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By MURRAY HUBBARD
May 27, 2009
While cruising along beautiful country roads nears Daylesford in Victoria it struck me that the car I was driving would sell like State of Origin tickets if it had another badge on the bonnet.
It's that good. As it is Renault Australia expect to sell just 200 Laguna estates and hatches in 2009. Renault faces the problem of brand recognition in Australia, despite being a major European player. Last year it sold more than 1 million cars world-wide. The Australian contribution was around a modest 3000 or so. Here, it's a bit player in one of the world's most competitive markets, but the French maker is making positive moves to meet the market. It is moving its pricing closer to Japanese volume sellers and that starts with the new Laguna estate and hatch that have prices reduced by up to $4000.
The estate wagon comes with two equipment levels, Expression and Dynamique, while the hatch comes in Expression and Privilege. Renault is embarking on a massive change to the way it does business world-wide and Laguna stablemate, Koleos, is the first of it's `international' cars, made outside France. Koleos is built in South Korea and in future Renault international cars could come from there, or Turkey or even Morocco.
The European-built car will remain as `hero' cars, with matching pricing while the international cars such as Koleos will compete in the same price zones as the Japanese in Australia. Koleos is selling around 80 a month and single handedly is propping up Renault sales down under. Some 120 Laguna prototypes underwent 4 million kilometres of road testing around the world, including 30,000 kilometres in Australia, with development costs reaching $1.6 billion.
“The increase in warranty to include unlimited kilometres, over a three year period, shows just how robust the car is,” said Renault Australia managing director, Rudi Koenig.
It is also applying a similar warranty to Koleos. The estate variant could easily be considered as one of the most beautiful wagons on the Australian market. It's an elegant vehicle, featuring a steeply-raked rear window, more like a funky hatch than a family wagon. Towards the rear of the wagon the shoulder and roof lines converge giving the appearance of an ultra-modern sportwagon.
It's a clever car with a large boot space of 500 litres, growing to 1593 litres with the rear seats folded flat. The rear seats are 60/40 split and just one touch of a button near the tailgate automatically creates the flat floor space. The cab is light and open with a simple, yet interesting dash, functional dials and switches and the high levels of passenger comfort we have come to expect from French makers. The hatch and wagon share the same 2.76 metre wheelbase, but the estate is 4.8 metres long, facilitating the raking rear end and excellent luggage space.
Laguna comes with the choice of two engines, a 2.0 litre dCi diesel and a 2.0 litre petrol, and two transmissions, a six speed manual and six speed “Pro-active' auto. The diesel produces 110 kW of power at 4000 rpm and maximum torque of 340 Nm at just 2000 rpm. The turbo-charged petrol engine produces 125 kW of power and 270 Nm of torque at 3250 rpm. With the manual transmission the diesel is capable of returning economy of 6.0 litres/100 kms while the manual is around the 7.0 litres/100 kms mark, an excellent return for a medium size hatch and wagon. Combined cycle for the petrol variant is 8.9 litres/100 km.
Both estate and hatch entry level Expression cars have high standards of safety equipment, the same as the top-line variants. This includes ESP, ABS with electronic brakeforce distribution, traction control, dual front and rear side airbags and curtain airbags, dusk sensing headlights, and rain sensing wipers, front and rear fog lamps, `see me home' headlamps, cruise control with speed limiter and automatic parking brake.
There's also a leather steering wheel and gear knob, integrated rear side door sunblind, dual-zone air conditioning, with carbon and odour filter, `carbon' cloth upholstery and 4X30W, single CD, AM/FM radio with MP3 CD reader with satellite audio controls.
Additions to the Dynamique Estate include part-leather/part Alcantara interior, 4X50W dash mounted 6-CD changer and electrochrome rear view mirror. The wheels also get upgraded from 16 inch alloys to 17 inch alloys, rear parking sensors, chrome window surrounds and auto folding door mirrors. Privilege hatch gets beige leather interior, with power front heated seats, electrochrome rear view mirrors, and the 6-CD stacker and more powerful speakers. It''s rubber goes to 18 inch alloys and there's chrome window surrounds, xenon directional headlights, and auto folding mirrors.
Both top line cars are fitted with type pressure monitors. Laguna's Japanese competitors are Mazda6, Ford Mondeo and Honda Accord Euro while it is up against European competition in the form of Peugeot 407 , Citroen C5 and Volkswagen Passat.
FIRST DRIVE
Soon after you get into some cars you know they are just right. This is one of them. Low NVH levels, supportive, yet soft seats, quiet, responsive engines, seamless manual and auto transmissions, high quality fit and finish, effortless handling at speed, brakes that you can `feel'. That's just part of the story. The Laguna Estate and Hatch are beautiful cars in the best European traditions. Yet, they lack the quirkiness we have come to expect from some Eros, particularly the French. As a mid-size five door hatch and wagon the Laguna ticks all the boxes.
PRICING*
Laguna hatch
Expression diesel manual $37,990 rrp reduced by $4000
Expression petrol auto $38,990 rrp reduced by $3500
Expression diesel auto $40,990 rrp reduced by $3500
Privilege petrol auto $46,990 rrp reduced by $1500
Privilege diesel auto $48,990 rrp reduced by $1500
Laguna Estate
Expression petrol auto $41,990 rrp reduced by $3500
Expression diesel auto $43,990 rrp reduced by $3500
Dynamique diesel auto $46,990 rrp reduced by $3000
*These are RRP only. Full pricing available from locals dealers to comply with new ACCC regulations and must include a driveaway price including all add on charges including CTP, registration, stamp duty and dealer delivery. These vary from state to state and from dealer to dealer.
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