It’s hooked up to a dual-clutch automatic gearbox that unlike a lot of other dual-clutch gearboxes is brilliant at low speeds, devoid of the usual lurching around while reversing up your driveway or negotiating tiny city car parks. In fact, it is a 1.2 litre turbo producing 88kW and 190Nm. The surprise is the capacity…it easily feels like a 1.6 litre, maybe even a 2.0 litre. It’s happy to rev smoothly to the red line, and the spread of torque makes it really useable, available from 2000rpm.

It punts along nicely propelling the 1200kg + Captur with relative ease. There’s plenty of room in the cargo area. It’s reasonably airy up front, the back seats however are a bit snug and rear headroom is OK, as long as you’re not too tall. To flip between cruise and speed limiting functions you need to look to the centre console near the hand brake for that switch, while the volume controls and telephone answer and reject button are hidden behind the steering wheel. I need to admit it took a couple of days to figure out the button on the right hand side of the wheel labeled R and O is actually associated with the cruise control. The cruise control is operated via steering wheel mounted buttons, on either side of the wheel. Trip computer, speedo, tacho and a function to display messages. The instrument cluster is unlike anything else in its layout, but everything you need is there. A reasonably high-resolution screen displays the standard reverse camera, standard sat-nav, audio and climate controls.

The dash is functional and logical with a big central screen dominating the dash. The seats in the Renault Captur are big and comfortable the driving position has you up high with a commanding view, only occasionally hindered by the big swoopy A-Pillars.

The cute theme is continued inside although it would be a mistake to interpret cute as dinky…it’s a thoroughly modern cabin albeit with some quirky French touches. It’s as cute as a button from the outside, the test car coming in a stylish Ivory with Black roof, some great daytime running lights and attractive 17″ “Explore” alloy wheels. Built to tackle an onslaught of Crossovers (Mini SUV’s) from pretty much every manufacturer in town,Īimed at the younger end of town, Renault has taken cues from the folks at MINI offering a host of options to personalise the Captur, helping to reinforce a real ownership of the car, and at the same time, cement those younger buyers to the Renault brand. Renault’s entrant into the fastest growing segment in the Australian automotive market is a convincing one. The 2016 Renault Captur is charming, engaging and ever so functional. 2016 Renault Captur Dynamique TCe 120 Road Test and Review.

Renault captur 2016