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The Renault Arkana arrived in Australia in August 2021. It succeeded the short-lived Kadjar as Renault's segment-straddling small SUV, albeit with a coupe-inspired design.
The Australian-market Arkana is known as the Renault XM3 in South Korea, where it is built. That particular version is based on the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance's CMF-B platform, meaning it's related to Nissan Qashqai, among others.
Current prices range from $41,000 to $45,000 for the Arkana Techno and Arkana Espirit Alpine.
The Arkana has a well-appointed cabin with a blend of premium and hard wearing materials used throughout. The Esprit Alpine grade adds specific touches such as red, white and blue stitching on the door trim and steering wheel and blue contrast stitching on the seats, centre console and gear selector. A little French flag on the front seats and Alpine embossed logos are included too.
Both grades are available in metallic white, blue, black, grey and red. The Techno is available in a solid white, too. A contrast black roof is an option.
All Arkanas have heated front seats and the Esprit Alpine has a heated steering wheel. The Esprit Alpine also ups the game with an eight-speaker Bose stereo and a sunroof as standard.
All grades have a 9.3-inch portrait shaped multimedia screen and a 10.25-inch digital driver's display. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is complemented by a wireless device charger.
All grades have LED lighting front and back and the Techno has 18-inch alloy wheels and the Esprit Alpine has 19-inch rims.
The Arkana has a 1.3-litre, four-cylinder, turbo-petrol engine that runs on 91 RON 'standard' fuel. It is matched to a seven-speed dual-clutch auto that drives the front wheels.
The Arkana has 485-litre boot, which grows to 1268 litres with the rear seats folded down.
The Arkana completes the benchmark 0-100km/h sprint in 9.1 seconds on the way to a top speed of 205km/h.
The Arkana has a 50-litre fuel tank and Renault claims it uses 5.9L/100km, which translates to a driving range of 847km.
According to the official test, the Arkana has a combined (city and highway) consumption figure of 6.0 litres per 100km which is pretty decent for this type and size of vehicle. CarsGuide’s road test, however, showed that, like the vast majority of cars out there, the Renault will use a bit more than that in the real world. A mix of country, city and suburban work as well as a helping of highway and motorway driving netted a figure of 7.5 litres per 100km. Still pretty good, to be honest.
The other factor when considering running costs is the type of fuel required. Here, again, the Arkana scores well as it will happily run on the cheaper 91-octane fuel rather than the premium stuff.
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You won’t void your warranty by having a qualified person look at the car, but since this is Renault’s problem, why would you spend your own money fixing something that should not be occurring in such a new vehicle? If you’re not getting anywhere at dealership level, I would suggest you try Renault Australia’s customer service department. If people went elsewhere every time a dealership mechanic expressed frustration, those same dealerships would be deserted.
Meantime, I’d have to question whether the original problem was incorrectly diagnosed given that new door cards have not stopped the rattle. The fact that the noise starts and stops according to the position of the window makes me wonder if the cause is not a part of the window actuator or its mechanism. If part of the window regulator is rattling against the door card, it might sound as though the door card itself is the problem when it’s actually something else.
The bottom line is this: The car is under a factory warranty designed to protect the owner against problems like this one. Legally, Renault Australia is obliged to fix it. Don’t be put off by surly dealership staff; chances are once they understand you know your rights, they probably won’t be quite so eager to dismiss you.
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Conventional wisdom is that your should increase tyre pressures with increases in load and travelling speed. But in the Arkana’s case, the factory tyre pressure recommendation for either urban or freeway speeds remains at the 33 front and 31 rear psi you’ve noted on your tyre placard. Which suggests that the type of tyre Renault is using is happiest at those pressure regardless of average speed. Which, in turn, suggests that a load that varies only by a couple of passengers and a few pieces of luggage is likewise not going to affect the tyre’s performance.
A much better thing to concern yourself with is to keep a weekly eye on the tyre pressures. Tyres lose about one psi a month just sitting around, so keeping on top of that is very important in a safety sense. A tyre can be as low as about 12 psi before it will even look strange to the naked eye, so buy yourself a good quality tyre gauge and get into the habit of checking those pressures every weekend.
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The Arkana is a five-seat SUV and has a combination of leather and synthetic leather and suede upholstery across its two model grades. The front seats are power adjustable on all grades. Rear seats fold down to liberate extra boot space.