Renault Laguna

Despite what seems to us to be a seriously iffy new look for the latest generation Renault Laguna, it’s actually an increasingly good car with a sorted chassis and impressively high-quality feel.

• Comfort

  The Laguna keeps the grand French tradition of softness going, but without feeling boggy. The cabin is also very refined at speed, making the whole package feel infinitely more executive than it really is.

  

• Performance

  Stick with Renault's superb dCi diesels and you can't go far wrong. In three stages of tune, 130, 150 and 175bhp, all offer the right balance between poke and economy.

  

• Cool

  Not sure about this. At the moment the Laguna just looks too weird to us to be cool, but there's something commendable about not defaulting to a Vectra or Mondeo in the UK.

  

• Quality

  Nicely designed and executed inside, the new Laguna looks clean and fresh and the materials used feel expensive. You shouldn't have any problems from the engines either.

  

• Handling

  The Laguna is a slightly mixed bag when it comes to driver enjoyment. A grippy and responsive chassis is let down by ultra-light steering that's sufficiently devoid of feel to make faster corners pretty unnerving.

  

• Practicality

  There's an even weirder-looking ‘Sport Tourer' estate version now on sale if you need more luggage space, but the standard car has a hatch rather than saloon boot, so even that manages well enough.

  

• Running costs

  In this market, where fleet buyers dominate and cars do high mileage, the Laguna doesn't do terribly well on resale. But as a private buy insurance costs are low and the diesel engines very economical.