Renault Captur Review 2024

Renault’s small SUV is like a bungalow with a loft conversion. Taking its Clio small car as a base, Renault has knocked a few walls down, raised the floor and extended the roof to give you more interior space than you get in a Clio, but without the pay-off of massive exterior dimensions and the inflated running costs that come with them. Read on for our Renault Captur review.

Sharing a platform with the popular Renault Clio and also the Nissan Juke, the Renault Captur has dimensions that sit at 4227mm long, 1797mm wide and 1576mm tall. That makes it an alternative to the Skoda Kamiq, the big-selling Ford Puma and another French challenger, the Peugeot 2008.

It takes a lot to stand out in this crowded small SUV segment, but the Captur offers cheerful looks and a feelgood interior that mean it’s one of the better options.

Practicality has been a focus for the Captur’s designers, and the current model is slightly longer, wider and taller than its predecessor, giving it more interior space.

Front-seat passengers won’t feel cramped at all, and in the rear a sliding bench allows you to prioritise boot or passenger space. It’s a handy feature that means you’ll have no issues getting tall adults in the back, but equally can slide the rear seats forward to increase boot capacity when needed.

Renault has also been generous with storage space, with a large bin between the front seats and decent-sized pockets in all four doors.

Interior quality is great, with soft-touch plastics up front and neat touches such as knurled stalk caps. Naturally, the further up the range you go, the nicer it gets – Esprit Alpine models feature a frameless rear-view mirror and a heated synthetic leather steering wheel.

The infotainment is also pretty impressive, particularly since the new Google-based system was introduced in 2024. All models get Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, too, so you can mirror your phone’s display and use its apps on the car’s big screen.

Link your phone to the infotainment screen, get on the move and you’ll find there’s very little to complain about. The Renault’s upright driving position and light controls make it easy to drive, but the weighty steering means it doesn’t feel flighty at speed. It’s not as direct as a Ford Puma, but it’s more comfortable.

There’s an engine for all requirements, too. You can choose from petrol and hybrid models, although diesel and plug-in hybrid variants have since been dropped from the range. We'd go for the Renault Captur E-Tech hybrid - it's very efficient and usefully more powerful than the entry-level petrol.

The Captur scores highly in the value-for-money stakes. Even entry-level models get a reversing camera, the impressive infotainment system and a range of advanced driver-assist systems. With prices starting from around £21,000, it significantly undercuts rivals, too.

The Renault Captur is an easy car to drive, helped by decent visibility and light controls. It ticks the 'fit for purpose' box nicely, with little in the way of character or excitement, but that's fine in a small SUV like this.

Revisions to the suspension in 2024 mean it now feels slightly more agile than it did before. That comes at the expense of comfort, though... a Skoda Kamiq copes better with bumpy road surfaces.

Captur Techno models and above get switchable drive modes, allowing you to increase the responsiveness of the engine or the dartiness of the steering when the mood takes you. To be honest, there's not a lot to be gained by switching through them - we'd recommend leaving it in the regular mode.

The Captur's engine line-up is now quite simple: it's available with a 1.0-litre petrol engine (paired with a manual gearbox) or a 1.6-litre hybrid (with an auto transmission).

The 1.0-litre is fine around town but, with a power output of just 90PS, it soon starts to feel strained on the open road. It'll accelerate to 62mph in 14.3 seconds, making it one of the slowest cars in its class. At least a six-speed gearbox is now standard, which helps refinement, but you will notice a bit of noise from the thrummy three-cylinder engine.

The hybrid Captur E-Tech is a better option. Although it's a 'self-charging' hybrid system (so you won't need to plug it in), Renault claims that it can travel in pure-electric mode for a significant chunk of time. Unfortunately, it does seem to get flustered quite easily, and we reckon the hybrid setup in the Toyota Yaris Cross is a more refined system. Still, at least it provides a decent amount of power and it's hard to fault in terms of efficiency.

Earlier Renault Captur models were offered with more conventional engines, including a punchy 1.3-litre petrol and even a diesel. The latter is very much out of fashion, now, but might make sense if you cover a lot of out-of-town miles.

The Renault Captur was awarded five stars for safety by Euro NCAP in 2019, so it is one of the safest cars of its type. All models come with automatic emergency braking, lane-keep assist, lane-departure warning, cruise control and rear parking sensors. 

Hybrid versions of the Renault Captur can tow a maximum of 750kg, while the petrol Captur can tow a braked trailer weighing up to 1200kg. 

The Captur is a practical small SUV with a useful sliding rear bench allowing you to prioritise boot or rear passenger space.

