Renault Kadjar 1.5 Dynamique 4th report

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Renault Kadjar 1.5 dCi 110 Dynamique S NAV EDC

P11D: £24,790
Doors and body style: Five-door crossover
Engine/gearbox: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder Euro 6 turbo diesel/6-speed dual clutch auto
C02 emissions: 103g/km
Economy (combined)/ours: 72.4mpg/48-52mpg
Power/torque: 110bhp/250Nm

OUR Renault Kadjar 1.5 Dynamique S NAV long-termer is proving to be a car of many parts. On one level, a smart modern 1.5-litre crossover and full on Qashqai rival: roomy, accommodating, high on comfort and refinement.

As business buyers will appreciate, it’s also capable of handling anything the M25 and its ilk care to throw at it. On the motorway, the Renault’s both easy and unfussed, capable of knocking off long journeys without stress.

Indicated 50 mpg economy is another motorway run positive. The Tom Tom LIVE sat/nav built into the Kadjar’s R-Link 2 multimedia system (and links seamlessly to your smartphone) is also good news. Easy to set up and use, it’s also uncannily accurate in calculating your time of arrival. So highly useful for perennial road warriors…

All of which goes to explain why the Kadjar was such an uplifting sight in the airport car park when I came back from a busy trip to Portugal last week.

Now closing in on 9,000 miles in our hands, I knew that the Kadjar would get me home smoothly, efficiently, and at that precise moment in time, that was exactly what the doctor ordered.

How about having it drive me home autonomously? Can’t be too long now before that actually become reality….

You know how it is when you get into Heathrow late at night. Time is getting on but still there’s that journey home to think about. Should be straightforward, or so you would hope, but timing is everything when it comes to the M25 so as you head out from the airport car park, it always but always pays to expect the unexpected….

Here today, our Kadjar is a car that just keeps on keepin’ on, as the saying goes. Dependable, practical and with that eye-catching crossover style, it’s proving to be a faithful everyday companion. It also went through the whole of last winter without missing a beat.

Or being washed, I’m ashamed to admit, due to much inclement weather although that’s now since been rectified…!

The Kadjar, meantime is not without quirks. When you press the engine start button, there’s a distinct 2-3 second delay when absolutely nothing seems to happen. Then the engine catches and everything is OK. You begin to wonder do they all do that?

Then there’s the Kadjar’s ‘welcome music’ (like something out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, if you remember that one) when you first get in the car. Yes, you can go through the system and turn that off but actually now I quite like it. So it’s staying put.

The smoothness and zest of the Kadjar’s 1.5-litre turbodiesel is a genuine thing of wonder. It really works and provides the relatively big-bodied Renault with a startling degree of ready pace. Less appealing is the numbness of the power steering, rubberiness of the Kadjar chassis and oft fidgety ride on those high spec 19 in alloys.

That said, the Kadjar is still a faithful, accurate handler with excellent body control, grip and brakes. Again, on the motorway, it’s impressively poised and quiet, with that great driving position (and seat comfort) earning it big extra bonus points.

Given the number of short urban stop/start runs that typically make up our Kadjar’s working week, it’s probably no surprise that the official economy figures (70.6 mpg urban; 72.4 mpg extra urban; 72.4 mpg combined) are presently nowhere in sight.

As before, 48-52mpg is proving about average, with a 500-600-mile real world range available on a full tank. Not bad at all, you have to say.

So, yes, the Kadjar can go the distance and it’s that kind of easy running efficiency, coupled with quiet sophistication, comfort, practicality and style that puts it on the map for business buyers and continues to make it a wholly viable alternative to the usual suspects in the class.