Renault Captur SUV officially revealed

Here's the Renault Captur. It's Clio-size, and looks like a crossover, but doesn't actually offer four-wheel-drive. Renault is hoping - not without good evidence - that most buyers of this kind of car don't want 4WD anyway. They just want the looks and the high-up vantage point.

All of a sudden, after the Nissan Juke's sales took even Nissan by surprise, the world's in danger of clogging up with cars like this. You'll have seen the Peugeot 2008 this week already. Soon on sale is the Vauxhall Mokka and Chevy Trax, and, next year, Ford's Ecosport. You get the picture.

The Captur actually replaces the Modus in Renault's line-up. The Modus was a roomy and useful car, but hardly anyone bought those little MPVs. Too ugly, and too close in price to the much more useful mid-size MPVs. But as a legacy from the Modus, the Captur does have more room than you'd expect. A lot more than a Juke, f'rinstance.

Every exterior panel is different from the new Clio, but the platform and mechanical entrails are shared. This means a good range of small diesel and turbo ptrol engines, with emissions as low as 96g/km. By the same token, if it doesn't handle and ride sweetly then that'd be a surprising Renault screw-up.

The nose carries the new Renault family look, and the swollen wings and curved sills amount to a fine-looking set of surfaces. The option of a two-tone roof colour tops it off nicely (see what we did there?).

Inside, the dash is also fairly Clio-ish, with Renault's R-Link app-capable entertainment/nav screen.

Paul Horrell