Renault Arkana

It may look like a replacement for the ageing Kadjar, but all is not what it seems

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MODEL TESTED E-TECH HYBRID 145 S -EDITION

Price £28,600

Power 141bhp

Torque na

0-60mph 11.0sec

30-70mph in fourth na

Fuel economy 50.8mpg

CO2 emissions 108g/km

70-0mph 56.9m

We like

Lots of space for the money

Cruising manners

We don’t like

Cabin quality is below Renault’s other recent efforts

E-Tech system works better as a plug-in hybrid

The one sure-fire way to create a best-in-class car is to invent a whole new class of car altogether. The original Mercedes CLS did it as a four-door coupé; the Nissan Juke did it as a B-segment SUV; and those are just two obvious examples. Now, if you’re looking for a crossover-coupé with a slice of added desirability that’s bigger than the B-segment but not quite big enough for the C-segment, along comes the Renault Arkana.

Few people will define their next smaller family car in quite such specific terms, of course, and if you’re not that fussed about the Arkana’s sloping-roof SUV styling, you have many alternatives to choose from. Cars like the aforementioned Nissan Juke and Renault’s own Captur will be cheaper, but they give up some interior room. Up the budget by a few thousand pounds and you can get into a more upmarket SUV like a Hyundai Tucson or Nissan Qashqai.