What is the point of this car? – Renault Rafale review UK 4K

It’s hard to keep with Renaults current line up of cars in Europe, there seems to be a new one released every other week. The Renault Rafale is the French car makers flagship model but who is this car for…. Hopefully we will know by the end of this video.

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Renault are seemingly a bit Unstoppable at the moment in fact I can hardly keep up with all the cars that they’re releasing this month alone in showrooms we’ve seen the arrival of the new Renault Scenic we’ve also started to see in dribs and drabs the new facelifted Renault capture and this this is their Flagship model this is the Renault Rafal and if you’re a little bit confused where all of these cars fit in the lineup of Renault models well hopefully that’s what I’m going to help you with today hi guys I’m Tish and welcome back to my Channel autoo UK in today’s video we’re going to be talking all about the Renault Rafal why would you choose this car over its competitors or over anything else in the current Renault lineup for instance the Renault orral so if that sounds good then please keep watching and if you like new car reviews and car content then you’re in the right place go ahead and hit the Subscribe button plus if you wanted to check out the raile for yourselves or book yourselves in a test drive then you can do that at either John Banks it switch or John Banks Cambridge I’ll pop their details in the description box down below but let’s start by talking about design and size because you may be thinking well Tish that just looks like a facelifted Arcana but you see the big difference is size this is absolutely massive it’s much bigger than the Arcana and has way more interior space for families so I’ll talk a bit more about that in a moment but starting off by talking about design you may be thinking that looks really familiar where have I seen this car before and it may be that you’re thinking about the perso 408 and it’s not just a case of Renault have seen the 408 and thought we want a piece of that you see no actually this does have a little bit of 48 DNA in it you see the renault’s design boss who’s jles videll he actually worked on the 408 just before he came over to Renault so he definitely bought some of the inspiration across but personally when it comes to this car comparing it directly to the 408 I do think that this has better engine options at the moment it’s only available as a strong hybrid you’ve got a 1.2 L petrol engine and then you’ve got two electric motors giving you 200 brake horsepower and it can actually run in electric far longer than the Perse 408 does and it gives it a much smoother drive I’ll talk a bit more about that when I actually drive this car and also it’s going to be arriving in a plug-in hybrid as well with 300 brake horsepower but that’s going to follow on a little bit later on and hopefully I’ll get to test drive one of those when they arrive now the one issue with this car is it’s going to be very pricey especially For A Renault as I mentioned this is their Flagship model so this is going to cost well just below 40, ,000 for pretty much all versions right up to into the 50s if you go for that plug-in hybrid but it’s not all bad news you see Renault have worked really hard on providing a very very good car to drive so much so that this comes with four-wheel steering if you go for the higher spec models like this one which is the aspre Alpine trim now that’s some pretty big Tech and it makes for a very good car to drive so before the plug-in hybrid arrives it’s only available in a strong hybrid and it’s a very similar setup to what we’ve already seen in the Renault orral and in my opinion that’s no bad thing because that car quite impressed me it feels like a blend of The Best of Both Worlds it drives a lot like an electric car in the fact that you don’t have jerky gear changes the power delivery is very smooth it’s very quiet but you have the benefits of having that petrol engine as a backup now this vehicle has been designed from the ground up to run as much in electric as possible so that means it is best driven at low speeds but like I said that wasn’t necessarily what they were going for when it comes to the Rafal they wanted the Rafal to have a sportier driving setup so a lot of engineering has gone into the way the steering works it features a 20 mm wider Tru than the austr and eace along with 10 mm wider wheels and a bespoke chassis tune that boosts steering response Times by 30% and reduces body Roll by 10% the majority of models excluding the entrylevel Techno possesses a rear axle that can rotate up to 5° at low speeds this feature enables a smaller turning circle of 10.4 M similar to the Cleo and it enhances agility additionally at speeds above 31 milph the rear axle aligns with the front axle providing improved stability during fast Maneuvers the raile demonstrates impressive composure when pushed to its limits maintaining its trajectory even when applying throttle mid Corner this sensation of rotating around its midpoint can be likened to torque vectoring hot hatches such as the mean RS or the Audi S3 but that’s not get too carried away because the Rafal does not fully satisfy the enthusiastic driver while while the steering rack is responsive and the chassis offers a comfortable and predictable ride it lacks the rewarding and engaging nature that truly excites the steering in particular lacks the necessary feedback to encourage spirited driving styling is of course subjective and not everybody is going to like the looks of this car but I really think they’ve done a very good job at standing it out from other vehicles on the road Rena have quite a lot of presence at the moment and that’s because they’re coming out with some really stylish looking cars and this is definitely no different because it looks really quite striking the front of the car of course looks a lot like the rest of the range but it has its own little