Like the Renault Captur, but want something bigger? Well, that's where the Renault Arkana steps in! Paul Maric gets behind the wheel of the 2023 Renault Arkana RS Line - the F1-inspired SUV that sits on the Captur platform. Is it any good?
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Renault content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/renault
More Renault Arkana content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/renault/arkana
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 01:02
Interior 03:25
Infotainment 04:53
Safety Tech 06:15
Practicality 07:02
On the Road 10:18
0 - 100 km/h 13:50
Verdict 16:10
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 #arkana #review
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Renault content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/renault
More Renault Arkana content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/renault/arkana
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 01:02
Interior 03:25
Infotainment 04:53
Safety Tech 06:15
Practicality 07:02
On the Road 10:18
0 - 100 km/h 13:50
Verdict 16:10
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.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#renault #arkana #review
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.
00:01 Recently we reviewed the Renault Captur
00:02 and I remember it was just really fun to drive.
00:05 I wasn't expecting it to be so engaging.
00:08 Well, the Arcana is like a bigger version of the Captur.
00:11 It sits on a longer wheelbase, it is longer in general,
00:13 but it shares the same platform.
00:15 So I'm hoping it'll be the same sort of
00:18 smile-inducing performance behind the wheel.
00:20 This one here is the top specification.
00:22 It's called the Arcana RS line,
00:24 which means it gets that F1 treatment of the Captur
00:26 that we recently tested.
00:27 It's priced at just over $43,000,
00:30 but if that's too expensive,
00:31 the entire range kicks off at just under 36 grand.
00:34 This competes with things like the Mazda CX-30,
00:36 the Volkswagen T-Roc, it's that kind of thing,
00:39 except this is like a coupe SUV style arrangement.
00:42 Now today we're gonna do a detailed review of this car.
00:45 So if you do wanna skip ahead to other parts of this review,
00:47 you can use the time codes on the screen,
00:49 or if you're on YouTube,
00:50 you can scroll down and use the chapters below.
00:52 And if you haven't done so already,
00:53 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon,
00:55 'cause that will tell you
00:56 every single time we publish a review on a fancy new car.
01:01 Let's kick off with design.
01:03 So you have six external colours to pick from.
01:06 Orbit Blue is gonna cost you $750 extra.
01:09 So the RS line, it picks up F1 inspired design.
01:13 So that means this whole bottom section down here
01:16 has been restyled from the standard Arcana
01:18 to give it the F1 inspired design.
01:20 The Arcana is an interesting looking car.
01:22 So up the front here,
01:23 it sort of has a bit of a Colleos vibe to it
01:26 with that headlight that wraps down there.
01:27 The rest of it is kind of typical Renault,
01:30 which is nice styling.
01:32 Renault being a French brand,
01:33 they really do focus on styling
01:34 and making sure this thing looks good out on the road.
01:36 So you've got those chrome highlights on the badge there
01:38 and around the grill, piano black in the centre,
01:41 giant radar module down the bottom there.
01:43 And they kind of look like aero things
01:46 to push air through here down the bottom.
01:48 So it is a very sort of trendy looking design.
01:50 Over here, you've got a set of full LED headlights
01:53 with LED daytime running light and indicator.
01:56 Little bit more aero on the side there.
01:58 Again, F1 inspired.
01:59 It spits out just on this other side here.
02:01 18 inch alloy wheels.
02:02 So as part of the RS line,
02:04 you get this red stripe within the wheel there.
02:06 It's quite a nice design.
02:07 So it's got kind of like a graphite finish on the outside
02:10 and then piano black on the inside there
02:11 with that red stripe.
02:12 Decent profile on that tyre, 255 profile.
02:15 So it should mean that it rides nicely
02:17 and that's all sitting on an 18 inch alloy wheel.
02:19 This only has just under 200 millimetres of ground clearance,
02:22 but it is front wheel drive only just like the Captur.
02:24 So you're not gonna be doing any off-road driving,
02:27 but you do get stuff like this
02:28 that make it look off-road capable.
02:30 RS line badge here signifying
02:32 this is the F1 inspired model.
02:35 Up the top here, you've got body coloured mirror
02:37 with an indicator built into there.
02:39 Oh, by the way, I asked on our Volvo XC60 review,
02:42 what is this?
02:43 'Cause we see this on a number of cars.
