The Renault Kaptur crossover of the last generation, which appeared in 2016, although it was, in fact, a redesigned Duster, but still fell in love with Russian buyers. Yes, its brutal counterpart sold better – largely due to the price. According to Avtostat, in 2019 Duster was sold in the amount of 36 units, but the handsome brother is not so far behind, during the same period it was purchased in the amount of 000 units. At the same time, both Duster and Kaptur entered the top 25 best-selling cars of European brands in the Russian market at the end of the year.

The new Renault Kaptur, which was presented on our market this year, is already a co-platform for the Renault Arkana cross-coupe. According to rumors, the new Duster will be released on the same platform. We had a car on the test in the Edition One version, this is the highest grade available on the market, with a 150-horsepower engine, a CVT and an all-wheel drive version. The price of such a car is 1 rubles, and the new Kaptur starts at 530 rubles.

The appearance of the new generation crossover has not changed much in comparison with its predecessor, in order to find the differences, you need to put two cars side by side and consider everything in detail. If I’m not mistaken, the main external difference of the new model lies in the slightly modified radiator grille, and the top version now sports fashionable LED optics, which, by the way, are quite decent in terms of their parameters. Otherwise, this is the same slicked body, which from some angles makes the Kaptur look like a regular hatchback, and from others the car looks like a full-fledged crossover. I don’t know, I liked the design of the car, it looks quite modern, and maybe the designers really shouldn’t have changed a good decision yet.

The interior design has also remained practically unchanged, but the manufacturer has put things in order in the chaotically scattered controls, arranging them more thoughtfully. Only the new media system catches the eye right off the bat, if we are talking about expensive trim levels, and finally a comfortable armrest that was so lacking in its predecessor. Visually, everything in the cabin of the new Kaptur looks nice, the manufacturer did his best to make the buyer “love” the car with his eyes. But you begin to feel the interior and you realize that it still belongs to the budget segment, the plastic is all unpretentious and oak, the seat upholstery made of artificial leather is rough, and the now fashionable glossy plastic inserts only collect dust and prints, although, of course, they visually make the interior more attractive … The manufacturer decided to add a little “premium” to the Kaptur interior, sheathed the central tunnel from the passenger side with artificial leather and added small pieces of atmospheric lighting, the color of which can be selected from the settings menu. It looks, of course, it is interesting, but how much the buyer needs such a car is still a question. Returning to the materials, you can grumble as much as you like and say that the manufacturer could have used better plastic, but it is worth considering that then the final price of the car would have increased even more and it would have moved into a completely different category. And so visually beautiful, not disgusting to the touch, not fragile, well, that’s all, we sat down and drove off.

In terms of landing, the car is not bad, plus the new model has a steering wheel adjustment for reach, which was so lacking in its predecessor, so you can get in almost with comfort. The seats are soft, but have a normal profile and good lateral support, although after a few hours you still want to get out and stretch in them. There are complaints about the view, the front pillars are too wide and have a strong slope, so it is easy to miss a pedestrian or another car behind them.

By myself, with a height of 187 cm, I squeeze through with difficulty, my knees rest against the back of the driver’s seat, and although there is a depression under the upholstery, it is not very comfortable to sit, but at least there is enough legroom below. You can’t sit a child behind me either, he’ll rest his feet on the back, so the option is just to put a child seat behind the front passenger, who, however, will have to make room for a little. Isofix mounts are located along the edges of the rear sofa, they are hidden between the cushions, which makes it difficult to install the chair. Two chairs fit into Kaptur without any problems, but it is clear that no one will sit between them, it will be difficult to place even a large bag there.

For the comfort of passengers of the new Kaptur on frosty days, the car has heated front seats and separate heating of the rear sofa. And also there is a heated steering wheel with a not very conveniently located button on the console to the left of the steering wheel and heated windshield, the button of which is located in the block in the center of the front panel. Interestingly, the heating filaments are practically invisible on the Renault Kaptur windshield, but in the sun they can give a strange overflow, which distracts a little from the road.

The climate control in the car is single-zone, and the temperature is regulated with a large knob – it is convenient, but the adjustment step is only 1 degree. The climate system works well in automatic mode, but from time to time you still have to either slightly decrease or, on the contrary, increase the temperature in the cabin.

The trunk in the new Renault Kaptur does not differ from that of its predecessor, all the same 387 liters. By folding the backrests of the rear sofa from the passenger compartment separately, which form a small slide, you can already get a decent 1200 liters of usable space. A narrowed 16-inch spare wheel is hidden under the floor. An electric tailgate is not provided, even in the maximum configuration, everything must be done manually.

