It's one of the few SUVs you can buy at the moment without waiting an eternity. But the 2022 Renault Koleos is one of the older cars in the segment in terms of its platform. Paul Maric checks out the top-specification Koleos Intens 4x2 to see if it's any good.
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Renault content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/renault/
More Renault Koleos content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/renault/koleos
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 0:56
Interior 3:15
Infotainment 4:50
Safety 6:10
Practicality 7:02
On the road 11:18
0-100 15:58
Verdict 16:39
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
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#renault #koleos #review
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Renault content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/renault/
More Renault Koleos content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/renault/koleos
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 0:56
Interior 3:15
Infotainment 4:50
Safety 6:10
Practicality 7:02
On the road 11:18
0-100 15:58
Verdict 16:39
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
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#renault #koleos #review
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.
00:01 So the Renault Colios, it shares a platform with the Nissan X-Trail, and while we're just
00:05 about to get a brand new Nissan X-Trail in Australia, the new Colios is still a little
00:09 while away.
00:10 And that's actually a good thing, because it means this is one of the few SUVs that
00:14 you can actually buy today without waiting an eternity.
00:18 So we're going to check out if it's still any good.
00:20 This one here is the top spec Colios Intenz.
00:24 It's priced at $45,000, but if that's too expensive, the entire range kicks off at around
00:29 $35,000.
00:30 Now, this competes with things like the Nissan X-Trail, the Mitsubishi Outlander, the Kia
00:35 Sportage, it's that size of medium SUV.
00:38 Today we're going to do a detailed review of this car, so if you do want to skip ahead
00:42 to other parts of this review, you can use the time codes on the screen, or if you're
00:46 on YouTube, you can scroll down and use the chapters below.
00:49 And if you haven't done so already, please subscribe to our channel and press the bell
00:53 icon, because that's going to help us grow.
00:56 Now let's talk exterior design.
00:57 So you've got four colours to pick from, all but red will cost you $800.
01:02 How random, red.
01:03 I don't think I've actually seen one of these in red before, but anyway.
01:07 So on the design, I mentioned before that this shares a platform with the X-Trail, but
01:11 you can't really tell, they actually look totally different on the outside, and I think
01:16 this with its design flair actually looks different enough as well, and it looks stylish
01:21 out on the road, despite how long it's been out on the market.
01:24 Renault, of course, a French company, so all sorts of French design highlights.
01:29 Big Renault logo up the front there, a little bit of chrome around that bottom section,
01:34 and then as you head further down it goes black, and then this sort of silver finish
01:38 down the bottom.
01:39 I still think this is a handsome looking car, despite the fact it's been out for such a
01:42 long time.
01:43 Over here, headlights.
01:44 So full LED headlights, you have an LED daytime running light, and LED indicators as well.
01:51 Really good set of headlights, so at night time you're getting great projection down
01:53 the road, really good vision, especially if you drive in and around the country.
01:57 So despite this being just front wheel drive, you have a little over 200mm of ground clearance.
02:02 You're not going to be doing any off-road driving, but it does mean that it sits a little
02:05 bit higher off the ground.
02:06 19-inch alloy wheels, design looks good, it's got that machined finish on the outside and
02:10 a piano black finish on the inside.
02:12 A little bit of wheel arch cladding there, and this chrome strip that runs down to the
02:18 door with this little panel.
02:19 Not really sure what the purpose of this is, it looks like an air vent, but it's not functional,
02:23 it doesn't actually do anything.
02:25 Up the top here you have body colour on that wing mirror, indicator built into there as
02:29 well.
02:30 And then if you look up the top here you have a panoramic glass roof, roof rails as well.
02:34 And I like the fact that you've got these chrome door handles on the side, it kind of
02:37 continues that theme of chrome down the side there and it works well with this colour.
02:42 Privacy glass, and then whip around to the back.
02:44 Around the back here, LED tail lights, so give you good vision at night time.
02:50 Shark fin aerial up the top there.
02:52 Now this is interesting, you can see a tow bar down there.
02:54 I probably wouldn't recommend towing with a front wheel drive SUV, but if you do want
02:59 to tow it has a 2000kg brake towing capacity.
03:03 Now let me know what you think about the design.
03:05 Do you think the Colios is still a good looking SUV?
03:09 And if you had the choice of buying this or something else and waiting for something else,
03:13 what are you going to buy instead?
03:14 Let me know in the comments section below.
03:15 Righto, so we're inside the Colios.
03:18 This is the key, you've got unlock, lock, remote start, you then have a boot release,
03:24 and on the back of that you have the Renault logo.
03:27 It's a proximity sensing key, so leave that in your pocket and then you have a push button
03:30 start here.
03:32 I don't love these keys, they're just a bit chunky and pointless.
