Although we’re not huge fans of the interior of the top-spec Ford Kuga, which is plastered in myriad items of automotive jewellery, we’d have liked a bit more sense of occasion for nearly £25,000 than that offered by the humourless cabin of the Koleos.
Dominated by a vast expanse of black plastic, the cabin isn’t helped by cheap-looking instruments and some switchgear that appears to have been installed at the last minute.
Nevertheless, the driving position is predictably lofty and the basic relationships between the major controls is sound, even if taller drivers would ideally want a little more rearward seat travel and a lot more steering reach adjustment.
There’s no shortage of headroom in the back, but the knees of even averaged-sized grown-ups will be hard up against the back of the front seats if they’re occupied by the tall.
The boot, however, is one of the most impressive in the class, so long as you’re sold on the split tailgate with its 200kg load limit.
On one hand, the Koleos appears to offer extremely good value; all models come with six airbags, cruise control and front foglights, although, disappointingly, you’ll need to upgrade to Dynamique S spec before ESP is available.
But this Privilege model has the lot, from leather upholstery to satellite navigation, as standard.
Less impressive are likely to be its running costs, because both its fuel consumption and CO2 outputs are among the worst in a huge class. Even cars not noted for their thrift in this area, such as the Land Rover Freelander, have no problem beating the poor 35.8mpg claimed combined consumption.
Meanwhile, band F emissions are bad news for anyone buying a tax disc and a deterrent for company car drivers. Inexplicably, it’s beaten by some margin on both these counts by the identically powered but, according to manufacturer claims, still heavier Nissan X-Trail.