2014 Renault Koleos facelift: Review

  • Apr 7, 2014
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As updates go, it's more cosmetic than mechanical, but with the Koleos, it's the other way round. It gets more power, a 4x2 variant and also a manual gearbox. We drive the Koleos to the hills of Ooty to find out if this update works for it

2014 Renault Koleos front static

When Renault entered India on its own in 2011, it had a five car plan for India. The Fluence came first, followed by the Koleos and then the Scala and the Pulse chugged along. But the French carmaker’s foray into our country turned out to be a non-starter, till the Duster was introduced. Renault wasn’t an established brand back then and also came with the baggage of the broken venture with Mahindra. But all that is shrugged off now and Renault is a household name after the success of the Duster. Hoping to piggyback on the Duster’s success, Renault has decided to take a second shot at the premium SUV segment with the updated Koleos, and this time it’s a far better attempt as we found out.

There’s one lesson Renault has learnt from Duster’s success - an SUV without road presence will not sell in India. Since the Koleos is only a facelift, it gets the most crucial change, a large wide grille that fills up the rear view mirrors of the cars in front. The new Koleos grille is almost like a chrome tongue sticking out of the bonnet and is as in-your-face as it gets. It is the new Renault global family design copy-pasted to the front of the Koleos. Sadly, there isn’t any other noticeable change to the exterior baring the chrome strips on the side and the new alloy wheels. 

Renault Koleos Interiors

The interior too tells a similar story. The dashboard layout is neat and practical but lacks that premium feel you’d expect since the Koleos is priced north of Rs 20 lakh. In fact, the cheaper Fluence looks more upmarket on the inside. While the ruggedness in an SUV is welcome, the Koleos with its crossover styling needed more sophisticated interiors. Standard fitment in the 4x4 automatic Koleos are leather seats, six-way power adjustable driver’s seat, dual zone automatic climate control, tilt and telescopic steering, dusk sensing headlights, rain sensing wipers, cruise control, chilled glovebox, pretty much everything you’d need besides a touchscreen entertainment system, that we would have liked. 

But there’s one feature that stands out in the standard kit with the Koleos - the fantastic Bose music system. The crisp music quality via five Bose speakers, a subwoofer, an amplifier and two tweeters is the nicest feature of the Koleos. The 4x2 variant though gets the 4-speaker Arkamys system.

2014 Renault Koleos in action

The car we’ve just driven is the 4x4 mated to the six-speed automatic gearbox. It develops 23PS more than the pre-facelift car and the current 4x2 version. The jump in power to 173PS at a lower 3,750rpm definitely gives it that extra punch on the highway. But, it suffers from serious turbo lag under 2,000rpm and that makes overtaking maneuvers a tedious process, especially with the kickdown not being as quick as we would have liked. The best way then is to drive the new Renault Koleos in manual mode and keep the engine in the mid-range. We also found the constant low intensity vibration from the accelerator from speeds as low as 40kmph quite annoying.

2014 Renault Koleos Automatic
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But, one can’t still take away from the fact that the Koleos has brilliant cruising ability, particularly at high speeds. It is a serious mile-muncher. Long distance driving is a tireless affair with the well sorted suspension giving that perfect balance between ride and handling. Renaults are known to be the nicest riding cars in their class and the Koleos is no different. It soaks up undulations, expansion joints on bridges, potholes, rumblers whatever it encounters, very well, including huge craters our roads throw up quite regularly. This too helps in keeping up a high cruising speed.

2014 Renault Koleos rear action shot

The pre-facelift Koleos came in just one variant – the fully-loaded 4WD, and it was quite steeply priced. Renault has rectified that with the update. In addition to the 4x4 automatic, the Koleos now also comes in 4x2 manual and 4x4 manual versions. The 4x2 gets the same 150PS output as before from the 2.0-litre diesel engine. It’s much cheaper at Rs 21.29 lakh ex-showroom Delhi; a sizeable Rs 2.68 lakh cheaper than the 4WD manual and Rs 3.68 lakh cheaper than the top of the line 4WD automatic. You lose a lot of kit though – no ESP, hill-start assist or hill-descent control, and it only gets two airbags instead of six on the 4x4s. There’s also no electric adjustment for seats or leather. Not a very well equipped variant then and we’d be surprised if many opt for the 4x2. 

With its added power and a slightly more imposing front end, the Koleos should appeal to the Indian SUV buyer. Sure the absence of a third row is a bit of a disadvantage, but let’s be honest - how many times do we actually use that third row… yes, rarely. Trade in that third row and you get a compact, powerful SUV with a quality ride that’s ideal for the highways. In the city, if you don’t mind ambling around and aren’t too eager to close that gap to the car in front, the Koleos will do just fine.  

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