Renault Laguna Coupe Range Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Renault Laguna Coupe range
Prices: £19,950-£30,800– on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 34-39
Emissions: 136-189g/km
Performance: [3.0 V6 dCi] 0-62mph 7.3s / top speed 151mph
Fuel Consumption: [3.0 V6 dCi] (urban) 26.6mpg/ (extra urban) 49.5mpg/ (combined) 39.2mpg
Safety: eight airbags, ABS, ESP, ASR, CSV
Dimensions: Length/Width/Height(mm) 4643/1812/1398

GO WITH THE FLOW

Our Rating: 7.6 / 10

Renault’s Laguna Coupe aims to inject some excitement into the Laguna line. Steve Walker reports

The Renault Laguna Coupe might not be the sportiest of sports coupes but if it’s refinement, build quality, safety and practicality you’re after, it’s one of the very best. The car looks the part too, which in this style-conscious area of the market, is more than half the battle.

Striking cars have long been part of the Renault repertoire but the marque has had its fingers burned on more than one occasion after putting faith in avant-garde creations that ultimately failed to take off. As a result, the French company is more aware than most of the fine line that exists between wowing the public with an innovatively styled vehicle and alienating prospective customers with a product that looks a bit odd. More recently, it appeared that the conservative approach was winning out at Renault. Cars like the Laguna and Koleos compact 4x4 made strides in terms of interior quality but looked as though their designers had penned the bodywork from the end of a rather tight leash. With the Laguna Coupe, however, some of the old sparkle is back. Is this the car to usher in a new era of ravishing Renaults?

Big coupes aren’t exactly ‘where it’s at’ in the UK automotive market at present. The sector where the Laguna Coupe competes has looked healthier in terms of sales and this is even more emphatically the case if we make the distinction between cars like the three-door Laguna and prestige models such as Audi’s A5 and BMW’s 3-Series Coupe. The list of large non-premium coupes that will constitute this Laguna’s direct rivals runs to the Peugeot 407 Coupe, the Volkswagen Passat CC and very few others. Renault’s top brass will tell us that their’s is the car to reinvigorate the sector.

A trio of diesels make up the Laguna Coupe range. The entry-level choice is Renault’s 150bhp 2.0-litre dCi oil-burner but that same engine can also be ordered in 180bhp guise where it packs a hefty 400Nm maximum torque.

The 235bhp 3.0-litre V6 dCi engine is a more rewarding and cost-effective choice with its 450Nm torque suiting the languid automatic transmission. The Laguna Coupe has a similar firmed suspension set-up to that of the sporty GT model from the standard Laguna range and although the car displays good body control and changes direction very smartly, it never feels seriously sporty. The ride quality is pretty good, however, while both engine and wind noise are extremely well-suppressed making the Laguna Coupe a great car to cover big distances in.

All of the GT models in the Laguna Coupe range feature Renault’s 4Control chassis with its four-wheel steering technology. This allows the rear wheels to pivot and assist those at the front when cornering. The intended result is increased precision in higher speed turns along with enhanced manoeuvrability at lower speeds and it does the trick. More feedback through the steering would be welcome but in general, the 4Control system makes the Laguna Coupe easy to place on the road and does much to inspire confidence through faster bends.

Compared to the Laguna hatchback, the three-door body of the Coupe model is 5cm shorter and 4cm lower. It’s also a massively more rewarding car to look at. The long front overhang of the hatch is retained and from some angles, it makes the Coupe appear slightly ungainly but that’s the only real bugbear. Employing a classic coupe roof line that falls away to the rear, the Laguna is an elegant proposition. There may even be a hint of Aston Martin about the way the LED tail lights curve around the rear corners and the boot lid lifts to form a narrow lip spoiler. Inside, the impressive interior of the Laguna hatch is carried over with quality soft-touch materials and a neat control layout. The fascia itself is so soft you could lose your keys in it.

Those sleek exterior lines are always going to force some compromises in terms of interior practicality but the Laguna Coupe does work as a four seat