Elements which just stand it apart now I love the way you’ve got this front grill that almost sits just below this Bonnet line which kind of juts out a bit now this is almost like chain link on this front grill and it twinkles depending on what angle you look at it because it’s got a silver underneath those floating black Rena shaped designs you’ve got the massive front Renault badge which houses a lot of the car’s safety features and I also love the lights as well it’s very dynamic in its styling you’ve got lots of lines and edges which lead up to those daytime running lights I think they look great and I also like the way that they light up in individually as you approach the car with the keyless entry you’ve also got a black diffuser on the bottom of this sportier a spree Alpine trim it looks great in red as well when I turned up and saw this car in red I was quite relieved because a lot of cars nowadays especially when they’re first delivered are in Grays and blues and Rena do a lot of Grays and blues but it’s nice to see it in red it really stands out the only issue for me however when it comes to this color is the interior color you see because this is the Spree Alpine trim you get those familiar flashes of blue you’ve got the blue felt line door cards you’ve got blue floor mats flashes of blue in the seats and you’ve also got these blue seat belts as well so I’m not too sure about the two colors although red is in here as well you’ve got the French red white and blue theme you’ve got the stitching on the steering wheel across the doors and also once again on the seats so it somewhat comes together but let me know what do you think of the combination down below personally I think this espre Alpine would look a bit better with one of the muted colors like black white or gray on the exterior paintwork elsewhere in this cabin it’s a great combination of both the Renault Scenic and also the Renault orral I like elements of both of those cars and it’s come together to create quite a premium product one of the controversial Elements which has been brought across from the oral is this center console you have this fighter jet style Center almost like handrest this is a handle and it may look like it does other things but it simply just slides this center console forwards and backwards and it’s actually quite nice to use when driving I like to rest my hand on it it feels a bit more premium than in the oral you’ve got two cup holders down here two more more USBC charge ports a 12vt charger and then you’ve also got some wireless charging on top of this moving pad underneath the moving pad you’ve got some more Central Storage and then further back you’ve got a split Center armrest storage so loads of storage solutions and loads of places to pop items out of the way the one thing I wish it had is a little cover that just went over this frontal storage just to neaten it up slightly but that’s personal to me and you can slide it forwards and that will hide it but I just think it would look nicer if everything could be tucked away it does feel very driver focused in here though and I like the layout I love the steering wheels we’ve seen these across lots of Renault products you’ve got the flat bottom you’ve got the pieces of Alcantara which feel really sporty I love the stitching around these and I like these buttons as well they’re made to look like they’re haptic but they do actually work as physical buttons the one thing about Rena steering wheels however is there is so much going on you’ve got the multisense button which is of course to change your different Drive modes I really like that you’ve also got the gear selector which is just behind here you’ve got your indicators and lights you’ve got your window wipers and then you’ve got another stalk for your volume now Renault insists on putting their volume stalk behind the steering wheel and I know a lot of people who are used to Renault products like like this but personally I just think it’s about time Renault that you moved it into the center console what they do have however which I’m really pleased about is they do still have some physical shortcut buttons and I really like this infotainment system this has got to be one of the best systems currently on the market and it’s based off of Google software which makes it very intuitive to use and it’s laid out a lot like the menus on an Android smartphone so it’s easy to adapt to there’s a 12-in portrait entertainment screen and a 12.3 in digital driers display and everything is sharp and vibrant and it all loads very quickly with Fast Response times the Google Maps app comes builtin but there are also up to 50 other thirdparty apps available to download although if you’d prefer there is also still Wireless Apple carplay and Android auto of course the rear design is where this car really stands aside from the Renault orral it’s much sporty in its styling and it has that really popular Coupe roof line very very similar to the Pue around the back and I mean that with endearment because I love perso designs you’ve got that split spoiler which I think perso calls the cat ear spoiler and then you’ve got a second black tipped spoiler which just comes off the boot line really like that you’ve got a very r rear window which is tinted and there isn’t any rear wiper but I do not think it’s necessary when you’ve got the two spoilers you’re not going to find much water is going to settle on that rear window and it shouldn’t be too much of an issue but actually I think the rear design of this car is slightly better than the Perse 408 you don’t have that really ugly plastic bumper instead you’ve got a nice Sleek gloss black bumper instead and I really like these slim sharp smoked lights they look really stylish now one of the key selling points for the Rafal is just how practical it is despite having a sloped roof line and one of those practical elements is the amount of boot space inside here you’ll find 535 L available with all the seats up however there’s