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When the Renault Captur first went on sale in 2013 there wasn't nearly as much competition in the supermini crossover section as there is now. Pretty much every brand in the market now offers something similar, whether it's the Nissan Juke or the Ford Puma, but Renault managed to get their foot in the door fairly early.
The Renault Kadjar SUV was first unveiled in 2015 at the Geneva Motor Show with sales beginning that year and a facelift model was introduced in 2018. It's based on the same platform as the Nissan Qashqai but the Kadjar offers a similar amount of room at a lower price point.
Both compact crossover cars have a lot to offer so it can be difficult to decide which one is best for you so our comparison guide will take you through both options.
As you would expect, the Renault Kadjar is longer and taller than the Renault Captur but the Captur is actually wider overall. Despite this, the space in the Renault Captur is designed more with passengers in mind as it has an additional 34mm of head room in the front seats.
The exterior of the Captur is almost identical to the previous version which allows it to keep much of its character whilst increasing the dimensions. Other changes include C shaped LED daytime running lights, LED headlights as part of the standard equipment, a wider grille, redesigned bumpers, and larger alloy wheel options.
Being built on the same platform as the Qashqai doesn't mean that its the same car with a different badge. Renault actually say that as much as 95% of what you find in the Kadjar is brand new. The styling of the Kadjar is much more rounded than the Qashqai and it's selection of bright paint colours work well with it's stylishly formed flanks and chrome detailing to make it stand out amongst other SUV models.
One of the main benefits of the Renault Captur is the sliding rear bench. It can alter the amount of boot space by 114 (from litres between the farthest forward and backwards positions which is ideal if you still need to use the rear seats for passengers or don't want to fold the seats down. If you do fold the back seats down the boot space is expanded to 1275 litres for the petrol, 1149 litres for the hybrid, and 1118 litres for the plug in hybrid. With the sliding bench you do have the option to increase the rear legroom, which gives you great flexibility if you've got a car of taller passengers.
For comparison, with all five seats in use you can make use of 472 litres of boot space in the Renault Kadjar and folding the back bench down will open the space up to a full 1478 litres and is made easy by what Renault calls EasyLife quick folding seats. These are seats that can be folded with the pull of a lever built into the boot. This is particularly helpful if your hands are full or if you're by yourself as it saves juggling whilst you try to fold them.
Cloth upholstery is standard across the range as you'd expect but if you pay for a higher trim level you can see the quality increase and faux leather seats with real leather coverings for the steering wheel.
Coming from the same brand, the Renault Captur and Renault Kadjar have similar levels of equipment as standard. They both share LED daytime running lights, cruise control, a speed limiter, a 7 inch touchscreen for the infotainment system, 17 inch alloy wheels, rear parking sensors,
There are still some differences though. The alloys on the Kadjar are diamond cut, it has front parking sensors and a rear view camera as standard, and power assisted adjustment for the steering column. The new Captur, however, has LED headlights, a wireless phone charger, and a 4.2 inch digital driver's information screen. At the same time the new models have lost some of the nice extras that higher spec cars of previous generations previously enjoyed, such as a Bose sound system or larger alloy options.
As a standard both the Captur and the Kadjar benefit from a hands free keycard which can be used for keyless entry, handy if it ends up at the bottom of your bag or you're juggling a few things when you arrive at the car.
Both models also have a great array of safety features as standard, such as traffic sign recognition, lane departure warning, hill start assist, and automatic headlights. Elsewhere in the Kadjar range there's also blind spot monitoring and blind spot warning as well as flank protection and active emergency braking.
This awards them both a five star Euro NCAP rating in the Small-Off Road, although the Renault Captur performs slightly better in each category than the Renault Kadjar does.
As it currently stands, the Renault Captur has better performance across its engine range and it's largely due to it's hybrid options. However they do share the 1.3 litre petrol engine with 140PS and torque of 260Nm, although in the Kadjar this drops to 240Nm if you opt for the automatic. The Renault Kadjar can expect 44.1mpg compared to 47.9mpg for the Renault Captur. This is the only engine option for the Kadjar at the moment, which does limit you when you choose it.
Alternatively, the Renault Captur has both hybrid and plug in hybrid options which dramatically reduces CO2 emissions and increases fuel economy. with a hybrid engine the combined mpg climbs to as much as 56.5 but the plug in hybrid is the best option of them all with a combined mpg of 217.3. The real world figure is obviously likely to change depending on your driving style and how much you use your car but the plug in hybrid offers so phenomenal results.
Currently neither of the two models offer a four wheel drive option, which does make them lose out to other compact crossover and large SUV cars such as the Skoda Karoq and the Seat Ateca.
Bot the Renault Kadjar and the Renault Captur are well suited as a family car thanks to their generous amounts of room and high driving position. Renault now provides a really solid combination of standard features across their full range meaning that neither car is going to have you missing out.
Your main decisions then come down to the engine type that you want and the room that you require for every day use.
Our friendly team at John Clark Renault are always on hand to offer you advice and guide you through each model in person if you're still undecided!
