Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £15,990 to £22,950
Beautifully refined petrol engine, predictable handling, classy cabin, precise steering.
Not hugely fun to drive, poor residuals, pricey, uninspiring looks, diesel is a bit noisy.
A far superior Laguna. It's easy to drive and the four-wheel steering is a success. It's good, but not engaging.
The old Laguna wasn't what you'd call bulletproof, so Renault threw the kitchen sink at pretty much everything in this area. In customer satisfaction and reliability surveys of old, Renault failed to step confidently up to the plate.
Now, the French car maker wants to be seen as a premium brand and to do that it must have glitch-free electrics, quality cabins, solid running gear and engines built to last. It's been a tall order and Renault has been pretty uncompromising in reaching its goals. Renault's engineers built three prototype platforms to test just the electrics and electronics - the biggest source of problems in the previous Laguna - before the first full prototype of the car was built.
The omens are good, though. Since the new Laguna was launched four months ago, the number of warranty claims is 80 per cent less than those made for the previous-generation Laguna in its first four months on the market.
Consistent shutlines on the exterior and a confidence-inspiring interior suggest Renault has got things right this time around. The dashboard, the controls, the seating and the layout seem almost Germanic in terms of quality and you also get the added bonus of a bit of French flair. No rattles, no squeaks and no illogical 'idiosyncracies' in the layout blight the Laguna GT's cabin.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Renault Laguna
wrote on 14 09 2007
wrote on 12 09 2007