03:36 I really look forward to the day where we don't have to have keys to get into cars,
03:40 so one day it will happen.
03:42 I'm looking forward to that day.
03:45 Now in terms of the design, I mentioned earlier that this is one of the oldest cars in the
03:48 segment in terms of being on an older platform and not really being massively updated since
03:53 it was launched.
03:54 But look, it's not terrible inside here, it's got a pretty big sort of infotainment system
03:58 in the centre there and it all looks fairly presentable with nice materials used along
04:02 the dashboard there along the sides here as well.
04:04 So despite the fact that it is as old as it is, it actually still presents really nicely
04:09 which is good to see.
04:10 In terms of your touch points, it's not too bad in the centre there.
04:13 Look on the door there as well, how soft are they?
04:16 We've got our durometer, we've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.
04:20 If you want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before, look at the
04:23 link in the description below.
04:25 Now, build quality, what's that like?
04:27 Let's give this a little shake.
04:30 It's not too terrible.
04:31 I have noticed there that piano black though, should have called that out earlier, but stacks
04:36 of it around.
04:37 Hopefully that disappears the next time they release a Collios.
04:40 Now Ken for your thoughts on something, what do you think about this?
04:42 It's like a faux wood grain trim.
04:45 Actually like visually the design of it because it offsets the black, but let me know in the
04:48 comments section, what do you actually think about that?
04:51 So infotainment, the screen is just under nine inches, so it's not as fancy as the newer
04:56 screens we've seen in things like the new Captor.
04:58 It is an older version of the R-Link infotainment system, but look, it does the job and it's
05:03 a nice big screen as well with stuff that's laid out pretty logically.
05:06 So you have inbuilt satellite navigation.
05:08 It is a little bit slow and laggy as you move it around, but it's not too terrible.
05:13 Then you also have shortcut buttons along the side here for different functions as you
05:17 go.
05:18 On the radio front, you have AM/FM/DAB digital radio.
05:22 That's all plumbed through an 11 speaker Bose branded sound system, which is pretty good.
05:27 You then have other menus you can configure off to the side as well.
05:31 In terms of your smartphone mirroring, you have both Apple CarPlay, Android Auto.
05:35 Both of those are wired.
05:36 I'll show you what Apple CarPlay looks like.
05:38 There it is there.
05:39 So big full screen integration.
05:42 Not too bad.
05:44 Tiny bit laggy sometimes.
05:45 Then you have voice recognition as well to feed commands through to your smartphone mirroring.
05:49 And this is what Android Auto looks like.
05:52 So similar to Apple CarPlay, same sort of size screen, which is great.
05:57 Tiny bit laggy, but it does the job fine.
06:00 And ahead of the driver, you've also got another digital display.
06:03 You can configure some of those elements as well in terms of what is displayed either
06:06 side.
06:07 But for the most part, this is a pretty good integration.
06:09 Now what about your safety tech?
06:11 So you have autonomous emergency braking.
06:14 You have an automatic dimming rear vision mirror.
06:16 You have blind spot monitoring built into the wing mirror.
06:19 You just have standard cruise control with a speed limiter.
06:22 There is no radar cruise control.
06:24 And being a Renault, you first activate the cruise control down here and then use the
06:29 steering wheel control.
06:30 So it is a little bit silly having to go down there and then up here, but anyway, it is
06:34 what it is.
06:35 You have a lane departure warning and then on the parking front, you have both front
06:39 and rear parking sensors and a reverse view camera.
06:42 I'm going to switch the car on just to show you what that looks like.
06:46 Oh, the quality is terrible.
06:49 So you can barely, well, you can make out there's cars and stuff behind you, but you
06:53 can see on our suitcase, can't really see what that says at all.
06:55 But the guidelines do move with the steering wheel.
06:57 And then you can see your sonar displays there with your parking sensors as well.
07:02 Now what about your practicality?
07:03 And we'll start with connectivity.
07:05 So down here, you've got a 12-volt outlet, two USB-A ports and an auxiliary outlet.
07:10 No wireless phone charging, which is a little bit disappointing.
07:14 Storage for your phone, though, you can whack it down there if you want.
07:16 It'll fit a big phone or in the cup holder.
07:18 Now the cup holder is super interesting.
07:20 It is like this sort of multi-tiered setup.
07:24 So you can fit all sorts of drinks in there, including my coffee.
07:27 So I had it there this morning and it's like the perfect height to pull it out.
07:31 So I love what they've done there.
07:33 In addition to that, they've also got little air vents that you can open and close.
07:36 So you can pipe in cold air or hot air, depending on what your air conditioner is doing, onto
07:40 a drink in there.
07:41 So in the case of a coffee, you can keep it nice and warm if you want to.
07:45 So really good innovation there.
07:47 Bottle storage.
07:48 So you can fit your bottle in any one of those holes.
