Forget about the ‘Crossover’ tag that Renault has pinned onto the Koleos. It’s not just some softie hiding behind a tough-looking bodyshell, because on the mountainside trails of Morocco where the car was launched, the Koleos was amazingly adept rolling over the sludgy, slippery mud as well as loose gravel that formed much of the Moroccon countryside’s off road trails.

The electronically controlled four-wheel drive system is front biased when left in automatic mode, and when slippage is detected it quickly shuffles engine torque to the rear wheels. It can send up to 50 percent of power to the rear, and when the going bets really slippery you can lock the centre differential as well as keep it in permanent 4WD mode. With ESP active, the car will keep rolling forwards even with one wheel totally in the air.

But it’s on tarmac where most people will keep their cars on, and on paved highways the Koleos drives predictably, though like all top heavy cars it doesn’t like abrupt changes in direction. The six-speed manual gearbox is a joy to use too, with a light clutch action and smooth shifting stroke. It’s a pity that we are not likely to see this gearbox here in Singapore.

A Nissan engine resides beneath the bonnet and the Renault engineers have made no attempt to disguise this fact. It’s all good though, as it works very well with the Nissan-designed drivetrain, barely breaking out in sweat even when climbing steep inclines.

The Renault engineers say that the steering is deliberately made to be very light as they expect the car to be used more around town than anywhere else. Keen drivers might find the feel a little disconcerting, but that just seems to be the way manufacturers are engineering their cars these days.

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