How much space is there?

At 4.71 metres long, the Rafale is a big old car and feels suitably commodious inside, though perhaps not in every conceivable area. There’s plenty of space up front with shoulder room to spare and lots of room for your head. In the back it’s largely the same story: rear seat passengers are treated to an abundance of legroom – easily enough for six-foot passengers to get comfortable in – and with the central armrest down in lieu of the centre seat, plenty of lateral room, too. 

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However, given the Rafale’s sloping roof line, rear-seat passengers aren’t treated to quite as much headroom. Our six-foot plus testing team members felt a little cramped where their heads were concerned – not to the extent that it became uncomfortable, but don’t buy the Rafale expecting the airy capacious feel of a full-sized SUV in the back.

Getting in and out was no difficult task as the Rafale has relatively low sills for such a bruiser of a car. Once in, we had an abundance of storage space at our disposal: the centre console is dominated by several large cubby holes, with one either side of a floating wireless phone charging platform and then another behind with closeable doors.

If you tend to bring the world and his wife in with you on each journey, there are additional extra-large door pockets in both the front and rear doors, finished in a sweet blue fabric lining in the higher trims. The Rafale certainly felt primed to accommodate the wealth of miscellaneous items that family life can demand.

Boot space and storage

The Rafale’s boot can hold up to 535 litres, which puts it about on par with the Mercedes-Benz GLC Coupe and even roomier than the BMW X4. Impressively, the Rafale’s boot space is consistent across both engine units, despite the spatial demands of the plug-in hybrid’s bigger battery. 

More often than not, the extra room required for the battery is forfeited by the room, but not here. Including the under-floor storage, the Rafale’s total boot capacity is 647 litres with the seats up, or 1,709 litres with the seats down. The rear seats fold in a 40/20/40 size ratio, too, to accommodate for skis without the need to fold the entire rear bench down.

With its middle rear seat lowered, the central armrest becomes an additional storage unit, complete with another small cubby, two bottle receptacles and fold out iPhone holders. This rear bench has been designed with child attention occupation in mind, it seems.

It is easy to park?

The Rafale comes with front, rear and side parking sensors with a rear-view camera as standard on all cars. Opting for the iconic esprit Alpine trim unlocks ta 360 degree 3D camera feed.

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The parking cameras are far from the best in the business, as the rear-view camera is a little blurry the 360deg feed isn’t the clearest, but they do the job. What does especially help parking in the Rafale is the four-wheel steering system – available in techno esprit Alpine trim or higher. It allows the car to turn with greater agility at low speed, despite its enormous length, which can be a huge boon when trying to negotiate tight and tricky parking spots.

Safety

• Lots of safety tech as standard
• No Euro NCAP rating yet
• Closely related car scored well

Euro NCAP are yet to get their hands on the Rafale, although results for the related Austral provide some clues to what to expect. The Austral gets five stars if not the highest scores in the class, making it a pretty safe bet.

All versions of the Rafale get plenty of safety kit including adaptive cruise with lane assist, adaptive LED headlights, blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert and traffic sign recognition.