Renault Koleos VS Mini Countryman
Renault Koleos
Likes
- Decent value
- Visually appealing
- Spacious, comfortable cabin
Dislikes
- Average ride quality
- Dated multimedia and in-car tech
- Lacks engagement as a driver’s car
Mini Countryman
Likes
- Cute styling inside and out
- Responsive engine
- Practical
Dislikes
- High urban fuel consumption
- Visibility restricted while driving
- No shifting paddles
Summary
Renault Koleos
There’s no shortage of models to choose from if you’re after a family-friendly medium SUV. The problem is, it might take a while to get your hands on one, with lengthy wait times for some of the best sellers due to current delays caused by a global parts shortage and supply chain dramas.
But there are a handful of models with healthy stock in dealerships right now and available for immediate delivery. One of them is the Renault Koleos.
It's coming to the end of its life cycle and lacks the shine of some of its fresher rivals, but it’s a lot of car for the money.
Read more about
We spent a week with the limited edition Koleos Black Edition to see if it is worth a trip to your Renault dealer, or if you should sit tight and wait for one of its newer rivals.
| Safety rating | |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | 2.5L |
| Fuel Type | — |
| Fuel Efficiency | 8.1L/100km |
| Seating | 5 seats |
Mini Countryman
The Countryman is Mini’s SUV and the new-generation model has grown in size making it the biggest Mini ever made. But even then it’s still a small SUV.
We’ve tested the Countryman S All4 in the Favoured grade to find out if it could be the ideal urban little SUV.
In this review we rate the Countryman S All4 Favoured for what it’s like to drive and how fuel efficient it is, how practical and spacious the cabin is for people and their stuff, check out the safety equipment, list its features and weigh up the value-for-money.
Read more about
- Mini Countryman 2024 review: Electric
- Mini confirms 2024 Aceman electric SUV for Australia: Pint-sized Chinese-built EV on the way as a premium alternative to BYD Atto 3 and MG4
- Why there will be no EV version of the 2025 Mini Cooper five-door, and how the Aceman electric SUV could become the brand's global top-seller
| Safety rating | — |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | 2.0L |
| Fuel Type | Pulp |
| Fuel Efficiency | 7.6L/100km |
| Seating | 5 seats |
Verdict
Renault Koleos6/10
To be fair to Renault, when the second-generation Koleos launched in 2016, it was a competitive offering. The problem is, a bunch of medium SUV rivals have been replaced in that time and some of them - Toyota RAV4, Kia Sportage, Mazda CX-5 and Hyundai Tucson, to name a few - are high-quality offerings with an engaging drive and the latest tech and in-car features.
Unfortunately, that leaves the Koleos towards the rear of the medium SUV pack.
It offers solid value-for-money, handles reasonably well and is still one the best-looking SUVs on the road. But beyond that, the Koleos can’t keep pace with those top-notch rivals.
Mini Countryman8/10
The Mini Countryman S All4 Favoured is cute, practical, fun to drive, good value and has the latest safety tech. But its urban fuel consumption is high for a small SUV. If you are staying mainly in the city the electric Countryman might make this already excellent SUV just about perfect for you and your urban lifestyle.
Design
Renault Koleos
An area that Renault has excelled at in the past decade has been exterior design. Under the stewardship of design chief Laurens van den Acker, Renault has transformed from somewhat quirky to modern and sleek.
The Koleos is getting on in years, having arrived in 2016, but it’s still a handsome SUV. A 2020 facelift sharpened its looks further and we reckon it’s one of the best-looking models in the medium-SUV segment.
Piano black inserts around the gear shifter are a nice touch, but the fake carbon-fibre inserts look and feel cheap. It’s all a bit generic.
But the appealing contrast yellow stitching on the seats, gear shifter housing, doors, centre armrest and more breaks up the grey with a little pop of colour.
Mini Countryman
The Mini Countryman S Favoured’s design is so interesting it’s easier to make a list of things about it which aren’t interesting. The list: i) tyres, ii) windscreen wipers, iii) seat belts.
That’s pretty much it. I mean they’re interesting in that we can’t live without them but they're not cute like the headlights, pug-nosed bonnet, tiny windscreen and sad-faced grille.
Nor stunning like the cabin’s large central display. The first-ever circular OLED display in a car, by the way. And certainly not as intriguing as the way the interior door trim changes colour from the back to the front.
The Countryman S is all-wheel drive and Mini has given it a rugged look complete with All4 badging.
