Our cars Crowd sourcing We get some additional opinions on the Symbioz.
Renault Symbioz E-Tech Hybrid Iconic Esprit Al- pine 145hp
P11D : £33,055 Price as tested £33,705 Official consumption 60.1mpg Our average consumption 50.2mpg Mileage 4,136
Sean Keywood
During the Easter break, I spent some time visiting family and friends, which meant that several new passengers took a ride in the Symbioz. Having already run the car for several months, it was interesting to me how they drew attention to things that I’d yet to pick up on. For instance, a couple of people commented on the poor quality of the image from the Symbioz’s reversing camera. There’s nothing wrong with it in terms of how it operates, but the resolution of the image isn’t very high. This is something I hadn’t really considered until my attention was drawn to it – possibly because I was distracted by the guide lines moving with the steering wheel in the way they hadn’t with my
previous Toyota Yaris long-termer. In a previous report I said the lens was prone to getting dirty, but after further investigation and cleaning I can confirm that no, the camera picture just isn’t that good. It’s a point that was brought home around the same time when I tested an MG ZS, with which the reversing camera picture is much clearer.
Something else that two separate passengers drew attention to was the front passenger seatbelt being a bit tricky to use. Obviously I’d never sat in the passenger seat before, and there was no clear reason for a
Why we’re running it
Will Renault’s ‘entry-level’ medium SUV leave us feeling short changed?
problem, but again having tried it myself I have to say they are correct – something about it doesn’t quite fall to hand easily. My best theory as to why that might be the case is that the prong element of the plug is angled outwards slightly from the handle – but then this also applies to the driver’s seatbelt, with which I’ve never had any problems. Maybe it’s just somehow trickier right-handed? I should note that it wasn’t all complaints. The Solarbay sunroof impressed – as a reminder, this features glass that can be electronically switched between transparent and opaque (or front half one, back half the other). Passengers generally considered this to be a neat and clever solution, while personally I appreciate the improved headroom compared with a traditional sunroof set-up.
One final takeaway was one that to be honest I’d anticipated – that Renault’s SUV range might not be the easiest to understand, since one passenger asked if it was the Renault SUV beginning with ‘A’ that they’d heard about. I had to explain that although until recently Renault made two medium SUVs beginning with ‘A’ – the Austral and the (now discontinued) Arkana – this wasn’t either of them. To broadly summarise, Renault’s medium SUVs now break down as follows: Symbioz (entry-level SUV); Austral (posher SUV); Rafale (posher SUV-coupe; and Scenic (full EV). Of course, manufacturers have hardly struggled to sell SUVs in recent years, and Renault can therefore argue that it is simply meeting customer demand. But I do wonder how your average buyer walking into a showroom – or company car driver looking at a choice list – is supposed to make sense of it all.
Incidentally, I did recently take a brief passenger ride in a Rafale, and it did seem a bit nicer inside than the Symbioz. However, I’d need to take a full test drive to decide if it’s worth the £7,000 price premium.
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