RENAULT Laguna Coupe Review

The seats, we have to start with the seats! The front ones, to be more precise. Climbing inside the Laguna Coupe, we found one of the best compromises between a lateral G repellant and a masseur. Getting into details, we have to admit that the balanced was tipped towards the comfort part. As for the rear ones, these also offer a high level of comfort, as we are not talking about a bench, but about two individual ones. And there’s more: the vehicle we tested came with a leather upholstery, which made the interior look plush.

The conclusion about the seats can also be used for the suspension. The setup manages to keep you back happy, regardless of the type of road you use. And even when you run out of road, things manage to be kept relatively under control, Just to make things clear, we are talking about running on gravel here.

Now that we’ve covered the lower area of the car, it’s time to move up. One comfort feature that we particularly liked was the two-zone automatic climate control system. Most systems of this kind have difficulties in using a smooth approach when a certain high thermal aim is set by the user. However, Renault introduced two extra buttons that allow you to set the thermal pace: “soft” and “fast”. These allow you to fine tune the way in which the system works. Of course, everything can be left just like in any other car - all you have to do is not use any of the two.

The suspended layout of the dashboard means that you always feel that here’s enough space. And even when you run out of space and start touching the interior plastics, you won’t feel discomfort, as there are soft and feel nice.

The vehicle we tested also came with certain features that earned it points for this chapter, such as a rain sensor, cruise control (a classic system, not an adaptive one), an electric hand brake (however, this is a disadvantage for the sporty part of the deal) and adaptive bi-xenon headlights (the cornering function also pleased our safe side).

The comfort - you might translate it as laziness in this case - also stays when you want to enter/exit the car. All you need to do is to have the card in the pocket. And Sesame will not only open but also close: prior to leaving the car, after a certain distance or time, a discreet horn beep is heard and this locks itself, so you never have to worry about that anymore.

It’s clear that Renault placed comfort high on the list of priorities when the Laguna Coupe was created. This can be seen felt in every detail of the car, from the suspension to the little things that matter.

"" OK, we know, this one really needs explaining, so here we go:

The oil-burning story under the hood really seems endless, as the 1,995 cc diesel engine likes to rev high. It’s like this unit never heard of internal inertia, as it can quickly climb over 5,000 rpm with no signs of stress. Peak torque comes in at 2,000 rpm, while the maximum power is produced at 3,750 rpm.

Figures aside, the power delivery is a pretty non-linear one. There’s a bit of lag at first and then you car ride a wave of power that comes much more suddenly than in many contemporary engines. However, it’s like having two engines in one. If you’re in a relaxed mood, you can cruise gently, as there’s no actual turbo boom, while when you want to put the pedal to the carpet things get extra crispy.

The six ratios of the manual gearbox are perfectly balanced, allowing the engine to pull the almost 1.6 tons of the car swiftly up to the fourth one (including it). Once you’re past this point you can use the fifth and sixth for achieving a pleasing level of efficiency. Contrary to what some might expect, the gear lever’s travel is precise and rather short, so you’ll enjoy the process.

For many cars, this is where the juicy part of the tech story ends but for this one, it’s where it all begins. The little 4Control badge on the B-pillar doesn’t mean that you’ve got 4WD, like many passers by guessed. Instead, it means that the rear axle also steers. Up to 37 mph (60 km/h) the rear wheels turn in the opposite direction of the front ones, up to an angle of 3.5 degrees giving the car a turn radius of 10.8 meters.

Real world translation: instead of having a turn radius of 12.05 meters you’ll turn just like a Clio. Over this speed, all four wheels participate in a perfectly synchronized ballet, following the same direction. This gives you the “My car is on rails feeling” (we actually put the car on rails - check out the image gallery), which can otherwise only be found in vehicles that cost at least twice as much.

We convinced the car to levitate a bit, so if you check out the image gallery bellow, you'll be able to see the electric assistance mechanism and the entire system that allows the rear wheels to steer.

And this is not all. The system and the ESP are good friends and they work together so well that we could say this is the only car we’ve driven that feels nicer to drive at the limit with the ESP on. There is one annoying fact connected to the nanny though, as it manages to automatically re-activate itself after each time you burn some rubber.

The Laguna Coupe doesn’t bring cutting edge technology to the game, so don’t expect to see a head-up display or an adaptive cruise control system. However, it comes packed with goodies that have been refined to an impressive level.

Let’s take the navigation system, for example. Renault offers two such optional systems. The first is a Carminat TOM TOM one with a 5.8-inch color display, and the second is a Carminat one that uses a 7-inch color display. Our test car was fitted with the first, which can be yours for around EUR600, while the Monaco GP version came with the latter, which sets you back EUR1,770.

