LOUTH MOTORING: The Renault Captur - where style meets sense

Renault’s Captur has been given an update. The compact SUV, which is technically a crossover, gets a new front end and more athletic lines giving it a more stylish and premium look.

Its design look is similar to other Renaults on sale which is no bad thing as Renault is on a bit of a roll of late and producing some incredible looking and award winning cars.

I have found the range to be a bit confusing as they seem to have cars competing with each other but the Captur, a huge seller for Renault, is on its own.

It competes favourably with big hitters like the Yaris Cross, the Peugeot 2008, the Nissan Juke, the Ford Puma, and the Volkswagen T-Cross and has been in the top three best selling Renaults here quite a few times with 14,000 sold since its launch in 2013.

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All this is unsurprising as the Captur trades on style, flair and practicality which we all want.

It gets quite a lot of technology too with 28 advanced driver-assistance systems as well as the Google family of Assistant, Maps and Play present and marries seamlessly with that other important product in our lives, the mobile phone.

I sometimes wish that some car maker sells a car that has no connectivity to your phone, making the car a mindfulness place to be, allowing us to escape all the intrusiveness the phone brings.

I’m dreaming of course because the always connected/always online ethos is everywhere in our lives.

They are kind of doing the above with a thing called My Safety Switch which allows you at the touch of a button to turn off some always on at start safety features like lane departure.

I don't see it that way and look at it that it is giving drivers back choice in how they setup the car for their particular way of driving.

It is one of the best new features I’ve seen on a new car that ironically turns off features - it truly is a mad world. That all pervasive technology makes some aspects of driving easier though and the voice control in the Captur is excellent and allows you adjust settings without searching touchscreen menus.

Above:Dashboard controls on the Renault Captur E-Tech Hybrid

The Captur I had was the E-Tech hybrid model. A lot of cars these days have some element of battery power driving the wheels to meet virtue and EU targets.

In the Captur it has Predictive Hybrid Driving that maximises driving using electrical energy. Sometimes the computers make better decisions and when it comes to hybrids you don't get much choice.

That said, I found the engine / electric motor combination toing and froing algorithm performance of the Predictive Hybrid

Driving to be seamless and allows you to forget about it and enjoy the ride. It is a very comfortable ride as you’d expect from Renault and for a car whose natural home is, despite its SUV connotations, is an urban environment.

It copes with our roads imperfections and annoyances very capably and the driver and passengers are spared jolts. Away from the city and suburbs and on a road that invites you to drive I found the power in the Captur adequate, in a good way. I drove mostly on my own and at no time did it feel under-powered.

Acceleration was smooth and felt quick enough and it is all about feel and not the numbers because, let's face it, who can drive from zero to 100km/hr and advise, without looking at a timer, how long it took? But if it felt like it took an age that's what would grate and that didn't happen in the Captur.

The interior benefits from the latest Renault styling themes with a beautifully laid out cabin. I warmed to it immediately and so will you.

The floating central console is a Captur thing and houses the automatic gear selector and lifts the interior from expected to interesting.

The seats are very comfortable and in my esprit Alpine E-Tech 145 Auto version they get red white and blue distinctive markings - très French. In the back the Captur has a hugely versatile sliding rear bench to allow you have more legroom or more boot space.

There are lots of times when you need one and not the other and this is also a feature from Renault that should be in every hatchback because it is so sensible and practical.This is the sort of everyday feature a driver needs and well done Renault and more like this please.

There are only two engine versions available with pricing starting at €29,870 for the petrol version that has two trim levels and €33,990 for the entry hybrid model with three levels.

For everyday, urban driving the Captur meets the bill perfectly marrying style and panache with some nifty practicality and can't be overlooked by any active family unit.