The Countryman S All4 comes in nine colours, ours is 'Smokey Green' and you can mix and match the colours with the roof and wing mirrors ('Vibrant Silver' on our car).
The test car's wheels are 20-inch alloy 'Windmill' design and although they aren’t the most intricate looking they're easy to clean.
Another interesting Countryman attribute is its size. This is the biggest Mini ever made at 4.44m long, 1.84m wide and 1.66m tall.
So, if you do decide to buy one be prepared for “not very mini, is it?” jokes delivered by unfunny people haunting petrol stations and shopping centre car parks.
Practicality
Renault Koleos
It might lack the up-to-date styling of those rivals, but the Koleos is practical and spacious inside and great for family duties.
As with the outgoing fourth-generation Nissan X-Trail, the Koleos is one of the larger offerings in the medium SUV segment, and it’s evident when sitting in the front or rear seating row.
Rearward visibility could be better, with a small rear screen and thick C- and D-pillars impeding vision and creating a blind spot.
The front seats are well supported and comfortable and while the driver’s side is power adjustable, the front passenger seat is manually adjustable.
It has a deep central storage bin with a hidden shelf for coins and more. The Koleos features a sizeable glovebox and good bottle storage in the doors, with room for other items.
There’s a weird fixed cup holder in the centre console. It’s not adjustable and there’s room for two very narrow cups and two larger, but not wide, cups. It’s strange. Interior designers could have used that space better.
The CVT's position indicators are located to the left of the shifter and are thus obscured, so you have to rely on the instrument cluster display to confirm what gear you want.
The steering wheel looks and feels good, but the controls aren’t super logical. There are old school switches in the console to activate the cruise control and speed limiter, but then to adjust and reset the speed you have to hit buttons on the wheel that are not clearly marked.
The audio controls are housed on a panel-like stalk to the right side of the steering column, which isn’t ideal. These make more sense if they’re housed on the wheel itself.
Along with a number of cars we have sampled recently, the Koleos has split analogue and digital controls for the air conditioning. Just integrate it in the screen or have traditional controls - not both!
It has a part-digital instrument cluster which is fine, but there’s no head-up display.
Renault’s 'R-Link' multimedia set-up in the Koleos is old, with dated graphics and a small screen, but the menu layout is clear and logical.
The Koleos lacks wireless phone charging and it makes do with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The quality of the Bluetooth and CarPlay phone audio is poor and sounds tinny.
The proximity key that locks and unlocks the vehicle remotely when you walk towards or away from it works every single time. Many of these systems from other brands are patchy at best but the Renault system is faultless.
The rear seats recline and fold manually 60/40. They’re also surprisingly comfortable. There’s enough bucketing to sink in a bit, and the seats are set high up so kids can easily see out windows.
Space is ample in the second row, with loads of head, leg, toe and knee room, even behind my six-foot (183cm) driving position.
The rear pew has ISOFIX points on the outboard seats, lower air vents, a 12-volt outlet, map pockets, a centre folding armrest with two cupholders, but no USB ports. You have to make do with the two ports at the front.
Open the power tailgate and you’ll find a decent 458-litre boot with all seats in place (maximum 1690L), which is off the pace of its cousin, the Nissan X-Trail (565L), as well as the Toyota RAV4 (580L) and Hyundai Tucson (539L).
A 17-inch steel spare wheel is housed under the boot floor which might explain the lower boot capacity, and there are handy tie-down hooks, a couple of smaller storage nooks and a solid cargo blind.
Mini Countryman
The Countryman is Mini’s SUV and the brand has clearly attempted to make the interior feel rugged and practical with touches like hard wearing materials and grippy surfaces, plus clever storage.
There are big door pockets with moulded compartments, shelves under the dashboard, a covered area between the driver and front passenger and four cupholders.
There are plenty of power outlets, too, with four type-C USB ports, two 12V outlets and a wireless phone charger.
If you were wondering how roomy the Countryman is, don’t fear, there’s plenty of space up front even for me at 189cm with wide seats and good elbow room. Space in the back is excellent with plenty of legroom and headroom. All up there are five seats on board.
If you’re going to be using the rear doors for passengers a lot, take a look at the size of the opening. It’s small and getting in and out might be a problem for older and less flexible people.
As for cargo space the Countryman has a 505L boot with all seats upright.
The Countryman’s BMW X1 twin offers better practicality and space, but lacks the cute, quirky looks. Having lived with both cars it’s clear the X1 makes a better family car.
