RENAULT II NGOO 665D
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• But we think the Kangoo oozes French style, flair and charisma, even when dressed in white as our model was. While exterior styling may be the least of your concerns when buying, think how eye-catching the Renault could look with a good livery painted on the side—and you don't have to have white.
The Kangoo turns heads. And they have to turn pretty fast
too because the Renault
turned out to be quite a rocket, with the best acceleration figures in this test by far. Steering is light but doesn't frighten. The van can be pointed easily and only struggles at higher speeds where a bit of understeer comes into play.
But with rocket speed comes rocket noise, and the Kangoo is the loudest van tested here by a long chalk.
You could be forgiven for thinking the doors are made out of baking trays when you slam them, while firing the engine up gives a grim foretaste of noise to come. Fitting a full bulkhead would miti gate noise, something to think of for long journeys. But unfortunately a full bulkhead is not an option—only a swivelling tubular affair included with the optional folddown passenger seat. With so much speed on offer you'd want to see good braking figures but the Kangoo returned the worst of all, coming to a halt from 40mph some 5m beyond the opposition. ABS is optional al 1400. Loading height is average at 564mm with a good-sized load bay able to take the ubiquitous Euro pallet. Payloads of 725kg are on offer but ours would only take 550kg including a CM-standard 754 driver.
The front seat folds down to boost volume to 3m3 a la Berlingo, but only as a £150 option; the roof flap will cost you another 1120 (160 cheaper than its French rival's equivalent gizmo).
This Renault is all about detail. The usual tie-down points are provided but there's also a fine of six screw points along the top of the sides of the bay to allow for some customising. The mechanism for the rear doors is a triumph, allowing easy one-handed operation with no danger of any nicked fingers, while the tail-light clusters can be removed with ease, thanks to more thought given at the Gallic drawing board.
The inside of the Kangoo is as radical as the outside with round air vents and an unusually slanted instrument panel that might take a bit of getting used to but could never be described as unclear.
Just like the Berlingo you can wear your top hat as you drive the Renault which has a great upright driving position and generally excellent visibility, but it does have some blind spots. Glazed rear doors are an option at £125 if you want to see more.
Storage is good. Not as good as the Berlingo, but still far and away better than the Volkswagen or Vauxhall. You get a neat little document clip on the dash and goodsized door bins.
The steering column-mounted stalk for the radio/cassette offers instinctive control of all the functions at your fingertips and is simply superb. One day all vans will come with this sort of feature. And if they don't, they should.