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By
EWAN KENNEDY
18 February 2008
It seems odd that diesel engines have been slow in coming to the
light van market in Australia. After all, new diesels are
appearing in cars seemingly by the week, and larger vans have had
the economical units for decades. Finally Renault, which has been
pushing hard on diesels in the last year or so, has introduced an
oil engine in its cute little Kangoo van.
The turbo-diesel engine now offered in the Kangoo range only
has a capacity of 1.5 litres, but it’s not being asked to move
much along so its peak power output of 62 kW should prove adequate
for most operators. Torque is a healthy 200 Newton metres and tops
out at 1750 rpm, with a good spread below and above that figure.
Best of all is the fuel consumption of the little diesel.
Official figures list a combined highway/city fuel use figure of
just 5.3 litres per hundred kilometres. Thus you can get close to
900 kilometres of travel from a single 50-litre tank full.
The bad news is that the turbo-diesel engine adds $3000 to the
price of the petrol-engined Kangoo - $23,990 compared with
$20,990. But keep in mind that you get a good slice of that extra
money back when it comes to trade-in time. Indeed, the way fuel
prices are going at the moment resale values for diesels look like
surpassing petrols.
Unlike the petrol model, that’s sold with manual or automatic
transmission, the diesel is offered only with a five-speed manual
gearbox.
Features in the Kangoo include air conditioning, remote central
locking, power windows and mirrors and a CD stereo. On the safety
front there are ABS brakes with EBD, driver’s and passenger
airbags and seat-belt pre-tensioners.
Renault Kangoo has a usable cargo space of 2.75 cubic metres.
Maximum interior width is 1219 mm (1172 mm between the wheels
arches) and interior height is 1257 mm. At 600 kg, the Kangoo’s
payload capacity is handy, without being exceptional.
Access to the Kangoo’s cargo area is through
two-third/one-third rear ‘barn’ doors that open to 180
degrees. The current model has sliding rear doors on both sides,
an improvement on the Kangoo at the time of launch when the driver’s
side door was an optional extra.
Kangoo has a rear roof-flap that lets long narrow objects
protrude through the roof. There's also a passenger’s seat that
folds flat to either provide a desk on which to work, or to extend
longitudinal cargo space. The cargo area comes with four built-in
tie-down points with a storing rail available as an option.
Interior comfort is excellent, with large, well-shaped seats
that provide good side support. There are a number of practical
storage areas within the cabin.
The market segment occupied by the Renault Kangoo also has the
Holden Combo and Citroen Berlingo, but Aussies seem reluctant to
use vehicles in this class. In the past they have gone for station
wagons or larger vans in the one-tonne class. It will be
interesting to see if the recent, and forthcoming, fuel price
rises will finally swing us in the direction of these economical
little machines. Europeans have favoured them for a long time and
you see them by the thousand over there.
© Copyright
Marque Publishing Company
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