Renault Laguna

Renault Laguna is a big car and it gets a big engine, a 3.0-litre diesel V6 doing 230bhp and 332lb ft. It's been co-developed with Nissan and we'll see the same thing in a host of big Renaults including the coming Koleos 4x4, as well as the next Nissan Murano.

The transmission is a six-speed auto. A new four-wheel-steering system turns the rear wheels through small angles, helping both stability at speed (when the rears go in the same direction as the fronts) and parking manoeuvrability (by countersteering the rears). Both the powertrain and the fancy steering will be available in production.

As for the show-car bits, the luscious, far-too-fragile-for-reality details that make the interior a palace of surprise and good taste, well at least they show that Renault's designers are still in possession of a mojo.

A few weeks ago, in the crowds of the Tokyo motor show, I bumped into Anthony Grade, VP of design at Renault. He's no softie, because being brought up in a family including Michael and Lew Grade he doubtless learned to stand up for himself. But he was bruised about the treatment we'd meted to the Laguna hatch - "And the estate, which I think is a really good-looking car".

Like everyone at Renault I've talked to, he insists there never has been a successful car of this size that wasn't subdued on the outside. He also said that the Twingo is proving appealing to the youngsters it's aimed at, where the old Twingo was really only a favourite with Parisienne femmes d'un certain age. Most of all, he said, you've got to see the whole programme not base judgments on the first five minutes. The Ghosn-era Renaults are only just kicking in, and there are a lot more to come next year. He claimed the next Megane, due in the autumn, is a radical and good-looking car, because radical is OK in that size category.

© Source: topgear
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