far2000

The new Laguna is a stinker!By Hannes Oosthuizen I’ve just seen the first pictures of the all-new - ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER. Sorry, that’s not entirely accurate – I saw it earlier this morning, and then I nodded off… But I’m awake now, and questions have to be asked. It has often been said that the market for non-premium badge executive saloons – that means anything other than BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and, perhaps, Lexus – is an uphill battle that is probably not worth fighting anymore.
It started in the ‘90s with the cars one segment higher. Ford and Opel found out that fighting against the likes of the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz W124 was – sorry for stealing an Afrikaans metaphor – soos poep teen donderweer. In other words, not worth the effort, and certainly not worth the billions necessary to develop new models every five years. So that’s why you no longer get cars such as the Opel Omega and Ford Scorpio (thank heavens).
I think the writing has been on the wall in the “medium executive” segment too for some time now. Let’s be honest now. Faced with spending around R300 000, would you seriously consider a Ford? Or a Renault?
I’m told the new Ford Mondeo is a fabulous car. But it won’t be offered for sale in South Africa. I’m quite sure this is because nobody would buy one.
I know, after having driven one for a year, that the Honda Accord is just as smartly made as a BMW 3 Series and better value for money too. Yet Honda has to cut prices before anyone takes it seriously. And remember, the Accord is actually an Acura, which is the equal of Lexus…
I currently drive a Subaru Legacy which, besides being easily the most attractive car Subaru has ever produced, is also faultless on the build quality side of things, and has more character than all the German cars combined. All this excellence translates to less than ten sales a month.
Most probably you’ll consider only three cars in this segment; the Audi A4, Mercedes C-Class and BMW 3 Series. The brave souls who do opt for anything else are punished with diabolical trade-in values. I’ve read that the 3,0-litre version of the current Renault Laguna looses 50 per cent of its value in ONE YEAR! Then again, anyone who buys a new Renault Laguna deserves to be punished in this way. There are many better cars in this segment. The Citroen C5, by the way, isn’t one of them.
So now Renault has launched a new Laguna that looks like a badge-engineered version of the Citroen C5. How bizarre! I simply can’t fathom the logic. Perhaps the French public buy them in such numbers that it doesn’t matter what the rest of the world thinks. But I don’t quite think so…
Trying something wacky is also proven not to work. The Renault Avantime is a case in point. The Vel Satis too. And so is the more recent Fiat Chroma. I don’t have the sales figures in front of me to know whether the rather attractive Citroen C6 is a success, but I’ll put one half of a very important part of my anatomy on the block and guess that it isn’t. The solution? There isn’t any. It is game over for the non-prestige brands in this segment. You can blame the premium brands’ relentless trek down the price scale for that. And also the public’s snobbery. Sometimes, however, the mainstream brands are also to blame for dishing up rubbish - which is why a car such as the Peugeot 607 is as popular as herpes. But whatever the reason may be, Renault, please stop farting about… The new Laguna looks like a stinker.


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Hhahahhahaha-- how so true...wake up renault!!!!!!

monster

I agree 100% with the guy, so i bought one last year. Anyway the new Laguna looks decent to me, the wagon version actually look sexy. There are enough people out there who will buy these sort of car, so Renault keep on making these type of car, even though for minimum profit level.I have seen a a few 407s around in Sydney and that looks a million times uglier than this Laguna, so i guess there are still enough potential buyers in Sydney at least for this car. I am generally impressed by the interior design and the quality of the interior, it appears to be as upmarket as the Germans and it is certainally more interesting than the interior of the 3-series.

Yannis

The front of the Laguna looks like it was crashed against a tree or something , the rear part of the wagon is nice though.