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Time to grow up? Do it in style with the Renault Captur

The Renault Captur is a family-friendly compact crossover with its spirit of adventure intact

As you move forward in life, responsibilities have a habit of catching up with you but the Renault Captur is designed to keep you a few steps ahead. Renault's compact crossover has the qualities to make a young family's life run smoothly without sacrificing on important stuff like fun, style and a spirit of adventure.

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A family car must be practical and easy to live with, yet nobody wants to look like they've given up on the things that make us feel great about owning and driving a car. The Captur delivers on all counts thanks to its intelligently crafted interior, clever technology and striking external looks that can be personalised to your taste.

A practical crossover with real style

The Captur is a crossover: part road-focused family car, part tough, high-riding SUV. The design stands out on the street, even more so if you dip into the bold pallet of Renault Captur colour schemes and the range of styling accessories. The options run from two-tone paint jobs to decal graphics for the bodywork and various sporty alloy wheel designs, so you can really make the car your own.

The striking design makes the Captur look ready for anything, but also helps ensure that it really is. That high ride height lifts you up above other traffic, giving a better view of the road but also making those entries and exits easier. Once you've fitted a child seat in a crossover you'll never willingly return to leaning low into a conventional hatch or supermini. Chunky bumpers, extended wheelarches and that extra ground clearance all help protect the Captur from knocks, be they from speed humps, supermarket trolleys or rough off-road terrain.

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So the Captur looks good wherever you take it and the tough design means you can take it where owners of other compact cars would fear to tread. That opens up a world of possibilities for family adventures and the Captur’s modular MPV-style interior is perfectly equipped to cope.

Perfect for family trips

From road trips through Europe to staycation-style family outings, the Captur has it covered. The 3-seater rear bench splits 60:40 and folds flat to the floor. That increases a boot capacity that stands at 455 litres (if you include the neat under-floor storage compartment) to a mammoth 1,235 litres. The seats also sit on rails and can be slid around to boost legroom or luggage space as required, and if there’s still not enough room, the Captur can tow a 1,200kg braked trailer!

When the boot’s loaded with bikes or camping gear you’ll need space for other items and the Captur offers all kinds of handy features to keep its cabin clutter free. There’s a central storage compartment between the front seats that you can reach from anywhere in the car. It’s removable too so you can pack it with drinks and snacks, or nappies and baby wipes, then take it out to the car before you set off. A hidden storage area on top of the dash is idea for housing your smartphone, and higher spec models get mesh pockets on the seat backs for kids’ books, paperwork or magazines.

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There’s more too because the Captur has a neat answer to the problem that’s all too familiar to families – the cleaning of little spillages or muddy footprints off car seats. Removable, washable zip seat covers on Dynamique Nav and Dynamique S models are a revelation and there are five different patterns so you can change your Captur’s interior look whenever you like.

The technology in the Captur is in tune with the way you live your life too from Renault’s handsfree key card, that lets you unlock and start the car without the card ever leaving your pocket or bag, to the advanced infotainment systems. Media Nav (on Dynamique NAV and Dynamique S NAV models) and optional R-LINK technology (standard on Signature Nav) blend sat-nav and phone integration with media playback and other useful features. So whether you’re navigating the city streets or setting out on a long trip to the beach with the family in tow, you’ll be guided, fully connected and ready for anything.

Easy to use, easy to drive

The Captur is at home in all those environments and more too. The high driving position and compact dimensions make it easy to thread through tight spaces in town, while rear parking sensors on the Dynamique S Nav and a reversing camera on the Signature Nav models make manoeuvring even easier.

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On the open road, the punchy turbocharged TCe petrol and dCi diesel engines give effortless performance and economy of up to 78mpg* in the dCi 90 models. There’s even an ECO mode that activates a range of settings to help the car save more fuel.

The Captur is a small car that’s light on its feet in traffic but you’ll appreciate the smooth ride on longer journeys that should get any smaller rear-seat occupants nicely off to sleep. The whole family will be safe too with Renault’s strong reputation for building cars that head their class in safety continued here. The Renault Captur features front and side airbags as standard, along with ESC stability control and Hill Start Assist. Dynamique Nav models also get cornering fog lights that illuminate to give a wider field of vision when rounding bends at night.

A family car you’ll love to own

If you thought your family responsibilities were pushing you towards a car that’s big, unwieldy and lacking any kind of pizazz, Renault has ridden to the rescue with the Captur. This crossover is roomy, intelligently designed and packed with features to make life easier but it also looks great and oozes fun.

All this serves to make the Renault Captur one of the best cars for family travel of its size. Far from shackling your youthful spirit of adventure, the Captur really can open new horizons.

*Official Fuel consumption figures are produced for comparison purpose and are measured according to the European Directive 80/1268/EEC. These figures are specific for a vehicle type and not for a single car. Real world fuel (actual) consumption can vary as the fuel efficiency of a vehicle is influenced by driving behaviour, weather and road conditions. The use of technical equipment for example air conditioning, can also effect the fuel consumption. For further information, please visit the Vehicle Certification Agency web site www.vca.gov.uk.

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Richard is a former editor of Carbuyer, as well as sister site DrivingElectric.com, and he's now Deputy Editor at Auto Express. Having spent a decade working in the automotive industry, he understands exactly what makes new car buyers tick.

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