02:45 Apparently it's a temperature sensor.
02:46 So if that's correct,
02:47 let me know in the comment section below.
02:49 But very interesting little set up there.
02:50 So you've got a glass roof up the top here.
02:52 Privacy glass.
02:53 And then this is the coupe SUV section.
02:56 See how it sort of swoops down to look like a sedan,
03:00 but then it's got SUV proportions.
03:02 It is really quite an interesting design.
03:03 Now come around to the back.
03:05 Now around the back here, you're gonna find LED taillights.
03:07 You've got a high mount stoplight there,
03:09 shark fin aerial, Arcana badge along here,
03:12 Renault just there.
03:14 Make exhaust pipes down here
03:15 and a little bit of cladding there as well.
03:17 So let me know what you think about the design.
03:19 Do you think it is a good looking thing?
03:21 Do you think coupe SUV should exist?
03:24 Let me know in the comment section below.
03:25 So we are inside the Arcana.
03:27 We will start off with the key or the card thing.
03:31 You've got unlock, lock, illumination, and then boot.
03:36 And then on the back there, you've got the Renault logo.
03:39 Now I did mention in our other Renault reviews
03:42 that I kind of find this key a bit silly
03:44 'cause it's just too bulky to just have in your pocket.
03:46 But Renault people that commented
03:48 on our other Renault reviews seem to like it.
03:50 So good.
03:51 And there is a little slot for it here as well,
03:53 which I kind of like.
03:54 It means you can just get it out of the way if you need to.
03:56 It's a proximity sensing key as well.
03:57 So you leave that in your pocket,
03:58 then you have a push button start over here.
04:00 Just like the Captur,
04:01 I think this design is actually quite nice.
04:03 You've got that big portrait display in the center there.
04:06 This doesn't quite have that floating console
04:08 that the Captur does,
04:10 which means you don't get that storage beneath it.
04:12 But I think this still looks nice.
04:13 How's the carbon weave here on the dash
04:16 and the doors as well?
04:17 Very interesting.
04:18 Probably not real carbon,
04:19 but it's cool to see that it's there anyway.
04:21 Red highlights along the bottom part
04:23 of the dashboard there as well.
04:24 And then a little Renault RS logo just here.
04:26 Terms of your touch points.
04:28 This is quite firm there and soft on the door.
04:32 How firm are they?
04:33 Well, we've got our durometer.
04:34 We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.
04:36 If you want to see how this car compares to others
04:38 that we've tested before,
04:39 have a look at the link in the description below.
04:41 Build quality,
04:42 a little bit wonky there in the center.
04:46 Rest of this feels okay.
04:47 Let's try our door.
04:49 (door opening)
04:51 That sounds pretty good.
04:52 Let's talk infotainment.
04:54 So central to the cabin is this infotainment system.
04:58 9.3 inch portrait display.
05:01 Look, it just looks really nice and high end.
05:03 And it looks better than a lot of the other competitors
05:05 in this segment that go for different variations
05:07 of this setup.
05:08 But I think this looks quite nice.
05:10 In terms of its speed,
05:11 I have noticed it's a tiny bit laggy at times.
05:13 It's sort of okay there once you preload things,
05:15 but if you catch it napping,
05:17 it can just be a tiny bit slow
05:19 as you sort of move through the menus.
05:20 But you do get inbuilt satellite navigation.
05:23 You also have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
05:26 Both of those are wired.
05:27 I'll show you what Apple CarPlay looks like first.
05:29 So that looks pretty good.
05:30 It's pretty much a full screen integration.
05:32 They've kept some of the shortcut features up here
05:34 for the native infotainment system,
05:36 but that works quite nicely.
05:38 And this is what Android Auto looks like.
05:41 So same size there as Apple CarPlay.
05:45 Nice and snappy as well.
05:47 Now on the radio front,
05:47 you have AM, FM, and DAB digital radio.
05:51 And that's all plumbed through a six-speaker sound system.
05:54 Sound system's fine.
05:55 Nothing sort of too outrageous.
05:57 Does the job, but it is good that you have
05:59 that full coverage there
06:01 in addition to your inbuilt satellite navigation.
06:03 Now ahead of the driver, you also have another display.
06:07 This can be configured in a couple of different variations.
