Good looks, a great engine set-up, but basic chassis and handling traits are lacking
It’s unfortunate that two great sporting names have somehow found their way into the title of a Renault SUV without one sporting bone in its body. But don’t be distracted for, unlike most crossover hybrid SUVs, there’s actually some interesting stuff in this new Renault Austral.
Like close to 200bhp from a 1.2-litre engine. It’s thanks to two electric motors which work in a far from conventional way. One actually powers the car most of the time, and almost all of it around town, while the second doubles as a combined starter motor and alternator, adding dashes of torque-fill when required. Which leaves the ICE engine either as a dead weight, or working in tandem with the main electric motor, or acting as a range-extender and topping up the onboard battery, so you never have to plug it in.
Now, because plug-ins make a mockery of fuel consumption calculations, its 57.7mpg looks rubbish compared to, say, the 217mpg recorded by the heavier, more powerful Alfa Tonale PHEV reviewed last month. But, in the real world, the car is phenomenally frugal and performs well because of its novel powertrain.
It’s also spacious, well equipped and, by the absurd standards of such cars these days, not even that expensive. A shame, then, that its chassis fails to match the standards of its driveline. I didn’t expect it to handle brilliantly despite four-wheel steering, but it doesn’t even ride that well either, which is a pity. AF
If you’ve watched the Netflix series Yellowstone you will want to go to Montana. If you haven’t it comes highly recommended by me and everyone else I know who’s seen…
Is Lotus really going to shut its Hethel factory? Personally, and despite the company saying it has “no plans” to do so, I would not bet against it. We had…
One of the first big jobs I did as a young road tester was to pit a Morgan Plus Eight against an E30-series BMW M3 convertible. The outcome may seem…
Long chat with Gordon Murray after what seems like far too long. As you read this the South African-born son of Scottish parents will have just entered his 80th year,…
It gives me no pleasure to say it, but the only true BMW M car of recent times to which I’ve felt a proper connection is the baby of them…
The news that the threatened 25% tariff on car exports from the UK to the US has been reduced to 10% is clearly to be welcomed. For some companies I…
As a child, Lamborghini was the evil empire. I was a Ferrari man and the only explanation I could find to explain why Boxers and Testarossae always lost comparison tests…
The single-biggest headache faced by the UK car industry in relation to Donald Trump’s tariffs is that no one knows almost from one day to the next what he’s going…
Hurtling across a mountainside at some unmentionable speed in the new Aston Martin Vanquish, I was moved to wonder whether it is possible actually to have too much of a…
Far from rushing towards electrification, it is well known that every ‘legacy’ manufacturer with a history steeped in petrol and diesel cars has jammed on the brakes so hard I…
I don’t think there could be a greater expression of confidence in the brand than this. A very broad rule of thumb is that in most premium car ranges the…
I have for some time been pondering the timing of what might loosely be described as ‘peak car’. There is no question at all, at least in my mind, that…