Roadtrip!

We have been doing lots of everyday driving in the Koleos. The poor thing only had just over 200km on the clock when it was delivered, and we have clocked up more than 3,000km doing school runs, work, shopping, some day trips exploring in and around Sydney and some off road action. All that was left, was to test her out on a long road trip.

Last week the family set out for Dubbo Zoo, which is around 370km/5hrs from Sydney.

On our way, stopping off at Bathurst for a spin around Mount Panorama was a must. While the Koleos isn’t a sports car of beefy V8 it certainly still has some balls for a 4 cylinder car, as I have come to discover at many a traffic light ;).

Mums will know, even for just one night, how much crap comes along with a family of 5. A bag each of clothes, and toys, and teddies…your pillow. Nothing gets left behind. Jamming all this into our car can sometimes be a bit of a squeeze (though the large woofer in the boot of our car does not help) There was plenty of space in the boot for all our stuff. The spilt tailgate makes it easy for even the kids to get their stuff in and out. The nifty retractable cargo cover hides your mess, and keeps it all in where it should be.

All the new cars are bragging about their fuel efficiency and “greenness”, I was interested to see just how much we could squeeze out of the Koleos. The car has a 65lt fuel tank, and we were able to get over 600km from a full tank. I was pleasantly surprised,  there was a lot of steep hills coming over the mountain. I drove most of the way, and according to “some” I am a bit of a lead foot. Apparently it’s all thanks to the CVT (continuously variable transmission). Reading over the specs on delivery, eyes glazed over and I thought Mmm right whatever, means nothing to me, I’m not going to notice. Basically it means the car doesn’t change gears like a regular auto, and it is a little weird for the first few days because you actually do notice.

No roadtrip is complete without the music, the iphones were packed with lots of tunes. The Koleos we are driving comes with a standard AM/FM stereo, 4 speakers with CD player with a handy AUX input (the Privilege model comes with a Bose 7 speaker system with woofer). It had some big shoes to fill, my husband is a bit of a car stereo nut. Any new car we get, the sound system is usually ripped out and replaced within a week. I don’t mind it a little loud and window rattling myself ;) For a basic system, the sound is fantastic, even at high volume there it is clear with no distortion. The steering wheel controls are super handy, no need to take your eyes of the wheel to fiddle with the stereo.

All great stuff, but for a long car trip with kids, I think THE best feature has to be the tray tables in the back.

It kept the kids quiet for ages, drawing and colouring and playing games. Also was handy for  the laptop so that they could watch some TV.

We went on Zoofari at Dubbo zoo and had an absolute ball, you can read more about it with all the boring holiday snaps at my personal blog.

Have you entered the Renault Koleos Giveaway for your chance to win a brand new laptop, or 1 of 2 $100 Gift vouchers?

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