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Fashion or fashionable things are cool – while they’re in. Crossover type vehicles are most certainly in vogue at the moment: sitting high and mighty, having loads of versatile packing space and good ground clearance to mind potholes, all of which are more than enough reason to be fashionable.

The new Renault Captur is a compact city crossover - adorned with eye catching good looks and endowed with a host of technologically advanced features. This French Swiss army knife of crossovers offers: cruise control with a speed limiter, automatic headlight and windscreen wiper blade operation, keyless entry, Start Stop technology, a navigation system and Bluetooth connection - for hands free telephony and music play back via your smart phone. The system runs through the LG touchscreen infotainment which sits in the centre of the dashboard. These are but only a few of the Captur features fitted to the entry level Expression model that retails for R220K – its outstanding value and therefore my pick of the Captur range.

The Captur is fitted with an 898cc 3 cylinder engine – tiny little unit, although boosted by a turbo charger offering a respectable 66kW’s. Renault have used the same technology to create their F1 racing car engine. But don’t get any funny ideas – thinking you’ll be able to outpace the latest sports car is but a fantasy. In reality the Captur darts at a leisurely pace, hitting 100 km/h from 0 mark in 13 seconds and peters out at 171 km/h as its top speed.

It’s a jolly car: happy to be driven as a city commuter – transporting mom, dad and three kids, it’s frugal, quiet, reasonably comfy, and easy to park and packed with loads of nice-to-have features. It’s not perfect – its suspension system reminded me of a cheap bounce bed. Bounce to hard and you land on the floor. Some of the plastics are as hard as your lunch box Tupperware too. But forgetting all this – it’s a hard to beat package.

www.renault.co.za