RENAULT Koleos Facelift Review

Since the Koleos is a SUV&MPV salad, the car should come with quite a high level of comfort and the car doesn't fail to deliver on this.

It all starts with the ride, which is set up so that the cat gets a hefty amount of points for this chapter. Both the setup of the suspension and the high tire wall contribute to this.

The strong soundproofing comes to complete this - you can have a perfect conversation while traveling at 200 km/h (124 mph) in this car.

Moving upwards, we'll mention the generous glass areas, as wel as the shape of the pillars, which create a strong impression of well being. How could things be different, when the hefty interior space comes to work together with all the aforementioned assets?

The rear seat isn't just foldable in a smart way, it's also roomy enough for three adults. As for the front seats, these have been included in the list of updates brought by the facelift and while they are comfortable enough, the position is still extremely high. The driver can adjust this, but the passenger is forced to face this shortcoming. Another thing that makes its way into the harmony of the cabin is the rattle of the diesel engine.

Now that we've seens the good and the dark sides of this moon, we can tell you this: send us past multiple borders by handing us the keys to a Koleos and a destination and we won't say "no".

The Koleos is a mix of cultures by definition, as it comes from Renault, borrows Nissan offroad technology and is produced by Samsung in Korea.

The car manages to adapt extremely well to a large bouquet of driving conditions, which, of course, makes one curious about the technical assets that allow it to do this.

We'll literally start from the ground up, where Renault has done the exact opposite, meaning that it has borrowed the four-wheel drive system from the Nissan X-Trail. The ground clearance is an interesting subject, since the diesel model we drove rides 186mm (7.3 inches) above the ground, while the petrol version sits at 204mm (8 inches).

When neither your right foot, not the environment are abusing the car, all the power goes to the front wheel. When the vehicle has grip issues, it doesn't run away to the shrink, but sends up to 50 percent of the torque to the rear axle. Everything is controlled automatically, but you can select between three modes using a switch that placed less than ergonomic on the lower side of the dash. It's best to leave it in "auto" but if you want you can keep it in 2WD or lock the center differential.

We'll climb to the engine compartment now, where, in the case of our test car, we found the 2.0 dCi Euro 4 oil burner (forum users call this the M9R), which, delivers 175 hp at 4,000 rpm and a peak torque of 360 Nm (265.5 lb-ft), which arrives at 2,000 rpm.

Renault revamped the Koleos late last year and, for the engine range, this has brought smaller CO2 emissions. In the case of the engine used by our test car, this now emits 166 grams per kilometer (down from 209).

The driver can rely on minions such as Hill Start Assist, which comes alive when the gradient exceeds 10 degrees, a really useful feature that means you don't have to put on your blue suede shoes when taking off on an incline.

The center console also holds a Hill Descend Control button, with the function allowing the car to travel up to a speed of 6.5 km/h (4 mph) without requiring the driver to operate the brakes. This also works while you're in reverse, a situation that offroaders are no strangers to. The feature uses the same 10 degree angle as a lower limit for its operation.

It doesn't matter which model of the Koleos range you choose, you'll end up with a well-equipped vehicle. In fact, the models are so gifted, that the list of optional extras for the range-topping equipment level used by our test car is pretty limited.

We'll start our journey in the standard features area, where we'll tell you that the features we enjoyed the most were the keyless entry and engine start, 17-inch Biton alloy wheels (these not only come with a pleasant appearance, but, in combination with the hefty tires fitted to our test car, manage to remain scratch-free for an impressive amount of time), the air vents for the rear passengers (a three-zone climate control would've been nice), as well as the black leather upholstery.

Moving to the more usual goodies, we'll mention the light and rain sensors, the heated front seats (the buttons for the feature are placed on the seats, so you'll have to get used to that), the front and rear parking sensors, the auto dimming mirrors, all-round electric windows, as well as the power driver seat.

Imagine that we've only named the features that come as an extra on the superioe trim level, we didn't even name those offered by the lower trim levels, such as the cruise control, the two-way adjustable steering wheel column and the two-zone climate control system.


Please bring the silver spoon, it is now time for desert... ahem... the optional goodies our test car was gifted with. We're referring to the Carminat TomTom satnav, an intuitive system that uses a 5.8-inch non-touchscreen system, power panoramic sunroof, tire pressure monitoring system, as well as the privacy glass.

We've saved the Bose sound system for last. This not only offers an ear & brain-pleasing experience, but the engineers have also found an interesting way of fitting the subwooer inside the spare wheel burried under the luggage compartment.

"Kabang!" - that's the sound you never want to hear when you're behind the wheel and the Renault Koleos is a car that makes efforts so that you never do.

The Nissan-borrowed all-wheel drive system knows how to switch the power delivery from the font axle to both ones quickly, so the vehicle offers you confidence through the corners, from this point of view. However, the hefty body roll brought by the suspension, which has a fetish for your comfort, will keep you from throwing the car at a bend at a too generous speed.

Off the road, the Koleos allows you to feel what's going on under the car, so that you can be in full control. It also comes with a hill descend feature that also works when you're backing up, a situation that can happen pretty often if you're the kind that likes virgin trails.

The Koleos was tested by the Euro NCAP before the facelift, receiving a five-star rating, with 33 points for the adult occupant protection, 39 points for the child occupant protection and 14 points for the pedestrian protection.

The revamp brought both exterior and interior changes to the car, but we can't be sure if these asses the problems encountered by pre-facelift model during the crash test. We're referring to the steering column, which showed a potential risk of injury to the driver's femurs, the inboard edge of the glove compartment lid, which presented a risk to the passenger's femurs, as well as the bonnet leading edge and the bonnet top, which only offered poor pedestrian protection.

The Koleos is worthy of the Renault badge when it comes to the safety department, being a good choice from this point of view.

The Koles was created by Renault with Nissan's technical help and is produced by Samsung in Korea, so the whole alliance brings its contribution to this vehicle. It is also sold on an impressive number of markets all across the world. Usually, when so many tastes mix, the result can only be mediocre, but the Koleos somehow manages to be extremely pleasant as a whole.

It works well inside the city, it does a good job at covering long distances and you won't believe what it can do when you run out of asphalt. And, more importantly, it deals with all the aforementioned challenges while keeping the humans inside it happy. We have to make it clear that the car will keep you enterntained regardless of the age, as the entire range is gifted with all sorts of goodies.

As you can imagine, the Koloes also has parts it is not so produd of. We'll start with the controversial styling, which may or may not be a good way of filtering the target audience, move on to the body roll and end with the ultra-high seating position. We have to mention that the second facelift, the only important one, which was received by the car in late 2011, did bring the details to a pleasant level, but the overall shape of the car still makes it difficult to enter the buying zone for certain kinds of customers who are looking for a rather compact SUV.

Renault should've built a crossover a long time ago, as the company's reasonable approach to building cars (not sure what we're on about here? this means you skipped the "Intro" chapter!) allows it to give us an example of this race that is extremely pleasant to live with.

If we made a list of cars that would be sent to another planet, where an alien civilisation would have to understand the notion of automobile, the Koleos would definetly be on it. You see, they should have no problem with the weird syling cues, but would probably be impressed by the multitude of possibilities offered by this car.

The price is also reasonable considering that this is a perfect all-rounder - our test car, which used the superior diesel powerplant and the range-topping equipment level, also takign a deep dive in the list of optional extras, came with a price tag of EUR30,400 (USD39,360 at the current exchange rate).

Since the Koleos tries to be many things at once, we'll look at it from this perspective and tell you that it works better as an SUV, but also makes a good MPV. In the end, it's an excellent all-rounder.