also added underfloor storage which increases the boot space to 647 L this space is bigger than Rivals like the Perse 38 and the Audi Q5 I do however find it a bit of a shame that they’ve spent so much money on mechanical upgrades but some small things like an adjustable boot floor aren’t here so very similar to in the Renault Scenic you have quite a load lip in the back of the Rafal and that means that if you’re lifting really heavy suitcases into the back here if you’re not particularly able-bodied it’s quite difficult to lift them out it’ll only be for a small majority of people which will find that a little bit irritating but I just think it would be nice to have the option of an adjustable boot floor you do however have a boot floor which lifts up and there’s space underneath but I also think they could have upgraded this parcel shelf as well it also doesn’t feel particularly premium there are Rivals out there which have slightly more premium elements in this area usually when you mention the word Coupe that instantly hinders any practicality an SUV might have and other than having to duck slightly to get into the rear seats of the raile it is so practical in here as I mentioned it’s much larger than most of renault’s lineup including of course the other Coupe SUV which is the Arana this car is far bigger than the Arcana the Arcana is more for small starter families and this is for much bigger established families you can happily sit six foot people back here due to there being lots of Headroom and lots of legro and you could easily fit three people back here as well you’ve got a really practical middle seat you’ve got this nice flat middle seat and also it’s nice and wide as well so if I slide across to the middle I’m really comfortable and my feet fit behind the center console quite comfortably as well you could have much larger feet and they would fit there so I think larger families are going to find it far more practical than other current Renault products I also love the fact that you’ve got some features which have been brought across from the scenic and that includes this center console which comes down and you’ve got a little bit storage in here where you’ll find two USB C ports now that’s on top of the two USB C ports which are in the center console so you’ve got four charging ports back here and then you have cup holders and you’ve got these little pullout sections where you can mount your mobile phone or you can mount a tablet and you can watch anything on your tablets which I think is fantastic really good for family life I also like the fact that you’ve got felt lined door cards so that means that items won’t rattle around and you’ve also got luggage Nets as well now luggage Nets might look a little bit cheap to start with but once again for practicality reasons you can see items which have been popped in there which I think is pretty good the only negative that I have in the back of the Rafal is probably these windows no problem for me at 55 however if you had smaller children in the back here they might get a little bit travel sick as to not being able to see out of these slightly higher windows and whilst it’s instantly clear just how much engineering has gone into the way that this car drives that’s not the first thing that surprised me you see the first thing that surprised me is the seating position I was expecting it to be slightly lower slung and have a sportier driving position but that isn’t the case and I think this is where you notice just the size of the Rafal and where it’s positioned the fact that it’s positioned as a much larger family carob because you sit up really high great visibility out of the front window of course it’s not quite so good out of the back because you’ve got that R roof line it’s quite small and also it is impeded by the rear headrests as well and the surrounding view is not ideal either because the rear windows are quite small too although it has got a parking camera so I can’t really see maneuverability being an issue but yes I was really surprised at just how high you actually ride in this car and I think that’s going to appeal to a lot of people but if you want the low slung driving position to match with the way it drives it doesn’t exactly have that just like the orra the projected running costs of the Rafal paint a pleasing picture it boasts an impressive fuel efficiency figure of 60.1 m per gallon according to the official wltp cycle that positions it comfortably amongst the most economical petrol powered SUVs I wasn’t quite able to achieve the full 60 mp gallon but I was focusing on the car’s Dynamics so I was pushing it a little bit harder I still anticipate however that achieving 45 to 50 mes per gallon would be really easy in everyday driving Renault estimates that the electric motor alone can power up to 80% of urban mileage at the beginning of this video I wasn’t completely crystal clear on where Renault positioned this in their current lineup it’s easy to get lost in all of their vehicles that they have at the moment however it only took a very short drive to realize where they’d focused all of their efforts when it comes to this car and that’s sportiness not only have they created a family SUV which is practical and economical looks sporty but it also drives sporty as well sure it hasn’t got the biggest engine but I really think that as long as you don’t push it too hard that engine performs very nicely in all different situations but let me know what do you think of the new Renault raile do you like the look of it or is it not for you pop it in the comments down below don’t forget if you did want to get behind the wheel of the Renault Rafal for yourself then you can do that at either John Banks IP switch or Cambridge I’ll pop their details in the description box if you have enjoyed the video please go ahead and give it a big thumbs up and if you want to see more then you know what to do go ahead and hit the Subscribe button until next time guys see you later [Music] [Music]