Renault Kadjar review ~ station of gear

For:

Concept car-like styling, huge boot, good to drive

Our Rating:

Against:

Top spec cars expensive, only one petrol, cramped back seats

2015

Crossover Renault Kadjar is the French alternative to the Nissan Qashqai - and it's a great family car

The Renault Kadjar is the French brand's answer to the hugely popular Nissan Qashqai. In fact it's built on the same platform and also shares its engine range, as part of the Renault-Nissan alliance. But while plenty of the mechanical parts are shared, pretty much everything you touch and see in the Kadjar is different.

This means it has its own identity which is key to ensuring it stands out in the mid-sized crossover market not only against the well established Qashqai but also the Mazda CX-5, Volkswagen Tiguan and Hyundai ix35.

The Kadjar is Renault’s first entrant into this market - the unsuccessful Koleos SUV was bigger and will be replaced soon. It sits above the popular Captur supermini-SUV in the range and provides buyers with an alternative to more traditional family hatchbacks like the Megane, Ford Focus and Vauxhall Astra.

Three engines will be available from launch: a 1.2-litre petrol and two diesels; a 1.5, capable of up to 74.3mpg and 99g/km CO2, and 1.6-litre which can be ordered with four-wheel drive. There are four trim levels and equipment is generous. The entry level Expression+ has DAB digital radio, air-conditioning, Bluetooth and USB input for the 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system.

Move up to Dynamique Nav and the system is upgraded to include Renault’s R-Link 2 multimedia system with downloadable apps and Navigation. This trim also includes automatic headlamps and windscreen wipers, 17-inch alloys, keyless go, dual zone climate and the Visio System - a bundle consisting of lane departure warning, traffic sign recognition and automatic headlamp beam adjustment.

Dynamic S Nav adds 19-inch alloys, part leather seats, front and rear parking sensors, a ,modular boot floor and one touch easy folding rear bench seats. Meanwhile range topping Signature Nav cars boast a panoramic sunroof, full LED headlamps and Bose Stereo.

Our Choice: Renault Kadjar Dynamique Nav

5 Jun, 2015

The Renault Kadjar is a good-looking car, and arguably has more character than the generic Nissan Qashqai. Its big, bold nose with the massive Renault logo is very concept car-like.

This look is complemented by the angular headlamps with stylish daytime LED running lights while round the side curves and creases in body panels help give this tall vehicle a stylish swooping stance. Round the back, the futuristic design theme is completed by some distinctive, shapely tail lamps.

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The Kadjar looks okay on the 17-inch alloy wheels, but it's the 19-inch diamond-cut wheels which really complement the car. So too does the red metallic paint scheme of the car in these pictures. Inside, apart from the digital instrument dials, the Kadjar doesn’t feel quite so futuristic - but the design of the dash is more sporty than that in the Nissan Qashqai.

Overall quality is good with soft-touch materials used in most places that you'll see while driving. Harder and more brittle plastics are used lower down in the car, but overall everything seems pretty robust and well put together.

The Kadjar is available with three engines. The 1.2-litre turbo petrol develops 128bhp, and can do 119mph and 0-62mph in 10.1 seconds - with maximum pulling power from just 2,000rpm. Round town the 1.2 is nippy enough and feels pretty sprightly up to moderate speeds.

However, at higher speeds it does start to feel a little stretched and requires you to select a lower gear to overtake - you'll want a diesel for more in-gear punch on the motorway. You can choose between the 109bhp 1.5-litre dCi, which is expected to be the top seller, and the 1.6-litre dCi with 128bhp.

The 1.6 has 320NM of torque from just 1,750rpm, so it's extremely flexible and perfect for those wanting to tow. This engine is also available with all-wheel drive - and the system can send up to 50 per cent of the power to the rear wheels for added traction. Not that many people are likely to take the Kadjar off-road.

Limited ground clearance and a lack of a low ratio gearbox mean this car is more soft-roader than a proper off-roader -but on the road it’s very good. The raised driving position give a better view ahead than you get with a normal family hatchback and despite seeming quite large the Kadjar is easy to drive in town. The controls are nicely weighted too.

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On faster roads the car steers precisely, grips well and doesn’t roll much through the corners either. It’s comfy too, the suspension tuned perfectly to give the optimum balance of handling and ride quality. Only on really broken surfaces does the Kadjar start to fidget about.

It’s a generally quiet car as well, though there is a bit of wind whistle from the windscreen pillars at speed and tyre roar starts to become noticeable on rough surfaces, though more so on cars with the larger 19-inch alloy wheels. Also, the 1.2-litre petrol engine makes a strange whistling sound like a balloon deflating when you put your foot down in the higher gears. While it is by no means thrilling, the Renault Kadjar is a throughly pleasent car to drive.

The Renault Kadjar shares many of its parts with the Nissan Qashqai and so from a Reliability point of view you may think this would be a good thing. But perhaps not so much - the Qashqai was marked down for reliability in our Driver Power 2015 customer satisfaction survey, and ranked 46th out of 200 cars.

However, Renault as a brand did better than Nissan ranking in seventh place out of all manufacturers. Plus, the car comes with the French brand's excellent four-year, 100,000-mile warranty.

The Kadjar has yet to be crash tested by EuroNCAP but just like the Nissan Qashqai it is likely to achieve a top rating. All but the entry level model has lane departure warning and traffic sign recognition as standard.

However, autonomous emergency braking, which will automatically apply the brakes if a collision is imminent, is an option on all trim levels.

While the Kadjar is based on the same platform as the Qashqai and has similar dimensions, Renault's designers have decided to lengthen the rear overhang to give their car more boot space. As a result, capacity is up by 42 litres to a rather impressive 472 litres. Fold all the seats down and total load volume increases to 1,478 litres, which is more than enough for most people.

The two top-spec cars get a flexible boot floor which can be divided to partition the storage area or raised up to create a flat bay with no load lip when you fold the rear seats down. These models also get one-touch release, which allows you to lower the 60:40 split bench from the boot.

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There are plenty of storage spaces through the rest of the car, with a combined capacity of 30 litres. However, there are no really clever storage features and the front door bin can only just about fit a 1-litre bottle.

It’s a similar story in the back seats. Leg room is good but taller adults may find headroom a little tight especially in the top specification Signature Nav model as its panoramic sunroof eats in space. Overall the space in the back is fine for a family - but a Mazda CX-5 is slightly more roomy.

The new Renault Kadjar is impressively economical, especially the 1.5 dCi diesel, which claims 74.3mpg and is free to tax with excellent CO2 emissions of 99g/km. Plus, it still achieves these figures if you go for the dual-clutch automatic gearbox.

The 1.6-litre diesel is similarly frugal claiming 65.7mpg and 113g/km of CO2, and opting for the CVT auto on this model only penalises things slightly with 62.8mpg and 117g/km. The impact of four-wheel drive is much greater though, as the 1.6 dCi all-wheel drive returns a claimed 58.8mpg with 126g/km CO2.

Meanwhile, the 1.2-litre petrol returns 50.4mpg and emits 126g/km CO2 - making it the least efficient car in the range.

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