The 2020 Renault Koleos is the SUV you've probably forgotten about. The Renault Koleos shares a platform with the Nissan X-Trail (Rogue), but the two medium SUVs couldn't be any further apart! But, is it good enough to spend your money on? Paul Maric finds out!
Read the 2020 Renault Koleos Zen review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/review/2020-renault-koleos-zen-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:50
Interior: 02:58
Infotainment: 04:14
Features: 09:09
Practicality: 10:32
On the Road: 13:19
Verdict: 16:50
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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@RenaultAu
Read the 2020 Renault Koleos Zen review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/review/2020-renault-koleos-zen-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:50
Interior: 02:58
Infotainment: 04:14
Features: 09:09
Practicality: 10:32
On the Road: 13:19
Verdict: 16:50
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! #renault #review #Koleos
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
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Paul Maric:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
@RenaultAu
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.
00:01 Renault Colios.
00:02 It's a name you don't really associate with mid-size SUVs, but did you know it shares
00:06 a platform with the Nissan X-Trail?
00:09 This here is the Colios Zen, which is kind of like the mid-spec model.
00:12 It's priced at just under $36,000, and the curious thing with the Colios is they're always
00:17 doing deals on them, so you can get them for really sharp prices.
00:20 Like at the moment, they're doing a seven-year warranty, so it makes it a compelling purchase.
00:24 But is it better than the X-Trail?
00:26 Because we're not a huge fan of the X-Trail.
00:28 So what about competitors for the Colios?
00:29 We're talking about the usual suspects, Mazda CX-5, Toyota RAV4, Hyundai Tucson.
00:34 Now, if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review, you can use the time
00:37 codes on the screen, or if you're on YouTube, just go down to use the chapters below.
00:41 And if you haven't done so already, I'd love it if you could hit the subscribe button,
00:45 and also press the bell icon that's going to tell you every single time we drive something
00:48 new.
00:50 Let's talk exterior.
00:51 So you can pick from seven different colours, with all but white being an extra $880.
00:55 Someone explain to me in the comments below, why white is the cheap colour.
01:00 Is it just because no one buys it?
01:01 It seems like it'd cost the same to coat a car in white or another colour, but anyway.
01:05 You'd never know this was a Renault, because it has such a small badge.
01:08 Have a look at the size of this thing.
01:09 It is huge, but it does wear it proudly, and it looks different enough from the X-Trail.
01:13 Often with a lot of these platform shares, the cars end up looking identical, but this
01:17 has a unique character to it, and I think it's quite a good one.
01:20 As a mid-spec model, this actually looks quite high-end and premium.
01:23 Doesn't look cheap and nasty, which is often what you find at the lower end of the range.
01:27 So you get front and rear parking sensors, a whole stack of chrome here that offsets
01:31 the body colour.
01:32 These lights are interesting, because you get these cool LED daytime running lights,
01:36 but then it's sullied by this halogen light.
01:38 I really don't understand why manufacturers are still using halogen technology.
01:42 It's like old school.
01:44 Fog lights down the bottom, and have a look at this.
01:46 This is quite curious.
01:47 The chrome runs all the way down the side here on both ends.
01:51 It kind of gives the car a unique character.
01:53 I haven't seen any cars before that have this much chrome running down the side of them,
01:57 but I think it looks good.
01:58 18-inch alloy wheels, and then you have a fairly chubby profile tyre there.
02:03 So this one is a 60 profile, so that should mean that it rides well.
02:06 The biggest issue we had with the X-Trail was that it is incredibly firm, and I just
02:10 don't understand why.
02:11 So hopefully Renault has actually sorted that out and given this a supple ride, which is
02:16 what you need from a medium-sized SUV that isn't sporty.
02:19 Nice looking alloy wheels there as well.
02:20 They're chrome with a sort of graphite finish on the inside edge, and enough padding on
02:25 the side that you're not going to be scratching these every time you touch a kerb.
02:29 Have your indicator built into the wing mirror there.
02:31 You have roof rails, proximity entry for getting into the car, privacy glass, and then come
02:36 around the back.
02:37 Have a look at this.
02:38 LED taillights down here.
02:40 Now the cool thing is this strip actually continues all the way along.
