Renault has given its top dog in India, the Koleos, a mid-life facelift. In its 2014 avatar, the Koleos gets some cosmetic sprucing up on the outside, and has some added spunk with a re-tuned engine. It also gets two more variants added to its hitherto single variant lineup in India to bring the starting price down and make it more accessible. You can now have the Koleos in 2WD manual and 4WD manual variants in addition to the 4WD AT version, which was the only option available till recently.

Design on its mind
On the outside, while the design remains predominantly similar, the car gets a new front grille. The new frame holding the triad of chrome bars on either side of the bigger, bolder Renault logo is also new. The design of the alloy wheels for the car has also been altered, and the Koleos now features new 17-inch, two-tone diamond cut alloys. A new shade, Maple Red has been added to the available colour options. The 2014 Koleos continues to have the feature rich interior which it always has been lauded for. 

Engine and transmission
On the power and transmission front, Renault engineers have tweaked the engine to extract more juice out of the trusty 2.0 litre dCi motor. The four-cylinder diesel engine now produces 173 PS (23 PS more) of peak power and 360Nm (40Nm more) of torque. While 173 PS of power and 360 Nm of torque sound like a lot of fun on paper, the 2.0 dCi unit of the Koleos doesn’t quite have much at the lower end of the rev range. In conjunction with the 6-speed automatic torque converter box, which by itself is a lazy unit, the vehicle does not respond instantly to big throttle inputs. The gearbox takes its own time figuring out the right cog, and then, with little juice at the bottom end, the car moves ahead without the push-back punch typically associated with diesel cars. Part throttle response is good, and cruising around with relatively smaller variations in speed is a breeze. Trying to accelerate hard from low speeds results in a momentary pause and a rather lacklustre pull thereafter.