As you might expect from a car conceived for reasons of commercial expediency, Renault and its partners in the East have played the design of the Koleos with a determinedly straight bat. If you’re familiar with the workings of the Nissan X-Trail, it’s fair to say there’s nothing in the rest of this section that’s going to have you gasping with surprise.
As with all such cars these days, the Koleos is of straightforward monocoque construction with independent suspension at either end, just as you might find in any conventional road car. True, it does boast a sophisticated-sounding multi-link rear axle, but these days that’s par for course down in the Focus/Golf class, so there’s nothing to distinguish it there.
One small point of interest is that Renault does appear to have thought harder than most about the differing kinds of customer to whom it hopes the Koleos will appeal. There is, for instance, a two-wheel-drive variant for those who want the looks of an SUV but would rather have a grand off the list price than the ability to go off-roading, which is more than you can say for an X-Trail.
Nor is this facility restricted to one cheap introductory model; you can get two-wheel drive in fairly ritzy Dynamique S spec as well. But for those who do want four-wheel drive, Renault obliges and adds both hill descent control and the ability to lock the centre differential, which should allow it to venture further than most from the unchallenging arena of the school playing field.
Sensibly (for our market, at least), Renault is restricting the choice of engine to diesel or… diesel. You can choose between a 148bhp variant (the only one available with either automatic gears or two-wheel drive, but not both) or the manual-only, all-wheel-drive, top-spec 173bhp version you can see here.
