Renault unveils refreshed Koleos

French brand waves the makeover wand over its South Korean-built compact SUV
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Renault has given its Koleos SUV a mid-life makeover, with revised frontal styling and better quality interior trim headlining the upgrades. Diesel versions are also claimed to be more frugal and cleaner burning than their existing counterparts.

The new face is cleaner in execution – but perhaps less distinctive – than that of the current model, with new slimmer headlights separated by a large chrome grille, rather than the former twin air intakes positioned either side of the Renault logo.

The door mirrors have been redesigned and now incorporate LED indicators, while the vehicle rides on new-look alloy wheels. The colour chart also gains a new hue – Cayenne Orange (presumably with apologies to Porsche).

The new Koleos will be offered with a range of features, including hands-free entry and ignition, an electronic parking brake, automatic headlight and windscreen wiper activation and a joystick-operated Carminat TomTom navigation system. Meanwhile, 4x4 versions also incorporate Hill Start Assist and Hill Descent Control.

Renault claims a selection of new upholsteries and trims have enhanced the original vehicle's elegance and refinement, while the dashboard and instrument lighting have evolved with the introduction of a remodelled speedometer housing and display.

The company also boasts of reduced CO2 emissions for the 110kW 2.0-litre dCi turbodiesel, thanks to tweaks to the engine and transmission.

Although designed by Renault, the Koleos is built at the Renault Samsung Motors plant in Busan, South Korea, and has proved particularly popular in China and Latin America.

However, the same certainly doesn’t apply here, as the Koleos notched up a paltry 233 sales until the end of May this year, barely a drop in the ocean compared with the tallies of the segment’s leading lights during the same period: Subaru Forester (5334 sales), Toyota RAV4 (4848 sales), Hyundai ix35 (4581 sales) and Nissan X-Trail (4170 sales).

It will clearly take more than a facelift and minor upgrades to even begin to address this deficit…

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