Renault Captur

FIRST DRIVE Mid-life refresh keeps small crossover in the game.

- Lawrence Allan

THE small crossover market is pretty saturated already, but over the next 12 months buyers will have even more choice. We’ve got a pair of rhyming newcomers in the form of SEAT’s Arona and the Hyundai Kona – both due this year – plus the second-generation Nissan Juke arrives in 2018. But they’ll all have the Renault Captur as the car to beat; it was the best-selling model in this class in Europe last year.

To ensure it keeps pace with new rivals, and to bring it up to date with the glut of updated Renaults that have also debuted recently, the Captur has been given a series of mid-life nips and tucks. Minor though they are, the visual changes bestow the car with a fresh new look inside and out. 

Reprofiled headlights can now be chosen as full LED units for the first time, while there are new C-shaped LED daytime running lights, too, which now echo the Mégane’s units but sit lower in the bumper. Additional chrome grille trim, an enlarged lower intake, new skid plates and tweaked tail-lights are added, along with a couple of additional colour choices for the body and roof to spruce things up further.