Renault KANGOO VENTURE SPECIAL EDITION
Renaults Kangoo Venture Special Edition Is Built To Appeal To Families Who Like The Outdoor Life. Steve Ghosley Reports
When you decide that your family requires a roomy vehicle to carry them and their twenty-first century luggage around, your first thoughts are not necessarily going to veer towards a van with windows. No, your first thoughts are likely to be for an estate or one the fashionable MPVs that now adorn the driveways of many suburban housing estates. Yet with the Kangoo,
Renault have created a market that seems to appeal to many in the UK as sales have rocketed by twenty per cent in 2004. To maintain this momentum, Renault have launched the Kangoo Venture Special Edition that we look at here.
It took a while for the British to overcome their natural aversion to the thought of driving a builders van and to catch on to the idea that a van with windows, plus the addition of a few creature comforts, could make a very practical and more importantly cheaper alternative to the rather expensive MPVs that manufacturers like Renault,
Peugeot and
Ford were offering. The addition of a diesel engine with its increased power and frugal fuel habits only makes the value-package more appealing to those families on a tight budget. The Kangoo Venture Special Edition will carry five adults with ease. It has a retail price of £11,295 but a guaranteed customer saving of £1,500 means that the on the road price is only £9,795.
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"The Kangoo is the only car in its class with a four star Euro NCAP safety rating"
The first things many will notice are the huge elliptical headlamps that rise high into the front wings. The bonnet features a bold crease down the middle and the front grille is now of the latest
Renault family face. The rear door mouldings are a good deal beefier and the protective strips running down the sides are bigger and tougher. The Kangoos chassis is based on that of the latest model Clio, which means that it's wonderfully agile around town, with light quick power steering, short gearing and great visibility through those huge windows. It isn't quite as confident as its supermini stable mate on the open road however - for many of the same reasons. The short gearing means you have to swap cogs regularly and the tall, thin, glassy profile can make it a little susceptible to crosswinds. The Kangoo Venture Special Edition boasts an impressive specification as well as its very own Venture interior trim and badging on the sliding rear doors. The equipment includes ABS brakes, twin front airbags, electric front windows, a single CD-RDS radio, roof bars and remote central locking.
This model comes in a choice of four colours Marine Blue, Cherry Red, Cosmic Grey and Ecosse Blue. If you want to splash out a little more, then you can add air-conditioning for an additional £565 or metallic paint for £325. In addition to offering twin front airbags and ABS, Renault have beefed up side protection in the doors. Pretensioning seatbelts and ISOFIX child
seat attachments all hint at why Renault have been consistently outscoring all other manufacturers in terms of safety provision.
Even
Volvo. Passive safety has been a big focus for Renault in the development of this car and the engineers have developed a keen awareness of what items should be rigidly mounted and what should retain some give. Therefore there are stiff bulkheads and seat frames, plus absorbent padded doors and a collapsible steering column. This new model is the only car in its class with a four star Euro NCAP safety rating compared to its immediate rivals the
Citroen Berlingo Multispace,
Fiat Doblo and the
Peugeot Partner Combi.
The Kangoo Venture Special Edition gets a 1.5-litre common-rail turbo diesel that develops a useful 80bhp. The added power of the diesel unit is a welcome feature for a vehicle of this type as it tends to be used for moving either large loads or lots of people, yet it will still return over 53.3mpg on the combined cycle.
It's fairly utilitarian inside - though that's intentional: you can clean the interior with a hose if you really want to. If necessary, the rear bench pivots forward to convert the Kangoo from people carrier to a 2,500-litre estate. Moreover, thanks to those sliding side doors, it's a lot easier to access the space. Versatility is helped by the airline-style overhead bins and side bins with a total volume of 60-litres plus theres the usual exterior plastic protection that makes a sideswipe of a farmers gate that little bit more insurance-friendly. The running costs of the Kangoo have been kept deliberately low by design. It sits nicely in insurance group 4E thanks to the emphasis on safety and the servicing intervals are at 18,000 miles or every two years.
Buyers of the Kangoo Venture Special Edition will also benefit from a three-year/60,000 mile warranty and three years of free Renault Roadside Assistance. The Renault Kangoo Venture Special Edition offers buyers a different take on the family MPV. After all, each new generation of MPV is gradually becoming difficult to tell apart on the road. The Kangoo, however, is certainly not part of that in-crowd.
With its enhanced equipment levels and reduction in price, the Kangoo Venture Special Edition makes a refreshing alternative choice for families.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: Renault Kangoo Venture Special Edition
PRICE: £11,295 on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 4E
CO2 EMISSIONS: 139g/km
PERFORMANCE: [dCi 80bhp] 0-60mph 12.5s / Max Speed 96mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: [dCi 80bhp] (average) 53.3mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front and side airbags, ABS WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE: length/width/heightmm 3995/1663/1894
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