Renault Kaptur review, test drive

Renault’s made-for-Russia Kaptur is India bound, and it could just be the SUV you are looking for. We spend a couple of days with it.

Published on Nov 22, 2016 06:00:00 AM

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Renault say the Kaptur thrives in challenging conditions, and to prove it, they arranged for a deluge of such ferocity in Moscow, the southwest monsoon would have been proud. Not only is it raining as hard as it does back home, it’s been at it for hours and hours and hours. So my first impressions of this car are of how well it takes to Moscow’s flooded backstreets, strange as that sounds. All the training back in Mumbai sure is coming in handy here. But the Kaptur simply waltzes through, easily ‘ploughing’ through some difficult bits.

Soon we are on an elevated road that leads out of the city. I’m not following the Moskva river down to Gorky Park, not today I’m not, and this is no balmy August summer night; but what the hell, the city looks pretty spectacular from up here. The upshot of the rain is that the elevated six-lane highway we are on is as empty as a road in rural Kazakhstan. We pass the occasional car on a very long stretch and since no one is around, I, well... put a bit of extra weight on the accelerator pedal. The 143hp two-litre petrol isn’t the most modern engine around and the four-speed automatic is positively lethargic, but with all that grunt under my right foot, we’re soon doing very ‘respectable’ speeds. The Kaptur may have 205mm of ground clearance and there’s probably a gale force wind blowing us from one lane to the next, but the Renault still feels so ‘locked’ onto the tarmac; I’m relaxed behind the wheel, only looking out for standing water. The highway, of course, is well drained and so I can keep my foot planted. This allows me to keep my speed up even when the highway is reduced to two lanes. There is a bit of looseness as I change direction at high speed in the wet, and that calls for some extra attention, but apart from that, this is a Sunday drive.

The Kaptur also impresses as the highway gets tighter and tighter. While I find that it’snot nearly asquick to dive into a corner as the Duster and needs a bit more effort to pointinto tighter corners, it does settle on its springs nicely, and then there’s plenty of connection and confidence from the wheel. The steering and general handling, in fact, are so friendly, you don’t need to be goaded into driving faster – it comes naturally. And what also makes it easier to do is that the brakes are strong and pedal feel is excellent. It does start to run a bit wide when I really up the pace and it doesn’t particularly like quick changes in direction, where it rolls from one extreme to the other, but all things considered, for an SUV with so much clearance, this is great. It’s not an SUV you want to throw around, however – it’s a bit too ‘loose’ for that.

After a bit, we get to some rural roads that aren’t paved as well as Moscow’s highways. There are large rutted sections and the tarmac is frayed in bits, and this causes the Kaptur to take a few medium-sized knocks. But the suspension soaks them up surprisingly well due to an initial layer of suppleness. There is a bit of deflection as I go over larger bumps and a hint of firmness too, but the ride in general is so flat, I soon learn to simply power over most intrusions – something that most people want an SUV for in the first place.

Performance using the 2.0-litre petrol unit is also quite sufficient. This SUV weighs around 1.4 tonnes and with 143hp, there’s enough power and torque to accelerate well. The engine is smooth and there’s plenty of torque in the mid-range, but the four-speed automatic tends to spoil the experience. I’d stick to the 110hp 1.5 DCi diesel that the car is expected to come to India with. The Kaptur is only 5kg heavier than the Duster and with shorter gearing and the strong 245Nm of torque, it should have more than sufficient performance on hand. Still, if you have to buy a petrol, make sure it’s a manual.