02:43 Just like those chrome elements on the side, they've made this unique enough and different
02:47 enough from the X-Trail to give it a bit of a design that will help it stand out.
02:51 And I think for the most part, Renault has actually done a really good job here with
02:55 differentiating this from other medium-sized SUVs.
02:58 Let's talk interior.
02:59 OK, this is an interesting place.
03:02 Let's start off with the basics though.
03:03 So dashboard looks really nice.
03:04 It flows across the top there.
03:06 It all looks like soft-touch material.
03:07 I will check how soft it is in just a second.
03:10 And they break up that plastic cladding with these highlights over here.
03:15 But what I'm not loving is this centre section.
03:17 There's a whole lot of piano black in there.
03:19 And then you've got this tiny looking screen.
03:21 It just looks kind of underdone.
03:24 But ahead of the driver is a nice LCD display that kind of makes the interior look a little
03:28 bit more modern.
03:29 And then the rest of this looks quite nicely laid out with some grab handles just in case
03:34 you, I don't know, go off-roading or do something crazy that requires grab handles.
03:39 So let's get our hardness tester.
03:41 Motoring journalists always whinge about soft-touch materials.
03:44 This is going to test how soft a soft-touch material is.
03:46 It goes from 0 to 100 where 0 is soft and 100 is hard.
03:50 Let's give it a crack on that dashboard there.
03:53 Yeah, that's not too bad.
03:56 And what about this centre console?
03:58 See how that looks.
03:59 That's pretty reasonable as well.
04:01 So it is a pretty soft-touch interior.
04:04 Overall build quality looks pretty good as well.
04:07 Everything's in place.
04:08 Nothing moves around.
04:10 Feels like this is going to stand the test of children being thrown at it for 10 years
04:14 time.
04:15 Let's talk infotainment.
04:16 I'm going to go through a detailed review of R-Link 2 which is Renault's infotainment
04:21 system plus the screen ahead of the driver.
04:23 So we'll split this into two parts.
04:25 Let's get stuck into it.
04:26 So it is a 7-inch infotainment screen.
04:29 You have shortcut buttons down the bottom here for home, one to make the screen go dark
04:33 and they're kind of capacitive touch buttons, one for your assistance systems and then one
04:38 to get you back to the display menu.
04:40 So we'll jump straight into maps.
04:42 The car comes with in-built satellite navigation and then you can flick through those different
04:46 menus here, zoom in and out if you need to.
04:49 It's not the world's quickest system but it does work pretty well.
04:51 Let's try popping in a nav address.
04:53 We'll see how quickly it does what it needs to do.
04:56 We'll go points of interest and we'll try Melbourne Airport.
04:59 Seems a little complicated already.
05:02 Here we go.
05:03 Melbourne Airport.
05:12 See how long that takes.
05:13 There we go.
05:14 That's actually not too bad.
05:15 So it's finding all the businesses near Melbourne Airport.
05:17 So pretty impressive there in terms of search.
05:19 It's a TomTom system so it's integrated into that navigation system.
05:23 So in addition to the TomTom maps you get traffic as well.
05:25 So that will tell you how a road's doing and if you're heading in that direction, which
05:29 direction you need to go in to avoid the traffic.
05:32 Jump back over to the home menu, jump into radio.
05:34 So FM, AM, DAB plus digital radio so you have a full spectrum of audio options to choose
05:40 from and then on the home screen as well you can dive between the different menus here.
05:44 And you can also customise the menus and what appears on them.
05:47 So you can see here these are empty but you can move items into those menus if you want
05:50 and then you have additional shortcuts up the top if you are not on the home menu.
05:54 The whole system is bolstered by Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
05:57 Both of those systems use a wired setup so it's not a wireless integration but it works
06:02 really well.
06:03 So if you're not sold on R-Link which is not the best infotainment system in the world,
06:07 you can simply hook up a smartphone and then it does all the hard work for you.
06:11 So pretty impressive there.
06:12 Let's jump into the menu.
06:14 This is where you have the rest of the settings for the car.
06:16 So navigation, multimedia.
06:18 Now in multimedia you can actually load photos and videos into the car using the USB ports.