06:10 Nothing too sort of grand,
06:11 but it is a really nice and sharp screen,
06:14 and it looks great while you're driving.
06:15 Now safety tech, you have autonomous emergency braking
06:18 with pedestrian and cyclist detection.
06:20 You've got an auto-dimming rear vision mirror,
06:22 blind spot monitor built into the wing mirror.
06:25 You've got radar cruise control,
06:26 a lane-keeping assistant, and a lane departure warning.
06:29 Rear cross-traffic alert.
06:31 And on the parking front,
06:32 you have both front and rear parking sensors,
06:34 and a reverse view camera.
06:35 In addition to that,
06:36 you also have a semi-autonomous parking mode.
06:38 I'll show you what that looks like.
06:39 I'm gonna start the car.
06:41 So I'll flick that on.
06:43 Pop that into reverse.
06:45 Oh, that's not very good quality.
06:47 Yes, I can read what's written there,
06:49 but yeah, the quality of that is really poor.
06:51 You do get sonar top and bottom there,
06:54 along with your side sensors as well,
06:55 to see how that's going.
06:56 And then all of this stuff moves with the wheel as well,
06:59 but it's a pretty sort of straightforward setup.
07:02 Moving on to practicality,
07:03 I'm all set up with your connectivity.
07:05 So you've got an auxiliary input down here,
07:07 along with two USB-A ports.
07:09 You've got a 12-volt outlet there too.
07:11 In terms of storing your phone,
07:12 you can actually just stick it down here
07:14 on the wireless phone charging pad,
07:17 or you can whack it here in the cup holders,
07:19 should you desire.
07:20 Other storage, what about your coffee cup?
07:24 So fits into there without any problems.
07:26 You've got some teeth in there too,
07:27 and two depths as well.
07:29 So if you do have bigger coffee,
07:30 you can go for the deeper slot.
07:33 Let's see what it's like with our bottle in there.
07:34 No dramas.
07:36 Bottle inside the door.
07:37 And I think we can actually fit
07:39 our giant bottle inside the door too.
07:42 Yeah, there you go.
07:43 Fits in nicely, which is good news.
07:46 Other storage, not too much down there.
07:49 This center console here is kind of weird.
07:52 It's really deep, but quite small.
07:54 But it does move forwards and backwards
07:56 to give you a little bit more practicality.
07:58 You've got netting down the side here,
08:00 and a glove box that is very oddly shaped.
08:03 Now, what about your comfort?
08:04 So you have single zone automatic climate control,
08:07 but you do pick up heated and cooled seats
08:10 for the front row.
08:10 You've got a heated steering wheel.
08:12 The seats are electrically adjustable as well
08:14 for driver and front passengers.
08:15 You can go forwards, backwards.
08:17 The backrest can go forwards, backwards.
08:18 You can lift the base and also adjust your lumbar.
08:22 The seats themselves are really interesting.
08:24 So they're perforated for the cooling,
08:26 but they also have that sort of suede treatment
08:28 up the top with decent bolsters too.
08:30 So yeah, it's not a bad little seat set up there.
08:33 Steering offers both tilts and reach adjustment.
08:36 And on the reach test, all of this stuff is easy to reach
08:40 while you're driving.
08:41 Now, second row of the Arcana.
08:43 Despite this sitting on a longer wheelbase than the Captur,
08:46 there really is not much leg room back here.
08:48 So I can't actually fit my knees in behind the driver's seat.
08:52 And yeah, I do have it sort of fairly far back,
08:54 but it's kind of a little disappointing.
08:56 There isn't much sort of room here.
08:58 Toe room's okay.
08:59 Headroom is marginal.
09:02 You do get other cringe comforts though,
09:03 such as nets in the back of the seats.
09:06 You've got air vents down here.
09:07 Two USB-A ports.
09:09 You've got ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats
09:11 with three top tether points.
09:13 Center armrest with two cup holders.
09:16 That fits the bottle in, but without teeth,
09:18 that kind of just poofs around a little bit.
09:20 This can fit inside the door as well
09:22 if you can get it past your knee.
09:23 What about our window test?
09:25 Let's see how this goes.
09:26 So it's auto up and down.
09:28 Ah, almost so close.
09:30 Now, what about your cargo space?
09:32 So, it's not a power tailgate.
09:34 It's a little bit disappointing.
09:35 I have just over 350 liters of cargo space here.
