08/11/2024 The new Renault capture gets a revised body, which looks sophisticated and deceptively larger than the car it replaces. The interior moves more upmarket too with a plushness to rival or shame premium brands. The compact Captur SUV crossover has matured, and in terms of interior space there is enough for most urban users. So the baby Renault SUV is all grown up. Renault has a very fresh and youthful range of cars and it can be a bit mind-boggling at times to spot one from the other.
The cabin in our top spec Alpine grade car is plush comfortable and has a strong hint of premium car to it. The points of contact have a quality feel and the seating is comfortable to. Four people will fit, or five at a squeeze. Anybody using a car in an urban environment will find the Captur ticks most of the boxes – It’s a right-sized SUV!
“Compact is the new black” – me! In all seriousness small cars make so much snese and Captur is a big small car. It is 4,239mm long with a wheelbase of 2,639mm (hence the good interior space). The boot holds anything from a minimum of 326/440 litres (hybrid) 422/536 (1 litre) up to 1,458-1,596 with the second row seats down.
Under the bonnet you have a choice of powertrain you can have a 90 hp 1 L three cylinder turbo petrol or 1.6 L hybrid that pushes out 145 hp and really is quite indulgent and feels a perfect fit in this car. The hybrid makes a lot of sense if you’re one Car family as it has enough power to be engaging but also not to be sluggish when you’re fully loaded or doing a long trip. A bonus with all Capturs is low fuel consumption, we averaged 5.5 L per hundred kilometres.
On the road Captur benefits from revisions to its suspension. Shock absorbers have been retuned, drivetrain geometry and the power steering have been tweaked also to aid dynamisim. Captur drives in a predictable way it is comfortable reasonably engaging and has no vices to speak of. The car has an urban run out is impressive and even on the open road the car acts like a vehicle in a size above. Renault has fitted what it calls ‘a new generation driving aids: Active Driver Assist for Level 2 autonomous driving and predictive hybrid driving.’ As with the newest of cars there are a number of standard warnnign bings and bongs that are on by default. renault in all its newer models has a Perso button that allows you mute these often annoying noises with a couple of presses of a button (‘My Safety Switch: to enable or disable preferred settings for five ADAS at the same time’.)
Captur pricing starts from just under €29,270. Our ‘Esprit Alpine’ test car was just shy of €40,000. Over 2m have been sold in 90 countries since its launch. Pricing as with all new cars is a lot higher than you would expect you mainly to the additional mandatory safety equipment demanded by EU regulations and other new tech and technologies that reduce emissions. The new Renault Captur can be a one stop car for a family and certainly its high price point suggests it should be. Michael Sheridan
