Review
2020 Renault Captur review: versatile, practical and good value
Dive into the comments section below this review and you’ll note, most likely, a popular opinion among your fellow Telegraph readers that small, supermini-based SUVs such as the Renault Captur are pointless.
‘But why have a small hatchback on stilts when a normal small car will do the job just fine?’ you might argue. And not without reason: as a rule, the taller the car, the stiffer its suspension must be to stop it leaning over, so the less comfortable it is. Less economical, too, given the greater aerodynamic drag.
But Renault has managed to shift a remarkable 1.5 million Capturs in Europe since the original was released in 2013. That statistic alone shows that this kind of car is very popular – increasingly so, in fact.
Why? Well, as it turns out, it isn’t the small hatchbacks they’re based on that these mini-SUVs are replacing. Instead, buyers are often choosing cars like these instead of conventional, Focus-sized family cars, as they offer as much space in a smaller footprint, which in turn makes them easier to park and trundle around town in. And most of the time, their lighter weight makes them no less efficient then the larger alternatives.
Now there’s an all-new Captur, and it’s tasked with retaining Renault’s best-seller status. It has a good starting point, based as it is on the similarly all-new, and rather capable, Clio; indeed, we’ve already driven the top-spec S Edition model on the international launch, and liked it.
Question is, is the Captur still as good on UK roads? And indeed, does the model most buyers will actually end up with – the mid-range Iconic – stack up?
You get rear parking sensors, two-tone paint, alloy wheels, tinted windows, roof bars and sat-nav over and above the entry-level Play, which itself is pretty well equipped, with climate control, cruise control, LED headlights and keyless entry all coming as standard.
Upgrade further to the S Edition if you want a leather steering wheel, a larger touchscreen and a rear-view camera, though we’re not convinced it’s worth the £1500 cost to do so.
The 99bhp 1.0-litre three cylinder we’ve got here is the cheapest engine of the lot; there are three more petrols and two diesels to choose from, with automatic gearboxes available on many of them and standard on the most powerful 153bhp 1.3. As with the Clio, however, you only get a five-speed manual with the 1.0-litre, which feels a bit old-fashioned.
Renault’s keyless entry system feels very slick, unlocking the car as you walk up to it, and locking it again as you walk away – you don’t have to touch the handle like you do in most systems of this sort.
Once inside, the Captur feels just like a taller Clio. Our test car had the optional Signature Orange interior pack fitted which, for £350, gets you slabs of soft-touch, neoprene-esque orange fabric throughout. Sounds awful, but in fact it turns out to be a relatively inexpensive way to lift the interior in terms of both colour and feel – it’s nicer than the dull grey plastic you get instead.
There’s the same infotainment you get on its supermini sibling, too, which is not entirely good news. The system itself is reasonably easy to get to grips with, but certain bits of it haven’t been well thought out, like the daft way the radio station list cuts out most of the name of each station, and the screen isn’t very responsive to your commands.
This seven-inch version has no direct volume control, either, so you have to prod an icon to bring up a slider on the screen itself whenever you want to turn it down (or, from the driver’s seat, you can use the remote controls on the steering column – once you’ve learned them by feel, that is, as they’re hidden out of sight behind the wheel).
It’s not all bad news in here, though. For one thing, there’s bags of space. In the front it feels airy, while the back seats offer plenty of head, leg and elbow room.
You can slide the rear seats backwards and forwards, too, creating additional boot space at the expense of rear leg room when the need arises. What’s more, you can do this from within the boot if you want to, unlike most of these set-ups, so you don’t need to go around to the rear doors and yank the seats forward awkwardly from there.
With the seats in their furthest forward position the boot is vast – way bigger than that of most family hatchbacks’, and not far off that of a larger SUV or estate. Even with the seats in a position that’ll allow you to transport passengers in the back, though, you get a decent amount of space, albeit not quite as much as the best in the class.
There’s also a clever false floor that sits at the same height as the boot lip, allowing you to slide things in and out easily, or hide smaller items beneath it, on the boot floor proper.
