like 455 litres for the Captur, which has a useful sliding rear bench, allowing you to prioritise rear seat or boot space.
And while the Renault’s by no means palatial inside, its tall roof gives it a distinct subjective advantage when it comes to interior space.
On the downside it’s nowhere near as good to drive as the Fiesta. The steering is overlight, and the chassis never encourages you to wring out engines that aren’t as much fun to work hard, nor as economical when you’re doing it.
And for all we’ve said about cabin space, the interior is low rent, although in the Captur’s defence a facelifted version is on sale any day now.
But it’s not hard to see the draw. There’s the appeal of sitting high, and the sense – misplaced or not – that you’ve bought something a bit funkier than the mainstream.
Even Ford hasn’t been immune to the pull of crossovers. It’s tried, and mostly failed, to fob Europe off with the EcoSport, a second-rate, Indian-built supersize Fiesta. But later this year we’ll get the Fiesta Active. More a Fiesta Allroad than a completely separate car, it features raised suspension, tougher-looking, but still subtle, arch cladding and roof rails to give the impression of a crossover.
If it drives as well as a normal Fiesta and at least looks like it could get its toes dirty without crying, it’s bound to be a massive hit.
It’ll be fascinating to watch the Fiesta’s progress over the course of this next generation. Because if the Fiesta starts to lose ground to the crossover, the supermini as we know it is doomed.
It’s not hard to see the attraction of tall and funky crossovers