Something to keep in mind if you’re looking for better practicality for about the same price, size and performance.
Price and features
Renault Koleos
A European badge doesn’t always mean you pay more than say, Korean or Japanese offerings, and Renault is an example of that.
The Koleos line-up, for now, starts from $33,590, before on-road costs, for the two-wheel drive Life and tops out at $46,390 for the Intens all-wheel drive.
But after July 1, 2022, prices will increase across the Renault line-up, with the Koleos set to range from $35,000 to $47,500.
There’s only one petrol engine option since the diesel was dropped in 2019 and each variant is paired with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) driving either the front or all four wheels.
That pre-July pricing is competitive against its rivals, undercutting the opening price of automatic versions of the Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, Mazda CX-5, Mitsubishi Outlander, Subaru Forester, Toyota RAV4, and more.
Our test car, the Koleos Black Edition, is priced at $40,090 (rising to $40,500 from July 1) and is based on the specification of the mid-range Zen front-wheel drive (FWD). It is limited to 400 units in Australia.
Renault is one of a number of car makers to offer a black-themed model in recent times, alongside Kia, Mitsubishi, Toyota, SsangYong, and others.
The Black Edition adds dark flourishes like 19-inch dark-grey alloy wheels, gloss black roof rails and door mirrors, sidesteps, French flags on the B-pillar (even though it’s built in South Korea) and a choice of three exterior metallic paint colours including black (of course), grey or white.
It also gets a hands-free powered tailgate, black synthetic leather upholstery with yellow stitching, matt carbon-look inserts, an 8.7-inch multimedia portrait touchscreen and ‘Limited’ badging on the chrome door sills.
That’s on top of features that are standard on the Zen, like a proximity key, push-button start, dusk-sensing headlights, rain-sensing wipers, auto-dimming rear-view mirror, auto-folding exterior mirrors, an electrically adjustable driver’s seat, heated front seats, a reclining rear seat, dual-zone air-conditioning, and heated and cooled front cupholder.
The multimedia system houses sat nav and comes with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Bluetooth, digital radio and an eight-speaker audio system.
There’s more details on the safety front below, and many rivals come with more modern in-car tech but there’s no question the Koleos offers very good value-for-money.
Mini Countryman
We have tested the Mini Countryman S All4 Favoured. In Mini-speak that means it sits in the middle of the Countryman line-up and it’s all-wheel drive. The list price is $61,990.
Coming standard are LED headlights, black roof rails, 20-inch alloy wheels, proximity unlocking, John Cooper Works seats, dual-zone climate control, heated power front seats, a heated sports steering wheel, a round OLED media display, a head-up display, sat nav, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 12-speaker Harman Kardon sound system and wireless phone charging. And by the way the interior colour which transitions from brown to blue is also standard on the Favoured.
The value is pretty good for what really is a prestige car and that means you’re comparing it to things like a Volvo XC40 and it’s not-so identical twin the BMW X1.
Under the bonnet
Renault Koleos
The Koleos shares its powertrain with the X-Trail. That means it uses a Euro 5-rated 2.5-litre four-cylinder, naturally aspirated petrol engine delivering 126kW of power at 6000rpm and 226Nm of torque at 4400rpm.
It is paired with a CVT and drives with the front, or all four wheels, depending on the grade.
The Koleos has a braked towing capacity of 2000kg.
Mini Countryman
The Mini Countryman S has a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder, turbo-petrol engine making 150kW and 300Nm - the same one powering the BMW X1.
This is a more powerful engine than the three-cylinder found in entry-grade Countryman C, but doesn’t have the grunt of the more hardcore Countryman JCW that sits above it in the range.
A seven-speed dual-clutch automatic flips through gears quickly and smoothly. If only there were shifting paddles on the Countryman S so the driver could be a bit more involved.
As mentioned earlier the Countryman S is all-wheel drive which is great for extra traction but doesn’t make this little SUV a capable off-roader, so keep your adventures no wilder than dirt or gravel roads that aren’t too challenging.
Efficiency
Renault Koleos
According to Renault, the combined fuel consumption figure for the FWD Koleos is 8.1 litres per 100 kilometres. The AWD Koleos sips 8.3L.
After a week of mixed urban, freeway and semi-rural driving, we recorded 11.3L/100km.
Koleos uses 91 RON petrol, has a 60-litre fuel tank and emits 188g/km of CO2 emissions.
