Renault Arkana review - Reliability and safety

The Renault Arkana is a brand-new model that hasn’t been on sale before now - aside from the Russian version which is a totally different car to the one we get in the UK. This means there’s very little data to draw from when considering how reliable the car will be - but since it’s based on the same platform as the new Clio and Captur models, parts availability should be good and it benefits from plenty of R&D from the car maker.

Renault finished in a below average 20th position (out of 30 manufacturers) in our Driver Power survey, while the Clio and Captur managed 29th and 37th places respectively out of a 75-strong Best cars list.

One area that the new Renault performs strongly in, though, is with safety kit. It’s really well-equipped as standard, as even entry-level models get tyre pressure monitoring, autonomous emergency braking (AEB), traffic sign recognition, cruise control, automatic lights and wipers, lane keep assist and emergency call.

Move up to a higher specification and you also get a blind spot warning system and hands-free parking tech, plus rear traffic warning, auto high beams and adaptive cruise control.

The Arkana scored highly in its Euro NCAP crash test, getting the full five stars from the industry safety experts. It scored highly for adult protection and reasonably well for safety assistance tech - the score is actually taken from the related Captur’s crash test, but Euro NCAP decided the cars were similar enough to share a rating.

15

Warranty

All new Renaults include a warranty that covers you for up to 5 years from the registration date. The first 24 months have unlimited mileage but then it’s limited to a total of 100,000 miles or 5 years, whichever comes first. There are extended warranty options, too.

Servicing

Renault servicing plan is called EasyLife and it covers the car for three years or 30,000 miles for £500, or four years/40,000 miles for £760. You can pay this with monthly payments of £10 or £14 respectively.