Renault Koleos (2017-2020) Review

The Renault Koleos is right for you if you want a big SUV that avoids seven seats in favour of having a huge boot that can swallow almost anything you throw at it.

The Renault Koleos set-up leans towards comfort and its engines return decent fuel economy while having enough power for shifting the car when it is fully loaded. Above average depreciation makes the Renault Koleos a canny second hand purchase with fewer miles on the clock than a same-age rival. 

The basic Renault Koleos Iconic is all you need – it comes as standard with lots of kit including keyless entry and start, parking sensors front and rear, reversing camera, and in-built sat-nav with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. We'd also go for the basic engine, too. The 130PS diesel feels almost as quick as the larger option and delivers better fuel economy to boot. 

There's no shortage of spacious SUVs to choose from if you're on the hunt for a new family car. The Skoda Kodiaq, SEAT Tarraco and Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace all have space for seven people, come with practical and well-designed cabins plus have engines that offer decent performance and don't cost a fortune to run. 

The Ford Kuga and Mazda CX-5 are the SUVs to choose if you want to blend practicality with decent handling, while the Land Rover Discovery Sport is capacious and capable off road. The hybrid Toyota RAV4 is just as roomy and gets great fuel economy and the same could be said of the new Honda CR-V.

Up front the layout is neat and classy, with good quality, soft-touch materials. It’s sturdily screwed together plus it has some nice flourishes like illuminated door inlays and wood details. The instrument binnacle is fully digital and easy to understand.

The Renault Koleos' infotainment screen supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, meaning you can access smartphone features including music and Google Maps navigation and Waze on the go within the car’s display. There’s also Bluetooth connectivity, DAB radio and a pair USB ports, plus an aux input if you want to hook up music the old-fashioned way.

The simple, two grade trim structure means there isn’t much on the options list. But there are a few luxury extras including a Bose 13-speaker audio system. The Dynamique S Nav and Iconic models have a 7.0-inch infotainment screen, while the Signature Nav and GT Line versions upgraded that to an 8.7-inch display.

The Renault Koleos is only available as a five-seater which is a shame if you have a big family, but it is advantageous if you've got older children or teens, since rear legroom is very generous. 

Having said that, Renault fitted an opening panoramic roof as standard and it does reduce rear headroom somewhat, although only taller passengers will find things tight.

The Renault Koleos boot space is 579-litres – plenty of room for pushchairs, supermarket runs or trips to a garden centre. Pick the top model and it has a power tailgate with a hands-free operation.

If you do need some more space it’s very easy to fold the rear seats down with levers located in the boot. With the back seats down the load area is long and has a large maximum volume of 1795-litres. But there is a little step in the middle where the seats fold, which might get in the way when pushing in a heavy object like a flatpack box. It is intended as a luxurious car rather than a utility vehicle, so those big seats eat up space when folded.

The Renault Koleos' dimensions sit at 4672mm long, 1843mm wide and 1678mm tall. 

Renault only offered the Koleos with diesel engines. The basic 1.6-litre dCi has 130PS and produces 320Nm of torque which we think is perfectly adequate. Performance of the 130PS 1.6dCi isn’t blistering from a standing start, but on the go it has plenty of punch and you tend to rely on it's decent wave of torque.

The 175PS/380Nm 2.0-litre dCi also feels a little underwhelming when paired with the optional CVT automatic gearbox and fuel economy also drops to around 50mpg.

It's good enough to make the 175PS 2.0-litre models seem a little pointless, it comes as standard with four-wheel drive which makes the Renault a decent off-roader, but also blunts performance. Later versions of the Koleos from late 2019 came with a 150PS 1.7-litre diesel or 190PS 2.0-litre.

Regardless of what’s under the bonnet, noise is subdued for the most part with the odd whir from the turbocharger and some grumbling when accelerating hard. The Renault Koleos suffers from a little bit of wind and road noise on the motorway, but it's still a very comfortable car to drive hundreds of miles in. 

In 2017, the Renault Koleos was awarded five stars by Euro NCAP. Even if you leave the options boxes unticked, there’s a decent amount of driver technology. Blind spot warning, lane-keep assist, traffic sign recognition, autonomous emergency braking and hill start assist are all standard. On the down side, there isn’t an adaptive cruise system, even as an option. 

While we have no specific data on the Koleos, our sister site, HonestJohn.co.uk, does not rate Renault highly for reliability. The French firm finished second-from-bottom in the latest Satisfaction Index – part of that was down to its staggeringly bad 53% pass rate on MoTs. On the upside, you do get a five-year/100,000-mile warranty with later models.

Renault Koleos insurance groups range from group 20 for the less powerful diesel engine to 23 for cars with the more potent motor. 

As a used car, all Renault Koleos owners will pay the standard rate of £195 for 12 months' road tax.

The Renault Koleos was always available in two trim levels – Dynamic S and Signature S, and then Iconic and GT Line.

Dynamique S models come with nice touches like a panoramic sunroof which floods the interior with light, a half-leather interior that gives the cabin a touch of class and dual-zone climate control that means you and your passenger can set your own temperature. You also get an infotainment screen complete with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto so you can mirror the display of your phone and use its apps on the car's big screen. A set of 18-inch wheels means it looks great, too.

Signature S models get larger 19-inch alloy wheels and white-lighting-shining LED headlights. They're a bit posher on the inside, too, chiefly because of their full leather upholstery that includes electrically adjustable heated front seats. You also get a larger infotainment screen and a handsfree power tailgate.

The later Iconic and GT Line trims have the same specification as, respectively, the Dynamique and Signature models. The update did, however, add some styling changes and extra safety kit including automatic emergency braking, traffic sign recognition, and blind spot detection.