06:22 I don't know why you'd want to play a video on this tiny little screen or put photos on
06:26 there but you can just in case you want to.
06:29 There is one hidden gem in here and it is the user manual.
06:32 So it's integrated into the screen and if we want to know how to use the infotainment
06:35 system for example or the widgets, click on that and then click on that and it will show
06:41 you exactly how to go through different sections of the car and how to change the settings
06:46 as you go.
06:47 Now the other interesting thing in here as well is apps and you can see here that I'm
06:52 clicking around but sometimes the screen doesn't actually respond.
06:54 It's not the best infotainment system in the world.
06:57 The apps are kind of funny.
07:01 It's like a Windows 95 integration in today's day and age.
07:04 The apps are really old school.
07:06 You have to go through the R-Link store to download them.
07:09 Most of them are entirely useless so I probably wouldn't bother with any of the apps in this
07:13 car.
07:14 It's the same story with Nissan, just don't bother using them.
07:15 Over in the vehicle settings this is where you can change the car's driving assistance
07:19 which has a shortcut button there.
07:21 Onboard computer, check your tyre pressures and then also the eco mode so this will tell
07:25 you how you're driving.
07:26 It'll give you a score, it'll tell you where you can improve and then you've got an eco
07:30 coaching menu as well.
07:31 A nice little sponsored ad there for the type of oil your car should have and then other
07:36 tips on keeping your fuel economy where it needs to be.
07:40 And then finally you have the system settings.
07:42 There it is again.
07:45 Here is where you can change user profiles so if you have a partner that drives a car
07:48 as well you can each get an individual user profile, change the display settings and then
07:53 also run through this different integration of smartphones, the suggestion bar which comes
07:58 up.
07:59 And finally you can change some of the voice command settings.
08:02 This is really frustrating, it's just completely ignoring button pushes and also whether you
08:06 want a male or female voice telling you where to go.
08:09 So let's have a quick look at the screen in front of the driver.
08:12 I'm going to turn the car on so I can show you how all of that works.
08:17 So you can see there you get your speedometer displayed in the centre and then you have
08:21 a messages screen down the bottom.
08:23 You can cycle through that display so you have other things shown there and then finally
08:29 you can also put other items just on the right hand side as well.
08:32 So you can see the radio menus, the power and torque.
08:35 Now the cool thing here is that you can change the look of this very easily using the infotainment
08:40 system.
08:41 So if we go over to settings for the instrument panel you can change the colours, so we'll
08:44 cycle through all the cool colours you can go with.
08:46 But then you can also change the style, so you can change the appearance of what that
08:50 looks like.
08:51 So you can make it look racy or you can make it look a little simpler.
08:53 It's really impressive how much you can actually customise here in what is a pretty basic medium
08:59 size SUV.
09:00 And then what you'll also notice on the side is a little leaf.
09:03 The harder you drive the more leaves that come off that leaf.
09:06 So you have to behave otherwise the tree loses all of its leaves.
09:09 Enough about infotainment, let's talk about the rest of the features you get with Coloss
09:12 Zen.
09:13 You've got leather seats, you get dual zone climate control, seat heating for the first
09:18 row, you've got USB connectivity, we also have autonomous emergency braking, an auto
09:22 dimming rear vision mirror and then LED lighting throughout the cabin.
09:26 There's also a cool feature here, you know how glove boxes sometimes have a port there
09:30 to keep things cool?
09:31 Renault has actually integrated a port for your bottle or your cup.
09:35 So if you've got a coffee you can whack it in there, open that up and then it will send
09:39 heat through to it.
09:40 Or if it's a cold drink that you've got, whack it in there, put the air conditioning
09:43 on and it will stay cool.
09:45 Pretty genius I reckon.
09:46 You also get cruise control, no radar cruise control though, and a voice recognition system.
09:51 Generally works okay but could be a little bit better.
09:53 And finally you get a reverse view camera.
09:55 This is really decent quality, unlike a lot of Nissan cars that are super low quality,
10:00 the camera here is fantastic and works really well at night.
10:02 And what does the key look like?
10:03 Well it is a little bit weird.