This, in other words, is a clever little car. It’s pretty good to drive, too – for the most part. In first gear, acceleration is oddly jerky, as though there’s a big flat spot in the middle of the rev range, and that can make it difficult to drive smoothly from a standstill.
And you might want for a touch more outright power when fully loaded – in this respect, a six-speed gearbox with shorter ratios and, consequently, more sprightly acceleration, might have helped. But when you’re on the move, at least, this little three-cylinder engine feels eager and characterful, and delivers more low-down punch than you might expect from such a small-capacity unit.
It’s married to a responsive chassis that makes the Captur quite fun to fling around, too, should the urge take you. There’s a bit of body lean, but it feels well controlled, and while the steering is rather lacking in feel, it’s well weighted, and the car turns in progressively, so you always feel in control.
Of course, more important in a car like this than the way it goes round corners is the way it smooths out bumps, and that the Captur does pretty well. There is a problem on more uneven country roads, where it has a tendency to get thrown around by lumpy Tarmac, bobbing up and down and from side to side in a way that’s tiresome at best, and at worst, nausea-inducing for your rear-seat passengers.
However, this slight woodenness only occurs at the extremities of the suspension’s travel, so the Captur does a good job of ironing out sharper, smaller bumps on flatter, smoother roads, and on the motorway it feels stable, secure, and very well planted. It’s fairly quiet, too; there’s a touch too much wind noise, but the engine settles to a gentle background hum and there’s very little tyre roar to worry about.
The Captur is shaping up fairly well already, then, but its biggest trump card comes when you take a look at the figures. For starters, it’s remarkably cheap to buy – undercutting similarly equipped versions of the Ford Puma, Peugeot 2008 and Volkswagen T-Cross by quite some margin. It’s also cheaper to run, cheaper to maintain and, like all new Renaults now, it comes with the peace of mind of a five-year warranty.
It isn’t perfect, then, but the majority of the time the Captur does hassle-free, easy-going transport very well. It can even be rather decent fun. But where it really scores is on versatility, practicality and value. And that’s the sort of thing that’ll really count among the sort of people who buy cars like this – of whom, as we’ve already established, there seem to be quite a few.
THE FACTS
Renault Captur 1.0 TCE 100 Iconic
TESTED 999cc three-cylinder petrol turbo, five-speed manual gearbox, front-wheel drive
PRICE/ON SALE £19,095/now
POWER/TORQUE 99bhp @ 5,000rpm, 118lb ft @ 2,750rpm
TOP SPEED 107mph
ACCELERATION 0-62mph in 13.3sec
FUEL ECONOMY 47.1mpg (WLTP Combined)
CO2 EMISSIONS 116g/km (NEDCeq)
VED £170 first year, then £145
VERDICT A litany of niggles stop it from being a great car, but the new Captur is still a good one, and most importantly, it’s talented in areas that are important in a small SUV like this one. If you’re planning to buy one as a family hauler, though, you might like to upgrade to an engine with more poke.
TELEGRAPH RATING Four stars out of five
THE RIVALS
Ford Puma 1.0 EcoBoost 125 Titanium, from £20,545
The Puma is currently looking like the compact SUV to beat, and this Titanium version matches the Captur’s specification pretty well. It’s more expensive, but you also get more power – what’s more, the Puma’s better to drive, and it comes with a similarly clever boot.
Nissan Juke 1.0 DIG-T 117 N-Connecta, from £20,995
Want a Captur with more distinctive styling? That’s basically what the Juke is, though it loses out on practicality by comparison, and it’s also quite expensive to buy. Its ride is more jiggly, too, though it feels similarly stable and responsive to drive, and has a rather lovely interior.
Volkswagen T-Cross 1.0 TSI 115 SE, from £19,245
To match the Captur on price you have to take a spec downgrade with the T-Cross – this SE doesn’t come with as many toys, and it doesn’t feel as special inside either thanks to some scratchy plastics and rather plain upholstery. It’s practical, comfortable and very spacious, though – worth a look if you’re feeling deeply sensible.
For tips and advice, visit our Advice section, or sign up to our newsletter here
To talk all things motoring with the Telegraph Cars team join the Telegraph Motoring Club Facebook group here