The media system installed in the new Renault Kaptur, familiar to us from Arkana, is an EASY LINK with an 8-inch touch-sensitive IPS-display with a low resolution. In the system for Kaptur, the standard navigation was cut out, some car settings and touch-sensitive shortcut keys were removed, but in fact it has not changed. There are three desktops available to the user, on which he can arrange widgets of three available sizes at his discretion. System updates are available online, eliminating the need to visit a dealer for this procedure. The advantage of EASY LINK is support for three platforms at once: Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and Yandex.Auto. The first two work without question in their usual mode, the system from Yandex gives us access only to Yandex.Navigator, and in fact simply duplicates this application from a smartphone in a slightly modified version and does not allow using the gadget during its work. In general, I did not find any differences in the work of Yandex.Auto in Kaptur, the system still crashes if you minimize the screen on your smartphone, and from the visible differences I saw that it was now supported not only by Renault, but also by Nissan. You can familiarize yourself with the full test “Yandex.Auto” on our website:

For recharging devices in the front of the cabin, only one USB-A is available, and it is displayed to the right of the display of the media system, so that the wire will always hang in front of you. It is worth noting that the car does not have a convenient niche for a modern smartphone, the one located at the bottom of the center panel is suitable only for a tiny phone, and a device of a usual size can be placed there only perpendicularly, leaning it against the side. But for the rear passengers, two USB-A are already available, and by connecting the wire, the driver and the front passenger can safely use them, since they are located on the back of the front armrest. Modern gadgets are not charged too quickly from the car’s on-board network, but still the charge goes even on the device under load.

The connection of smartphones to the car via Bluetooth goes smoothly, and the connection is always stable. The speakerphone works well, but the sensitivity of the microphone is a little lacking, sometimes you still have to speak a little louder than usual so that the interlocutor can hear you.

The new Renault Kaptur is not rich in a set of electronic driver assistants, but still there are useful options here. So, the car has a simple cruise control with steering wheel control buttons and, of course, a speed limiter. There is a blind spot monitoring system, it is turned on with a separate button to the left of the steering wheel and warns the driver with a light indication in the far corner of the mirrors. This system is useful in Kaptur as the mirrors are very small in size and do not give a full view. And also in the new product there is a circular view camera with a good quality picture, but it does not give a composite image, but only allows you to change angles one by one. In general, together with the rear parking sensors, it becomes much easier to maneuver in a parking lot on a car with cameras.

The dashboard of the new Renault Kaptur inherited from its predecessor, but on the whole it is successful and it probably did not need to change anything in it. So, we have a large digital speedometer in the center, the data from which is perfectly readable both in the bright sun and at night, and the usual analog tachometer is located on the left. Above the speedometer is a small digital display, which displays information from the on-board computer, as well as data on the operation of the cruise control.

In Russia, the new Renault Kaptur is available with two petrol engines, an old 1.6-liter 116 hp engine. and the new 1.3 liter TCe 150 turbocharged 150 hp. The car is available with a manual 5-speed gearbox or with an X-Tronic variator, as well as with front and all-wheel drive. The main change in the new product is the use of the electric power steering, now the steering wheel has become light, and you can turn it with one finger even in the parking lot, and on off-road it does not break out of your hands. But at speed, there is a lack of effort on the steering wheel, you scour the corners in search of the necessary trajectory. Over time, of course, you get used to it, but in the early days at speed there is clearly not enough feedback. Speaking of shortcomings, it is worth noting the brakes, they inherited the new product from the previous model, front disc and rear drum, so it’s better to slow down at speed in advance, to be sure. But what I would like to praise the developers for is the combination of the new engine and variator, it is tuned almost perfectly. The continuously variable automatic transmission correctly and quickly selects virtual gears, works without jerks (there is only a cold one) and does not turn the engine at maximum speed, as, for example, in the updated Mitsubishi ASX. The Kaptur’s pickup is already from the bottom, and the engine power is enough for a quiet overtaking on the track. True, the consumption of the new turbocharged engine is not to say that it is small, with the declared 7.4 liters per 100 km in mixed mode, I did not get less than 9.8 liters per hundred, and usually the consumption even exceeded 10 liters.

The car is not bad in terms of comfort, it has an omnivorous suspension that handles medium and large irregularities very gently, and in the cabin only impacts on small protrusions and pits with sharp edges are given. With worse sound insulation, the noise of tires is clearly audible, not critical, but still, at least there is very little aerodynamic noise. Thanks to the ground clearance of 205 mm and the all-wheel drive system, the new Renault Kaptur can also drive off-road, the car goes off-road confidently.

In general, the 2020 Renault Kaptur is a good work on bugs, the manufacturer took into account all the comments from users of the previous model and eliminated them in the new product. They would also have done something with the brakes and modified the electric booster, and it would be absolutely wonderful.

As I said at the beginning of the material, the model starts in our market from the mark of 1 rubles and is available in five trim levels, by the way, in three of them you can choose a car in a two-color version. The maximum configuration is already worth 035 million, but I think the new Renault Kaptur 000 will be purchased mostly in the price range of 1.5-2020 million rubles, where you can choose between rich equipment or a new all-wheel drive engine.

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