10:06 It's thick, it's bulky, sort of not really a credit card size but anyway, this one has
10:10 a whole bunch of stickers on it, ignore those, but you've got unlock, lock, ambient lighting,
10:15 boot, and then on the other side you have a Renault logo.
10:18 It's weird because when you try and put that in your pocket you can see how it bulges up
10:21 the back there, doesn't really sit that easily.
10:24 But it is a proximity sensing key so you just keep that in your pocket, your purse, your
10:27 handbag, your bag, whatever.
10:29 Grab the door handle, push a button, and also push button start to get the car going.
10:33 What about practicality?
10:34 Let's look at storage.
10:35 Where are you going to put your phone?
10:36 Well it fits easily there, it also fits down the front here, no wireless phone charging
10:41 though, which is a little bit disappointing.
10:42 But bottle storage, easy, easy, not easy.
10:47 There's like a couple of really weirdly sized holes here so bottle does fit in those two
10:52 but not those two.
10:54 In the door you can also store a bottle with room on the other side for bits and pieces.
10:59 Centre console is pretty reasonably sized.
11:01 There's another little storage tray under there too.
11:04 And then have a look at this, that slides forwards and backwards.
11:07 And then over here you have a reasonably sized glove box as well.
11:11 It's actually pretty impressive.
11:12 In terms of comfort, yeah the seat's really nice.
11:16 So leather clad seat, hugs you in nicely and the steering wheel is a really good size too.
11:20 It sits nicely in the hand.
11:22 You don't have any paddle shifters or anything to complicate things.
11:24 And then Renault has this weird pod thing behind the steering wheel which is how you
11:28 control the volume.
11:30 And up here you have storage for sunglasses as well.
11:34 Let's talk about the second row of the Collios.
11:36 I seriously have mountains of room here.
11:38 Have a look at that.
11:39 I've got heaps of knee room, fair bit of toe room and I'm sort of comfortably seated here.
11:44 My head's not touching anything.
11:46 It shares a platform with the X-Trail.
11:47 I don't understand how it has this much space.
11:49 And my seat's in my normal driving position as well.
11:52 So, interesting.
11:53 Rear air vents here, 12 volt outlet, no USB charging unfortunately.
11:58 In terms of bottle storage, there's a centre armrest here that you can lean on with one,
12:03 two cup holders and a little one in the middle there.
12:05 And then you have storage in the door as well for a bottle and then other bits and pieces.
12:09 Two map pockets, ISOFIX anchorage points for the kids.
12:13 And overall it's just a really comfy place to be seated with excellent visibility out
12:16 the windows.
12:17 Let's talk cargo space.
12:19 There is a slight problem here.
12:20 So you open the tailgate.
12:22 It's not an automatic tailgate by the way, it's just manual.
12:26 I can't fit under here.
12:27 I'm not massively tall but I can't really sort of get under here without knocking my
12:32 head.
12:33 So that could be a little bit frustrating.
12:35 Now what about space?
12:36 You have just under 460 litres of cargo space available here and expands to just under 1700
12:43 litres.
12:44 Under the cargo floor you have this cover but underneath that cover you have a full
12:48 size spare tyre.
12:50 Then off to the sides you have storage as well plus a 12 volt outlet.
12:53 There's a light there too.
12:54 The cargo blind can be detached pretty easily like that but keep in mind there's nowhere
12:58 to actually put it because of that full size spare tyre.
13:01 Dropping the second row is pretty straightforward.
13:03 You pull this lever here, that gets out of the way.
13:06 Pull this lever here, that gets out of the way.
13:08 Now what does it look like with our luggage inside for reference?
13:13 All fits in nice and neat.
13:15 So overall a really good boot space let down by a door that doesn't go high enough.
13:21 So we've hit the road in the Renault Colios.
13:24 What is under the bonnet of the Colios?
13:25 So it's a 2.5 litre naturally aspirated 4 cylinder petrol engine.
13:29 It makes 126 kilowatts of power and 226 newton metres of torque and it sends that torque
13:36 through a continuously variable transmission.
13:38 So it's not a traditional torque converter with stepped gears.
13:41 It has effectively infinite gear ratios but it does have a manual mode that you can basically
13:47 wind through the gears with.