07:51 It fits inside the door there as well.
07:54 We'll try our big bottle inside the door.
07:57 No, it doesn't fit in there.
08:03 It kind of does if you squeeze it in, but it is a really hard, hard get.
08:08 In the centre here, you have a reasonably sized centre console there with a little storage
08:13 hole for stuff, which is interesting.
08:18 Sunglasses holder up the top there, and then on the glove box front, reasonably sized glove
08:22 box too.
08:23 In terms of your comfort, you have dual zone automatic climate control, heated and cooled
08:28 seats for the front row.
08:29 In terms of seat adjustment, you can go forwards, backwards, the backrest can go forwards, backwards.
08:35 You have lumbar adjustment, full electric adjustment for the driver and front passenger,
08:39 but the driver also gets a massage function as well.
08:43 How good is that?
08:44 Very impressive.
08:45 Have a look at these seats.
08:47 So you get Nappa leather seats here on the top spec version.
08:50 It's diamond quilted up the top with perforations there for the cooling.
08:53 Look at this.
08:54 It's like you're in a business class seat.
08:57 It looks bloody amazing.
08:58 Seats aren't too bad in terms of comfort as well, and these bottom sections extend too,
09:02 just to give you a little bit of extra driving comfort.
09:05 So yeah, pretty impressive seating setup.
09:07 Steering wheel offers both tilt and reach adjustment, and on our reach test, all of
09:12 that stuff is easy to reach while you're driving.
09:15 OK, second row of the Colossus.
09:17 So knee room is pretty good, toe room is pretty good as well, headroom is not too bad.
09:23 The space here is actually pretty impressive I reckon.
09:26 In terms of your other creature comforts, you have mat pockets in the back of the seats,
09:30 air vents down here, two USB-A charging ports and what looks like an auxiliary outlet, which
09:35 is weird.
09:36 I don't know exactly what you would use that for.
09:38 Maybe you could feed that into the infotainment system from the back, which is kind of useful.
09:44 Storage armrest here with two cup holders and a little piccolo holder.
09:48 So bottle fits in there nicely.
09:49 No teeth though, so it's going to move around a little bit, but it does fit inside the door,
09:54 which is good news.
09:57 ISOFIX points on the outboard seats with three top tether points, that quilted leather finish
10:03 along the top there.
10:04 Now our window test, does it go down?
10:08 No, it doesn't quite go all the way down, what a shame.
10:12 So cargo space, what's it like?
10:14 You've got a power tailgate.
10:17 Up it comes.
10:19 So you have around 450 litres of cargo space here.
10:23 It's actually a bit low I reckon.
10:25 You can't go any higher than that either, so you're going to have to sort of do the
10:30 limbo to get your stuff in.
10:31 But yeah, around 450 litres of cargo space here.
10:34 Beneath the cargo floor you have this cover, but underneath that cover you have a full
10:38 size spare wheel, so 225mm, matches all the other tyres on the car as well, which is great
10:45 news.
10:46 You don't really get that many SUVs in this segment that actually have full size spares.
10:50 A little bit of storage off to the side, so you also have a 12 volt outlet down here.
10:55 Show you what it looks like with our bags inside.
10:58 So laptop there.
10:59 Let's see how our suitcase fits in.
11:01 Look at that, not too bad at all.
11:05 Now if you do want to expand that space a little bit, you can drop the seats and they
11:09 have releases just here, which is good news.
11:13 And that expands the space to just under 1700 litres.
11:20 So we've just hit the road in the Colios.
11:21 Now powering this is a naturally aspirated 2.5 litre four cylinder petrol engine.
11:26 It makes 126 kilowatts of power and 226 newton metres of torque.
11:32 It's not a great deal and you do really notice it when you do load this up with passengers
11:37 that it can feel really sluggish because you are moving a lot of weight around with an
11:41 engine that is just naturally aspirated.
11:43 And unfortunately they've stuck with a similar engine for the new generation of the X-Trail
11:48 and also the Outlander, so 2.5 litre naturally aspirated.
11:51 So it looks like a trend they're going to continue with, which I don't love, but I guess
11:56 it is what it is.
11:57 It's all mated to a continuously variable transmission.
12:01 So that's a transmission without any stepped gears.
12:04 You can virtually step the gears, I'll show you how that works.
12:07 But first if I just give this a nudge, you can see the revs climb and stay there, whereas
12:14 in a traditional car it goes back through gears when you're sort of doing that.
12:18 And you can also see that when I do punch it, the speed doesn't raise with any sort
12:23 of great pace.
12:25 But you can do your manual gear shifts by using the gear shifter here and then that
12:30 will basically virtually create gears that it will then hold if you continue accelerating.
12:35 So it makes it look and feel like a normal gearbox.
12:38 One of the upshots of this transmission though is how smooth it is from a standing start
12:42 and how smooth it is generally.