Mini Countryman
Mini says the Countryman S should use 7.6L/100km of premium unleaded petrol after a combination of open and urban roads, but also says if you’re driving is restricted to just the city consumption will jump to 9.9L/100km. Our own testing was mainly urban and we measured 11.2L/100km at the fuel pump.
Thanks to a 45-litre tank, driving range between fills is around 450km using the official consumption figure and just over 400km using our real-world average.
The relatively heavy fuel consumption is a weakness in the Countryman S’s urban suitability. The three-cylinder Countryman C is more fuel efficient but the electric Countryman E is a much better alternative and only costs about $5000 more than our test car.
Driving
Renault Koleos
The drive experience is a mixed bag with some highlights and lowlights.
The ageing 2.5-litre engine is responsive enough from a standing start - it has a 0-100km/h time of 9.5 seconds - but it lacks any real punch and becomes breathless the second you encounter a hill.
It is noisy and revs hard when pushed, with the CVT drone not making for a particularly pleasant aural experience. You’ll hear a fair bit of road and tyre noise in the cabin, too.
The steering is dull and feels quite artificial, but the brakes feel strong.
Unless you’re on a perfectly smooth road surface, the ride is a little busy and the damper tune fails to adequately soften corrugations, potholes and speed bumps.
It is, however, a more capable handler than expected. The chassis is well sorted, and aside from feeling top heavy with body roll when cornering, it has decent grip and displayed impressive roadholding characteristics, even on a sweeping bend with a loose shoulder surface.
There was a little understeer detected turning into a particularly tight bend.
It can’t match the dynamism of the Kia Sportage or Mazda CX-5, but it does engage the driver to some extent.
Mini Countryman
The Mini Countryman S is a fun and comfortable car to drive with sporty handling. That 2.0-litre engine has plenty of oomph, the all-wheel drive offers flawless traction in rain and the transmission shifts decisively.
The drive mode list lets you flip through 'Experiences' using a switch under the media display. The Experiences range from 'Efficiency' for better fuel economy to 'Go Kart' which is a sport mode that shifts gears quicker or holds them to keep the engine in the most responsive rev range.
It would have been good if Mini gave the Countryman S Favourerd shifting paddles. I’m a fan of these, but they’re only available on the grade above.
If there is a downside it’s that visibility from the driver’s seat isn’t great and this comes down to the design of the vehicle which is undoubtedly cute but has small windows and blind spots caused by thick pillars. Even the All4 badge on the side of the car obstructs visibility through the window it’s fixed to.
The Countryman S isn’t tiny, either, at 4.44m long and 1.84m wide, and the visibility actually makes this small SUV feel larger than it is. You’ll get used to this as well. If you are concerned about the size, there are smaller Minis like the three-door which feels a lot more… mini.
Safety
Renault Koleos
The Koleos was awarded a five-star ANCAP crash safety rating back in 2017.
It comes as standard with six airbags, auto emergency braking, forward collision warning, lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, cruise control, a reversing camera, front and rear parking sensors, and a tyre pressure monitor.
It lacks some of the more modern active driver aids that are offered as standard in rivals, like an active lane-keeping system that helps ensure the vehicle doesn’t cross line markings. The Koleos makes do with an audible warning that, oddly, sounds like a whoopie cushion when activated.
The cruise control is not adaptive, instead it’s the old school version that doesn’t detect vehicles ahead and lower its speed accordingly.
Having more up-to-date safety gear would improve the Koleos’ appeal.
Mini Countryman
The Mini Countryman S has yet to be assessed by ANCAP, but its BMW X1 twin scored the maximum five-star score in 2022 and we’d have no reason to suspect the Mini won’t achieve a high mark.
Coming standard is AEB, blind-spot warning, lane keeping assistance and rear cross-traffic alert with braking.
There are front airbags, curtain airbags covering both rows and a centre airbag between the driver and front passenger.
For child seats you’ll find two ISOFIX points and three top tether anchor mounts across the second row.
The lack of a spare tyre is disappointing but there is a puncture repair kit that’s easy to use.
Ownership
Renault Koleos
The Koleos is covered by Renault’s five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, which is stadatd in the meainstream market, now.
It is available with a five-year capped-price servicing plan, with each service costing $429, except year four which will set you back $999.
The servicing schedule is every 12 months or 30,000km, whichever occurs first.
Mini Countryman
The Countryman is covered by Mini’s five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty. When it comes to servicing the car will let you know when it’s needed and although there’s no capped pricing servicing costs Mini does have a five-year/80,000km plan for $2275.