The new Laguna really is a good car, a very good car and a major step forward, but lets face it, it aint pretty is it, or am I just being harsh.
Here at BVL headquarters, we felt that the Laguna hatch was designed by committee and that they clearly never met until they came together to join the bits up.
Yes its modern and sort of dynamic, and to be fair, its got a lovely interior, but the competition its up against makes it look, dull and boring and compared to cars such as the new Citroen C5, the new Mondeo and of course (if the pictures are to be believed) the stunning Vectra replacement, the “Insignia”, the styling of the Laguna hatch just doesn’t cut it.
I guess the new Laguna hatch is the young girl sitting up against the wall in the dance hall that everyone passes by, but if they just stopped for a chat would find she was a really great person.
Well now the Laguna hatch has a sibling and believe me this isn’t any “wall flower” or “ugly sister”, far from it, its one of the most attractive cars in its class, probably ever.
So how’s this happened? Well Renault has pretty much junked most of the hatch’s bodywork and replaced it with a much lower wider look, which includes new wings, new doors, new boot lid, new funky LED tail lights and the front grille stretches all the way across the cars nose.
It’s strange how a manufacturer can make a dead sexy coupe, but when it comes to the hatch, which is the volume car, can think we are going to queue up and buy Mr Average.
The gorgeous new Laguna Coupe will be available in the same engine choices as the hatchback, plus a couple of bigger engine options which are the range topping 3.5-litre V6 petrol and a 235bhp 3.0 lire diesel which is the engine we would choose, as its nearly as fast as the V6 petrol, yet does stacks more to the gallon
Lets hope for Renault’s sake that this new sexy sister makes us look again at her more dowdy sibling, as underneath the clothes, both girls are pretty much the same.
There are lots more to tell you about the Laguna Coupe and as soon as we have had one on test, we will write a report in our “road tests” section.
