Renault drops diesel Koleos for Australia

RENAULT Australia has dropped diesel from its best-selling model, the Koleos medium SUV, instead going with an all-petrol line-up in the facelifted model out now in Australian dealerships.

Reflecting the switch away from oil burners in family cars across the Australian market, Renault will stick with its 126kW/226Nm 2.5-litre petrol engine, hooked up a continuously variable transmission (CVT).

The company told GoAuto it has no plans to order any more diesel Koleos stock for Australia, even though diesel is being produced for Europe.

Just four Koleos variants will be offered here, down from the current six, with only the flagship Intens getting all-wheel drive this time around.

The French company has also increased the price of entry by $1500, with the base Life now starting at $32,490 plus on-road costs.

However, at the other end of the scale, the Intens AWD comes down $500, to $45,490.

The company is hoping the makeover will inject new life into the Koleos, sales of which are down 26.7 per cent in Australia this year.

To the end of October, Renault had sold just 1873 Koleos SUVs, representing a 1.3 per cent share of the all-import medium SUV market segment.

Among the changes to the Koleos are a bolder fascia with a bigger grille, more chrome and wider skid plates.

The headlight clusters gain LED fog lamps, while the 19-inch alloy wheels get a new polished black diamond-cut design.

Among new features are a reclining rear bench seat with two positions, along with a panoramic opening sunroof that is standard on the Intens and optional on the mid-range Zen.

The Zen and Intens also come with 360-degree parking sensors, blind spot warning, while the Intens gets automatic high/low beam headlights and park assist.

Full-screen Apple CarPlay is also now fitted to the Intens as part of the revised connectivity that includes standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto across the range.

The Intens’ all-wheel-drive system gets three modes – front-wheel drive, auto and lock – that can be manually selected by the driver.

The new Koleos range gets the latest R-Link 2 multimedia system on a 7.0-inch horizontal or 8.7-inch vertical screen, depending on the variant.

Various features such as the speedo design and ambient lighting can be personalised. A voice recognition system is activated from the steering wheel to manage sat nav, phone calls, and radio.

The mid-range Zen and flagship Intens both get standard sat-nav with 12 months of free traffic updates and 36 months of map updates from TomTom.

Other changes include easier access to the twin USM sockets that are now located on the centre console.

Along with a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty, the Koleos gets five years of capped price servicing (up to 150,000km) and up to five years roadside assist.

2019 Renault Koleos pricing*

 *Excludes on-road costs