09:38 So, it doesn't look like a huge amount,
09:40 but you do get storage under the floor here,
09:43 and it's a fairly generous amount as well.
09:45 You can get rid of this too, if you need to,
09:46 just to make that a flatter floor, should you require.
09:49 And beneath all of that is a space saver spare tire.
09:53 You've then also got a little bit of storage
09:55 off to the sides here too.
09:56 Show you what it looks like with our bags in there.
09:58 So, there's one, and there is another.
10:02 Kind of fills up pretty much that entire space.
10:05 If you do need more room though,
10:07 you can drop the second row.
10:09 You're gonna reach all the way in
10:10 and push that out of the way.
10:12 Once that is dropped though,
10:14 that opens up just under 1300 liters of cargo space.
10:18 So, I've just hit the road in the Renault Arcana.
10:23 So, the engine.
10:24 Now, this is the same engine you'll find in the Captur.
10:26 So, 1.3 liter turbocharged four cylinder petrol engine,
10:30 makes 115 kilowatts of power
10:33 and just over 260 newton meters of torque.
10:35 It actually works really well in the Captur,
10:37 'cause it's a light chassis.
10:38 It is just a good fun car to throw around.
10:41 Unfortunately, this has the same gearbox,
10:43 which is a seven speed dual clutch.
10:45 And that means at low speeds,
10:47 I just really don't love it.
10:50 It's just a bit sort of lurchy and not very smooth.
10:56 So, yeah, it is a great shame.
10:58 They use dual clutch transmissions
11:00 to help with fuel economy.
11:01 They're about sort of eight to 10% more efficient
11:03 than a torque converter,
11:05 but they come at the cost of drivability at low speeds.
11:07 It's better once it picks up,
11:08 but yeah, once you're sort of moving off
11:10 from a standing start or on a hill,
11:11 it's just not gonna be your best friend.
11:13 Renault claims a fuel economy,
11:14 a combined fuel economy of six liters per 100 Ks.
11:17 We are currently sitting on 7.2.
11:21 It's actually not too bad.
11:22 So, I have been doing a fair bit of highway driving,
11:24 some city driving as well,
11:25 and then did some faster laps around here in the morning.
11:27 So, I'm actually pretty happy with that figure.
11:29 It is pretty efficient for what is a sort of
11:33 decent-sized small SUV.
11:35 Now, what does it feel like behind the wheels?
11:38 So, I did mention it's got a dual clutch.
11:39 So, if we bury the foot in.
11:41 It's obviously not a dual clutch
11:45 for the sake of being a quick shifting one
11:48 because it isn't all that fast shifting.
11:50 It is a little bit lazy at times there,
11:53 but once it is sort of in its rev band,
11:55 it actually picks up nicely.
11:57 And you can manually shift here with the paddles.
11:59 And if I flick back through those to third,
12:02 give it a punch.
12:03 Yeah, look, it's fast enough.
12:05 It's not going to sort of pull the hair off your head,
12:08 but it is fast enough to put a bit of a smile on your face
12:11 when you do finally step on it.
12:13 Sounds okay as well.
12:14 It's sort of nothing spectacular, but it's okay.
12:17 One thing I did notice earlier, the driving position,
12:19 it's really weird for some reason.
12:21 I can't really put my finger on it,
12:23 but I just can't seem to get comfortable here.
12:27 So, yeah.
12:28 Now, drive modes, we have MySense,
12:30 which you can configure, Sport and Eco.
12:33 I'm going to pop it into Sport
12:34 so we can go for a little fang around our track here
12:37 and see what this is like.
12:38 So you've got the paddle shifters on the steering wheel.
12:41 All right, so a little bit of body roll there.
12:45 Disability control is flashing away
12:47 because with that body roll comes lift
12:50 on the inside wheel when you turn in.
12:52 Yeah, you can definitely feel the extra weight here
12:56 over the Captur.
12:57 The Captur was really quite fun and dynamic through here,
13:00 whereas this feels heavier.
13:02 So when you do lean into the throttle,
13:04 it's sort of not as interested in picking up and moving.
13:07 But in saying that,
13:09 it's actually doing a pretty decent job here of holding on.
13:12 It's just more when you go to hit the loud pedal
13:16 that it just is all a little bit delayed.
13:19 It's actually not terrible.