While the 616-litre luggage capacity looks huge on paper, it’s worth noting that’s with the bench all the way forward. With it moved back, it drops to 484 litres. The Renault Captur E-Tech loses out on some underfloor stowage space, too, dropping its carrying capacity to just 348 litres. The opening is wide, but high, although there’s no significant lip for hoisting heavy items over.

In the front, you sit higher than you would in some small SUVs. That gives it the edge over the Renault Clio hatchback, should you want to see over hedgerows. There's a decent amount of space in the back, too, provided the bench is slid back. With it in the forward position, there's very little knee room for rear-seat passengers.

While you wouldn’t describe the cabin as premium, there are plenty of nice materials and well-thought-through features. We like the toggles on the dash to turn the lane assist tech off, for example.

There are some cheaper-feeling plastics, though, if you go looking for them. Tall occupants might bang their leg on the chunky, plastic centre console, for example, and the glovebox handle feels low-rent.

Everything is fairly well laid out, and there are physical controls for the climate control. The audio controls tacked on to a stalk behind the steering wheel feel something of an afterthought, but that’s unlikely to be a dealbreaker.

New for 2024 is a Google-powered 10.4-inch touchscreen media system. It's portrait-orientated and angled slightly towards the driver for access access. We like it a lot - it's easy to use, fast to respond and has sharp graphics. Buy a Techno or Esprit Alpine model and you'll even get access to Google services (such as Google Maps).

All Renault Captur models come with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, meaning you can connect your phone for easy access to your favourite apps.

With prices starting from around £21,000, the Renault Captur appears to offer excellent value for money against competitors. For comparison, you'll pay nearly £26,000 for the cheapest Ford Puma, while the Toyota Yaris Cross starts from around £25,500.

You will need to live with the slightly weedy petrol engine for that price, though. The much more desirable hybrid Renault Captur is priced from a little over £24,500, while the range tops out at around £28,000 for a top-spec Captur Esprit Alpine. That's still pretty good value for money, especially when you consider the extensive amount of kit that comes as standard.

If you're not worried about having the latest, facelifted Renault Captur, you can save a lot of money by looking for a secondhand example. A budget of just £11,000 will get you a three-year-old example on the used market.

You’re not going to be stung by high running costs, no matter which Renault Captur you buy.

The 90PS petrol claims an official return of up to 47.9mpg, while the 145PS E-Tech hybrid manages 60.1mpg. This impressive figure ought to be fairly achievable in the real world, too - indeed, we saw an average of around 60.0mpg during our rural test drive of the hybrid model.

Although it's now been dropped from the range, the Renault Captur was also available as a plug-in hybrid. Take its 217.3mpg fuel economy figure with a pinch of salt, but its 30-mile electric range will be ideal for those with short commutes.

You could also - briefly - get the Captur with diesel power. Its 58.9mpg efficiency wasn't that impressive, though, and is only worthwhile if you cover a lot of motorway miles.

Since 2024, the Renault Captur line-up has consisted of Evolution, Techno and Esprit Alpine trim levels.

Standard equipment on the Renault Captur Evolution includes 17-inch Ediris alloy wheels, a shark fin antenna, dark tinted rear windows and tailgate, full LED automatic headlights with automatic high/low beam, automatic windscreen wipers, rear parking sensors, and a rear view camera.

The interior is marked out by its 10.4-inch OpenR Link touchscreen with Arkamys six-speaker audio system and wireless smartphone connectivity, plus a wireless smartphone charger. Its equipment list continues with automatic air conditioning with one touch quick demist and air quality regulator, central console with sliding armrest, electronic parking brake with auto-hold function, hands-free keycard, and synthetic leather steering wheel.

Advanced driver assistance systems include cruise control and speed limiter, traffic sign recognition with overspeed prevention, active emergency braking system, driver attention alert, distance warning alert, front and rear detection with emergency lane keep assist including solid line, oncoming traffic and road edge detection, my Safety Shield, and hill start assist.

The Renault Captur Techno gains 18-inch ‘Black Hole’ alloy wheels, longitudinal roof bars, front and side parking sensors, electrically folding door mirrors, auto-dimming rear view mirror with light and rain sensor, modular boot floor, height-adjustable front passenger seat, MULTI-SENSE driving modes, Google services built-in, 10.25-inch digital driver display, and two additional rear USB-C ports.

Crowning the range, the Renault Captur Esprit Alpine adds 19-inch esprit Alpine ‘Elixir’ alloy wheels, two-tone paint with contrasting black roof colour, and gloss black window frames. The interior features esprit Alpine styling, aluminium sports pedals, auto-dimming frameless rear view mirror, flying console for auto transmission, driver and front passenger seat with electric height adjustment, heated front seats, heated synthetic leather steering wheel, sun visor with mirror and light, and adaptive cruise control with speed limiter.