On Friday 6 September Auto Sales Limited, local importers and agents for Mercedes, Renault and Dacia, launched the Renault Captur for the local market at The Westin Dragonara Resort.

Captur is the new urban crossover from Renault. Its flowing lines highlight its distinctive proportions, while its large wheels, generous ground clearance, wide tracks and steeply raked, forward-set windscreen form a unique blend of MPV, SUV and hatchback, conceived and made reality by Renault. Renault Captur lends itself perfectly to an extensive personalisation programme, too.

With its many permutations of two-tone bodywork, wheel colours, interior trims, upholstery fabrics and graphic motifs, Captur will appeal to a particularly broad spectrum of tastes and desires.

The creative freedom enjoyed by Renault's designers shines through in the features and generous interior space expected of this type of vehicle. Though compact (it is only fractionally longer than New Clio), Renault Captur is particularly roomy. The sliding rear bench seat provides the ideal balance of space for passengers and their luggage, with a maximum carrying capacity of 455dm3 (up to the baggage cover). In the passenger compartment, ingenious innovations underline Captur's character as a truly user-friendly vehicle such as the availability of removable seat covers which can be unzipped, machine washed at home and refitted.

Meanwhile, the in-dash Renault R-Link multimedia tablet provides access to a whole new level of connectivity, with an ever-expanding library of dedicated motoring applications.

The raised driving position is both comfortable and confidence-inspiring, as are the car’s passive safety features, road holding and braking performance. The credit for Captur's ride comfort goes to the B platform, which it shares with New Clio.

Driving pleasure and fuel economy are the common denominators of Captur's 100% turbo engine line-up. Available petrol engines include the Energy TCe 90 (three cylinders and just 898cc) and the TCe 120 EDC (four cylinders, 1,198cc). The latter is available exclusively with EDC transmission (Efficient Dual Clutch) which delivers outstanding driving comfort. When it comes to diesel power, the Energy dCi 90 uses only 3.6 litres/100km and emits just 95g of CO2 per km*, which are record low figures for Captur’s class. This model will also become available with EDC transmission at a later date.

Renault Captur, brings a splash of welcome colour and glamour to the B segment, but without losing sight of the need to deliver common-sense practicality at the same time.

Passionate, practical and innovative

Ingenious and practical innovations are core values of Renault’s stylish new crossover, which brings welcome fresh thinking to the B segment. Inspired by the concept car whose name and spirit it takes forward, Renault Captur is a proud standard-bearer for Renault’s new design identity.

The spirit of the ‘Captur’ concept car

Captur draws its inspiration from the concept car that represented the second theme – 'Explore' – of Renault’s life cycle design strategy. Sporty and fun, this crossover was an open invitation to “explore the world, two-up”. Directly descended from the concept car, the production model was shaped by the same teams of designers and in the same studio.

Captur now takes forward the name, style and many of the features of its namesake with a distinctive frontal design structured around the prominent, vertically-positioned Renault logo which is set against a gloss black background. Curvaceous styling expresses movement and lightness, with very few hard edges and incorporating muscular contours to the sides and wheel arches. Large wheels and substantial wheel housings signal robustness and a sporty pedigree.

Captur’s roof graphics carry over the design of the concept car’s roof. Inside an aircraft wing theme was used to the form of the dashboard, elasticated mesh pockets on the front seat-backs conjure up the worlds of sailing or climbing and recall the technique employed for the seats and boot lining of the concept car.

Finally a dedicated, warm Arizona Orange finish, was selected as the launch colour for the production vehicle.