12:44 So you'll see here when I take off, everything just kind of happens.
12:48 It feels very much like a torque converter.
12:50 It's not like some of the modern SUVs that have dual clutch transmissions that can be
12:53 really jerky when they move off from a standing start.
12:56 So that is one of the benefits of a CVT, it doesn't feel or have the negative attributes
13:01 of a traditional gearbox.
13:03 Now you're planning on towing, you've got a 2000kg brake towing capacity.
13:10 Let's talk fuel economy.
13:11 So Renault claims a combined average of just over 8 litres per 100km.
13:15 We are currently sitting on 8.3, so there you go, pretty much bang on.
13:21 That's including some faster driving here earlier in the day, so that fuel economy figure
13:25 is actually pretty impressive and it is one of the benefits of having a naturally aspirated
13:30 engine, it tends to not use as much fuel as a turbocharged or supercharged version of
13:34 the same engine.
13:38 Now I did mention earlier you've got a 2000kg brake to towing capacity.
13:42 Look, to be honest I wouldn't be towing 2000kg with a front wheel drive SUV, but it is there
13:48 if you do need to occasionally tow.
13:50 And then in addition to that you have a turning circle of just over 11m which is pretty good
13:53 for a big SUV.
13:55 Let's talk about the ride.
13:56 So it's interesting, it's kind of soft at times and then at other times it can be a
14:01 little bit harsh.
14:02 So you do notice that in and around the city if you hit speed humps and stuff like that
14:06 it can feel a little harsh as you sort of bump over those, but for the most part it's
14:10 fine, it's going to be comfortable for a long distance drive and then when the speed does
14:14 pick up it still remains fairly compliant.
14:17 Look at our sine waves here, we'll crank it up to 130 which is maximum legal speed here
14:24 in Australia.
14:25 It's actually not too bad, the compliance over those sine waves is great at 130 so pretty
14:30 impressive setup.
14:31 Righto, there's no drive mode, there is an eco mode, so let's give it a little punt around
14:37 our circuit here just to see what it feels like.
14:40 So I know this isn't a sporty vehicle but it's a shot anyway.
14:45 Yeah look, it's got a fair bit of body roll and then it doesn't really move with any great
14:51 deal of urgency, but you know it's fine for what it is.
14:56 It's actually interesting, once it gets right up there in the rev band it actually starts
15:00 pulling along really nicely.
15:01 It is quite thrashy at the top end because you are sort of revving it out with that continuously
15:06 variable transmission but it's actually not terrible.
15:11 Holds the road nicely as well, the steering feels OK.
15:14 So look, yeah this is no sports car and I don't expect it to be that but if you do want
15:19 to have a little bit of fun with it, it will be engaging enough and it doesn't have enough
15:23 power to really justify getting all wheel drive either so front wheel drive does pretty
15:29 much all of the work that you need it to do.
15:36 Let's talk road noise, so it's actually not terrible.
15:40 We're doing highway speeds at the moment, you get a little bit coming into the cabin
15:43 but it's quieter in here than I thought it would be and also quieter than some of the
15:46 other competitors in this segment.
15:48 The thing is if you've got kids and all that sort of stuff in the car, the last thing you
15:50 want to be doing is drowning out conversation with tyre noise and poor insulation.
15:58 Renault claims a 0-100 time of just under 10 seconds, this is how it went up against
16:03 our stopwatch.
16:04 Let's talk visibility, so it's great down the front there, I can clearly see there,
16:24 the wing mirrors are nice and big with a blind spot monitor built into them.
16:28 You also have that curved edge to give you greater visibility down the side of the car
16:31 and visibility at the back isn't too bad, it's a slightly narrow envelope but it's fine.
16:40 So the Renault Koleos, look it's not the newest car in the segment but in terms of value for
16:44 money compared to the kind of astronomical price that some of the medium SUVs are now
16:49 fetching when you have to go buy a brand new one, it still actually presents great value
16:53 for money.
16:54 It has so many features inside like the massage seat function, you really don't find that
16:57 on a lot of medium SUVs in this segment.
17:00 It is let down by the engine, it's pretty thrashy, it takes a while to get up and moving
17:04 so yeah, I don't know that I love that but given the new Koleos is still a while away,
17:09 I think this is the car you want to go for if you need an SUV now and if you need an
17:13 SUV that's going to keep your family happy for a little while longer.
17:15 So let me know in the comments section below, have you bought a Koleos?
17:18 What do they like longer term and did you go for front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive?
17:22 I think it'd be worth the investment for all-wheel drive just given the extra traction you get,
17:26 especially in the wet when it gets a little bit greasy.
17:28 So let me know down there.
17:29 Now if you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it, you share it with your mates
17:33 and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel.
17:37 But until next time, take it easy.