13:49 So that gives you a fuel economy of 8.1 litres per 100 kilometres but we're actually on 8.4
13:55 litres per 100 kilometres which is almost exactly bang on and we've been doing a mix
13:59 of highway driving, city driving so it is pretty impressive that this is hitting that
14:02 claim especially with a petrol engine.
14:04 0 to 100 kilometres an hour takes 9.5 seconds and this is what that looks like.
14:20 The Colios is available as both all wheel drive and front wheel drive.
14:24 This one here is the front wheel drive version of the Zen at this price point.
14:28 For the most part it does a pretty good job.
14:30 I don't really think you need all wheel drive in a car like this.
14:33 The only downside to it is that it can get a little scrabbly if you don't have much traction
14:37 and you'll see that traction control light flashing.
14:39 How does it feel behind the wheel?
14:40 Well let's give this a little punch here.
14:43 Yeah look it's reasonable.
14:47 226 newton metres of torque isn't a groundbreaking amount but it's more than enough for what
14:52 this is.
14:53 The CVT also takes a little bit of time to wind up and it can get a little bit noisy
14:57 and that's inherent with continuously variable transmissions.
15:01 They sit within the peak torque band so they have to rev the engine up and hold it there
15:05 to extract as much potential as they can from it.
15:07 So what's the ride like?
15:08 We often complain about the X-Trail being a little bit too firm as we roll over a speed
15:13 hump there.
15:14 It's actually fantastic.
15:16 Renault has gone and tuned this the way the X-Trail should be tuned which is soft and
15:20 supple.
15:21 It doesn't need a firm ride so even with the 18 inch alloy wheels it really just sucks
15:25 up bumps beautifully.
15:26 There's not a great deal of noise coming into the cabin either so if you are doing a long
15:29 distance drive it's not going to get too droney behind the wheel.
15:33 What's visibility like?
15:34 Well out the front, excellent.
15:36 Out the sides, excellent.
15:37 The wing mirrors are really big as well so they make seeing out the side easy and you
15:40 can see the little blind spot on it there.
15:43 Looking out the back window, it's a surprisingly narrow window so you don't get a great deal
15:47 of visibility there and if you do have three passengers abreast along the second row it's
15:51 going to be a little tricky to see out the back of.
15:53 OK so one thing that has me seriously confused is the cruise control.
15:57 There are buttons here for the cruise control but to switch it on you've got to go down
16:01 here beneath the handbrake and that switches between cruise control and the speed limiter.
16:06 I just don't understand why that couldn't be here on the steering wheel.
16:09 What about the steering?
16:10 Well the steering is actually really not too bad.
16:13 It's not overly light, not overly heavy, it sits nicely in the middle there and that means
16:17 when it comes to parking it's going to be easier to squeeze this into parks.
16:20 It's not going to be heavy or too cumbersome.
16:22 I really do like the sportiness of this wheel with that sort of semi-flat bottom on it.
16:26 If you do want to tow with this car you're probably going to want to option for the all-wheel
16:30 drive but if you do stick with the front-wheel drive you have 2,000 kilograms of braked towing
16:36 capacity and you're not going to be doing any off-road driving in this car, I know that,
16:40 but in terms of ground clearance, 210 millimetres, so that means you should be able to get over
16:44 most things without too many dramas but keep in mind given it is front-wheel drive you're
16:48 not going to get very far if you venture off-road.
16:51 So the Renault Colios, actually pretty impressed with this.
16:53 I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it is, especially when it shares a platform with
16:57 the X-Trail which is kind of an okay SUV but could be much better.
17:01 They've done a really good job in compliance for the ride and also with standard equipment.
17:06 It comes loaded with everything despite the fact it's just one up from the base model.
17:09 It is let down by the infotainment system, it's not very good, but it does come with
17:12 Apple CarPlay and Android Auto which fixes most of that.
17:15 Let me know in the comments section below whether you have bought a Colios.
17:17 What do you think of it?
17:18 What's it like as a long-term proposition?
17:20 Does it surprise you as much as it surprises me?
17:23 If you did find this video useful make sure you hit the like button, follow it up with
17:26 a subscribe and also press the bell icon because that's going to tell you every single time
17:29 we drive something new.
17:30 But until next time, take it easy.