Renault Symbioz review

Much like the exterior, it all feels very familiar to anyone who’s driven any modern Renault recently. All versions get a 10.3-inch digital instrument display and 10.4-inch vertical touchscreen, the latter of which runs off Android and offers inbuilt Google Maps, voice assistant and other apps through the Google Play store.

The digital instrument cluster offers several different views (though no traditional circular dial display), but isn’t quite as customisable as you find in some rival cars. If you use the inbuilt Google Maps through the infotainment system you can view it through here too, unlike when you mirror your smartphone. 

There’s plenty of physical switchgear on the steering wheel, making it all easy to operate, plus a row of buttons directly beneath the central screen, allowing you to easily adjust temperature and fan speed. Our only complaint here is that while they look like metal, they’re actually plastic and feel a bit cheap.

Are there any standout features?

Well, in top-spec guise the Symbioz gets Renault’s ‘Solarbay’ lightening/darkening panoramic glass sunroof, in place of a traditional blind. It’s controlled using a button above the windscreen or using the voice assistant.

Four modes are available: fully transparent, fully dark, transparent front and dark rear, or vice versa. We tested the car on a hot day and it really works, helping to keep the car cool while maintaining the bright and airy feel. It’s a feature you only generally find on more premium cars, and a real showstopper here.

Renault says the roof dims automatically when there are no passengers in the car to keep the car cool in summer and warm in winter, and automatically reverts to its previous setting when you get back in. Smart.

Is it comfortable?

No complaints up top, while in the back it gets a sliding rear bench, which when in its rearmost position offers 221mm of kneeroom and 492 litres of bootspace (not far off a Qashqai). Slide it forwards by up to 16cm to allow for 624 litres, or 1,582 litres with the rear seats fully folded.

Which sounds great. But when the bench is slid fully forward, there’s absolutely zero legroom for passengers, and a big gaping hole behind the seats. Seems simpler to just fold the rear seats down to us, particularly as they offer the usual 60/40 split.

Still, the boot does have a split level floor which lies flat with the boot lip in its highest position (along with a handy storage compartment beneath), allowing for easy loading/unloading on the weekly supermarket run. Which is all fine, but not exactly revolutionary. 

Renault proudly claims the Symbioz has 24.7 litres of storage space in the cabin, with seven of those in the glovebox. Why you’d need seven litres of glovebox space is anyone’s guess. Massive gloves?