13:22 Yeah, that's the thing.
13:24 The chassis itself is good.
13:26 It's just this engine is more suited towards the Captur
13:29 in terms of that dynamic ability.
13:30 Here's our back straight.
13:32 We'll just roll onto that throttle.
13:33 Yeah, it's just not a lot happening here.
13:38 So that's okay.
13:39 Look, it is fine for what it is.
13:41 It's just not going to set your hair on fire
13:43 if you go for a bit of a fang.
13:45 Now let's talk 0-100.
13:46 Renault claims a time of around nine seconds.
13:50 So let's give this a shot
13:52 and we will see how it goes.
13:53 I'll dial it up a little bit and just stand it up.
13:56 (car engine roaring)
13:59 There is 100 there.
14:07 So we have 0-100 in 9.3 seconds,
14:11 which is close enough to the claim.
14:13 And our 80 to 120 time,
14:15 which simulates your overtaking is 6.7 seconds.
14:18 So you can say most of the time is spent
14:21 in that overtaking range.
14:22 And that is something to consider
14:23 if you do load this up and you go to overtake,
14:25 it is going to take a little bit of time
14:27 to get around traffic that's doing highway speeds.
14:30 Now time for our reverse test.
14:32 Let's see how quick she goes in reverse.
14:35 Here we go.
14:36 (car engine roaring)
14:39 Throttle is flat to the board.
14:44 32 kilometres an hour.
14:45 So nice and casual.
14:49 Now let's bump it up to 130 for our sine waves.
14:53 So these are typical of some of the roads you'll find
14:56 in country parts of Australia.
14:58 And you might hit them at 130 when overtaking,
15:01 or if you're in the Northern Territory,
15:02 that's the speed limit.
15:04 It's not too bad.
15:07 The body control is a little loose at the top end,
15:09 but for the most part, it's actually pretty compliant.
15:11 The ride in general is actually inoffensive.
15:14 It sort of just does the job in and around the city.
15:16 It's fine, nothing too harsh.
15:18 Decent amount of sidewall rubber there as well,
15:20 which means you're not gonna be thrown around too often.
15:22 And what about towing?
15:23 So obviously you're not gonna be towing,
15:24 you know, a three and a half tonne caravan with this,
15:26 but it does have a towing capacity of 900 kilos
15:29 with a braked trailer.
15:30 Now I did notice there as the speed picked up
15:32 a bit on the course chip sections of road,
15:34 there was a lot of tyre noise coming into the cabin.
15:36 So that is something that we did notice a little bit
15:39 in the captor as well, but it seems more noticeable here.
15:42 So yeah, that is just worth keeping in mind
15:44 if you are gonna do a long distance drive
15:46 with the family in the car,
15:47 it is going to be a little bit noisy.
15:49 Now what's your visibility like?
15:50 So look down the front there,
15:51 I can't quite see the edges of the bonnet,
15:53 but you do have the front rear parking sensors
15:55 to make that type of thing easier.
15:57 The wing mirrors are big enough
15:58 and they have the blind spot monitor built into them.
16:00 Visibility out the rear is pretty poor.
16:02 It's a very narrow envelope
16:04 and it just makes it a little bit tricky to see out of.
16:06 Turning circle comes in at 11.2 metres, which is not too bad.
16:09 So Renault Arcana, look, it is a fun little car to drive,
16:16 but not quite as engaging as the captor.
16:19 I think that if you're willing to sacrifice
16:21 a little bit of space, the captor is probably the way to go.
16:23 It's just more enjoyable to drive behind the wheel.
16:25 This is bigger, but ultimately it doesn't have
16:27 a huge amount of leg room in the second row.
16:29 It does come with a bigger boot,
16:30 but it is compromised slightly just on weight.
16:33 Outside of that though, this top spec
16:34 has pretty much all of the bells and whistles.
16:36 So I was surprised to see stuff like headed and cooled seats
16:38 and it picks up the electric seats,
16:40 which were missing from the captor.
16:41 So yeah, let me know in the comment section below,
16:43 have you bought an Arcana?
16:45 What's it like to live with?
16:46 To get used to that gearbox, I'm keen on your feedback.
16:49 If you enjoyed this video,
16:50 please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates.
16:52 And if you haven't done so already,
16:53 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.
16:56 But until next time, take it easy.