Renault Captur compact SUV on sale now in Australia from $22,990

Renault has launched the all-new Renault Captur compact SUV in Australia, a year after it officially went on sale in Europe. Priced from $22,990 excluding on-road costs, Renault’s first crossover is based on the Clio platform and shares its powerplant and drivetrain.

The Captur is available with two petrol engines – the 66kW/135Nm Energy TCe 90 (three cylinders and just 898cc) and the 88kW/190Nm TCe 120 EDC (four cylinders, 1,198cc).  The Energy TCe 90 is available exclusively with a 5-speed manual gearbox and boasts an impressive claimed fuel-consumption of just 4.9 litres per 100km. The TCe 120 is available exclusively with Renault’s 6-speed EDC transmission (Efficient Dual Clutch) which delivers a fuel consumption of just 5.4 litres per 100km. Both are front-wheel drive only.

Available in two generous specification levels – Expression and Dynamique – both are relatively well equipped, with LED daytime running lights, automatic headlights, cruise control with speed limiter, climate control, automatic ‘walk away’ door locking, Renault Smart Key Card, reversing camera and rear parking sensors all as standard.

However, it lacks the controversial side curtain airbags (front and seat-mounted front side airbags are standard), which would have cost the Captur the full 5-stars ANCAP rating if it was launched last year before ANCAP changed their testing criteria to more closely align with their European counterpart. As a result, the Captur is still a 5-star car.

Though compact (it is only fractionally longer than the Renault Clio), the sliding rear bench seat provides the ideal balance of space for passengers and their luggage, with a maximum carrying capacity of 455 litres. In the passenger compartment the availability of removable seat covers which can be unzipped, machine washed at home and refitted, underline Captur’s character as a user-friendly vehicle.

The Renault Captur is built at the Valladolid plant in Spain, where the French company claims particularly close attention has been paid to product quality and environmental impact. Up to 16% of the plastics used in Captur’s production are sourced from recycling.

Commenting on the launch of the new Renault Captur Justin Hocevar, Managing Director Renault Australia, said: “It is with great excitement that we now launch the Renault Captur to the Australian market. The Captur has been a runaway success story globally, selling more than 196,000 vehicles worldwide in 2014 and was the third highest selling vehicle in France.

“The Captur is an exceptionally versatile vehicle which can take customers from the urban jungle to a country drive with effortless ease. Thanks to the incredibly clever packaging of the interior space and the sliding rear bench seat, Captur is readily able to accommodate all aspects of our modern and busy lifestyles.

“Captur is the second ground-up vehicle from Renault’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Design, Laurens van den Acker, and we are confident that it will follow in the footsteps of its highly successful cousin, the Renault Clio. Captur is set to become a core model in the Renault Australia passenger car range and I’m certain that Captur will bring more new customers to the Renault family than ever before,” said Hocevar.

Like all Renault passenger cars, the Renault Captur has a 5 year/unlimited kilometre warranty and 5 years’ roadside assist. All vehicles in the Captur range have 1 year servicing intervals or 15,000km (whichever comes first) and are covered by Renault’s Capped Price servicing program. The first three services are capped at just $299 per service.

The all new Renault Captur goes on sale nationally on Friday 6th February, 2015.