Introduction
What Car? says...
Just like in the world of fashion, it’s all too easy to suddenly become irrelevant in the fast-paced family SUV class, with a newer model swooping in to steal your audience. Even a fashionably late arrival like the Renault Kadjar can quickly become one of the oldest cars on the market.
That’s probably why Renault was quick to update the Kadjar when Nissan released a new generation of the Qashqai, which it's based on. The choice of trims was revised (there are two – Equilibre and Techno) and all the engines except the 1.3-litre petrol were dropped.
Is that enough for the Renault Kadjar to vanquish those other family SUV foes? This review will tell you, as well as finding out whether the performance and handling are good, how comfortable it is for passengers, how much it will cost to run and much more.
By the way, the Kadjar might be replaced this year by a new all-electric 'crossover' model called the Renault Austral. It's not been confirmed for the UK market yet, but if it is, we'll review it when we've driven one.
When you're ready to buy a new car of any make and model, make sure you get it for the best price by searching our free What Car? New Car Buying service. It find plenty of new family SUV deals.
FAQs
It should be. The Renault Kadjar did rather well in the family SUVs category of our 2021 What Car? Reliability Survey by finishing in the top quarter of the 28-strong field. Renault as a brand didn’t do quite so well, claiming 16th place out of the 30 manufacturers included in the survey, ahead of Seat, Volvo and Nissan but below Toyota and Skoda. Read more here
Yes – to a degree. The Renault Kadjar’s single engine choice, the TCe 140, uses very light hybrid technology and recovers energy during braking for the start/stop system. You can’t plug the Kadjar in to charge and you can’t drive on electricity alone.Read more here
Our favourite version of the Renault Kadjar is the Techno trim level (there’s only one engine available, the TCe 140). It’s the most expensive of the two available trims but not by much, and you get extra equipment including 19in alloy wheels, synthetic leather upholstery and an auto-dimming rearview mirror. The best part is that it adds automatic emergency braking (AEB) to the Kadjar. Read more here
The Renault Kadjar was awarded the full five stars when it was tested for safety by Euro NCAP. The bad news is that it was tested back in 2015 and the result has now expired. Thankfully, every Kadjar comes with six airbags, stability control and lane-keeping assist as standard, and our chosen Techno trim adds blind-spot monitoring and automatic emergency braking (AEB). Read more here
Every Renault Kadjar comes with a 7.0in touchscreen infotainment system with DAB radio, Bluetooth, built-in sat-nav and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto smartphone mirroring. It’s relatively user-friendly but you can only control it by prodding the screen, which is more distracting when you’re driving than systems with dial controllers. Read more here
The Renault Kadjar’s boot is well on par with even the largest boots in the family SUV class. It uses the same clever system as the Nissan Qashqai to maximise space and actually has a larger boot. You can fold down the back seats to get an even larger flat space, but they split 60/40, rather than the more versatile 40/20/40 split in some rivals. Read more here
| RRP price range | £26,295 - £29,495 |
|---|---|
| Number of trims (see all) | 2 |
| Number of engines (see all) | 1 |
| Available fuel types (which is best for you?) | petrol |
| MPG range across all versions | 44.8 - 45.6 |
| Available doors options | 5 |
| Warranty | 5 years / 100000 miles |
| Company car tax at 20% (min/max) | £1,665 / £1,869 |
| Company car tax at 40% (min/max) | £3,329 / £3,739 |
| Available colours |
