Renault Koleos 2.5 Dynamique CVT 4X4 Review

When the terminally thirsty F. Scott Fitzgerald concluded The Great Gatsby with the bit about boats being born ceaselessly back into the past and stuff, I don’t think it came from a terribly happy place.

This and more I mused on as I aimed the Koleos test car towards the Drakensberg, an area that forms a fundamental part of my own past.

Indeed, KZN’s Barrier of Spears is rich in memories for me, going right back to early childhood, but it’s a past with happy associations – unlike Fitzgerald’s. And it’s also part of the reason why this area sings a siren song to me

A siren song rather like the one that Renault’s “high-end SUV” might sing to buyers shopping in this segment.

It’s a handsome machine this, from its Renault LED lighting signature front and rear to its big-badged nose, plus it does everything it says on the tin. And more.

Comfortable, competent open-road cruiser? Tick.

Stable and secure on dirt roads, thanks to an AWD system that can be locked with drive to all wheels if need be? Tick.

Cool cabin with all the stuff you’d expect at this level from leather to 8.7-inch touchscreen to six airbags and five-star NCAP rating, as well as – as of this June – hands-free power tailgate and electronic parking brake? Tick.

But let’s be honest (which is probably a stupid thing to say, as it implies selective application of the truth): the Koleos competes in a really crowded segment. A segment that includes the likes of the market-dominating Toyota RAV4, the Mazda CX-5, the Hyundai Tucson, and so it goes.

So why would anyone look at the Regie? I’ll tell you.

Cars are hugely, highly emotive things, and past entry-level price points are seldom bought because this one has a fractionally bigger boot (although the Koleos’s does swallow 464 litres) or uses two drops fuel less in the combined cycle.

They’re bought because of, well, how they make you feel – and this machine has a vaguely indefinable Gallic appeal and individuality to it. All, of course, mixed with that said competence, coolness and kit levels.

It also once more compellingly puts to rest those ancient old bromides that seem to exist at less-informed levels of French cars being fragile, and the Koleos is as subjectively solid as anything in its category.

More than that, in an age of appallingly anodyne vehicles, it’s gloriously distinctive – along with the Peugeot 3008, which sits in the same segment.

And it may well have even brought a little joie de vivre to the doubtless alcoholically depressed F Scott Fitzgerald with his boats and green lights.

Renault Koleos 2.5 Dynamique CVT 4X4 Spec:

The Koleos comes with a five-year/150 000km mechanical warranty, a five-year/90 000km service plan, and a six-year anti-corrosion warranty, with service intervals at 15 000km.