Both are incredibly intuitive, offering a set of controls placed on the center console and offer a proper level of accuracy. The first one handles its job just fine, so you don’t necessarily need to get the second. However, the extra money will bring you multiple advantages, such as a much more detailed database that includes the location of speed cameras and weekly updates.

The vehicle we tested had been gifted with a BOSE sound system that relied on 10 speakers to give one audio kicks. The system manages to impress through its quality at high volume, even though the latter doesn’t necessarily reach a sky-high level. The system can be controlled via a steering-column mounted remote. As expected, Bluetooth connectivity is also included in the package, so your personal toys will be able to become friends with the car.

The massive rear speaker, as well as the amplifier can be seen by opening the boot and lowering your head to a certain level. Some prefer their hardware to be well hidden behind an infinity of layers, but we like ours naked, so we appreciated this.

We’ll also include the keyless entry system here, as the engine start button is a really nice toy. Too bad that it’s used for an oil-burner...

The coupe incarnation of the Laguna was probably too gorgeous to be smashed, so the Euro NCAP let the saloon version of the vehicle deal with the official impacts.

The vehicle received an overall rating of 5 stars, with a score of 36 points (15.9 for the front impact and 15 for the side one), a child occupant protection rating of four stars (this can be translated into a score of 41 points), as well as getting two out of four stars (10 points) for the pedestrian protection.

The impact didn't manage to get the passenger compartment out of shape, with all the areas, except one, receiving the maximum protection score. The aforementioned area is the one of the driver's lower right leg, which, instead of the "good" rating, was rated as "adequate".

The dummies didn't complain about the side impact either, with the Laguna scoring maximum points again. The saloon lost one point though, as the rear door on the hit side  opened during the impact, but we're pretty sure that this isn't the case with the coupe. The same top-level protection is offered for child occupants, but the vehicle lost some points due to the fact that the status of the front passenger airbag (activated/deactivated) wasn't clearly signalized to the driver.

However, the Laguna isn't as friendly when it comes to those who are using their own legs instead of an engine. The bonnet seems to have been borrowed from Carmageddon, as its front edge had no mercy for the pedestrians' legs and the rest of it received a predominantly poor rating for the pedestrians' heads.

We have to mention that that the coupe does come with an extra asset, in the for of a 25 percent increased body rigidity. How much does this improve the vehicle safety? We couldn't find out and hopefully you won't be able to tell us either.

However, in the real world, it's pretty hard to crash the Laguna Coupe. The front-wheel-drive, in combination with the four-wheel-steering and a clever ESP, which is assisted by systems like ABS and Emergency Braking Assistance, will keep the car on the path you ask it to follow. As for the passive safety, this relies on features such as a multitude of airbags: the driver and the front passenger get two frontal and two side ones, while all the occupants receive curtain head ones.


When we started this test drive, we were expecting to meet a pretty face with not too much character. The aesthetic side of this car raises the bar so high, that a disappointing performance would have hit us straight in the... heart. Being so eager to sort this matter out, we didn’t even care about the comfort too much. How did we end up? We bought one after finishing the review. Let’s see why.

The best part of the Laguna Coupe is obviously the exterior. The front end not only has a distinct identity, being totally differentiated from the sedan and estate versions of the Laguna, but it also manages to use an original approach in general, replacing the front apron with a massive air intake that looks just like a supermodel’s smile - a bit fake but nothing short of bewildering. Yes, the rear is borrowed from Aston Martin and we don’t encourage this kind of actions, but who wouldn’t want a 30 grand Aston?

And there’s more: the vehicle managed to surprise us through its comfort and practicality. When you sit behind the wheel and see that gorgeous rear window in the mirror, you really don’t expect to find a huge boot or a foldable rear seat under it, neither do you think you’re going to be comfortable in the same position after a few hours of driving. But the car proves you are wrong.

Of course the Laguna Coupe is far from being perfect. Let’s take it’s tech side, for example: The four-wheel steering offers you a low turning radius and gives you the impression that you’re not in a front-wheel-drive car, while the engine has enough resources to push the seat against you at any speed. However, if you really ask the car to perform dynamically, it will fail to meet your expectations. Want an example? Try to drag race it and the front axle will complain about having to perform standing starts.

You have to understand that the performance and luxury aren’t native assets for the Laguna Coupe, with the car learning these on its way up. Evaluated it as high-class “regular” car and you’ll be impressed. Put it in the sports car category and you won’t like it.

This is a Renault that’s not a Renault, a status previously only reserved for Renaultsport vehicles. And speaking of this, we really wish the French carmaker’s go-fast division would play with the Laguna Coupe. A centrally-mounted engine, like we tried to suggest in the image gallery, would be a dream, but a more down to Earth approach would also do.

For any further questions about the Laguna Coupe, you can find us inside one. Everyday. And no, we haven’t given it a name, at least not in the way you imagine. We just like to call it Lagouna...