ONE of the least appealing car genres, at least to my eyes, is the mash-up of SUV and coupe, writes William Scholes.
The awful BMW X6 is exhibit A in the case for the prosecution, though only because the even more grotesque effort from Mercedes has gone into a witness protection scheme.
Renault, for some reason, reckons inflicting such a conveyance on the mainstream market will transform its fortunes.
This is why it has built this car, which it calls Arkana, though to me this name has the ring of a university area kebab shop.
It is based on the same platform as the Clio and Captur, so it might be nice to drive.
Naturally, it's a hybrid.
The better one uses Renault's clever 'E-Tech' system. That means a 1.6-litre petrol engine linked to a pair of electric motors and a 1.2kWh battery.
Together, this conglomeration musters 143bhp, offers a potential 57.6mpg and a CO2 figure of 111g/km.
Of limited appeal is a 1.3-litre petrol engine with so-called 'micro hybrid' technology; it returns up to 48.7mpg and has CO2 emissions rated at 131g/km.
You can get it in three different trim levels, starting with 'Iconic' - that word is doing a lot of heavy lifting... - and moving up to S Edition and sporty RS Line.
I suppose you either like this sort of thing or you don't.
I don't, but should you be interested, Renault charges £25,300 for the entry level model, with prices for the top-of-the-tree RS Line with the fancy hybrid set-up starting at £30,900.
