New Renault Laguna to debut at Paris Motor Show

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Sep 13, 2000 - The Laguna II is Renault’s entry in the upper-medium segment, replacing the existing Laguna and Laguna Nevada. The previous generation Laguna, introduced in 1994, included the Laguna 5-door hatchback and the Laguna Nevada estate car. Ranges were identical and their customer positioning similar.

With the Laguna II, Renault is responding to the needs of customers in this segment with a 5-door hatchback and an estate car, but establishing a much stronger differentiation between them. From the outset, the new Laguna project envisaged that the two body styles would be distinct from each other. "Two cars, two philosophies, two market positions : a hatchback with the accent on expressiveness, dynamic and even sporting, and a modern estate car with the accent on aesthetics, elegant, top-of-the-range, aimed at demanding customers, a car that some people will not hesitate to class as a sports estate" explains Thierry Dombreval, Vice President, Strategy and Marketing.

The design of the new Laguna is deliberately one of character and expressiveness, accompanied by a search for a fluid and mobile line. "These two new Lagunas have a Latin flavour, which they combine with a Germanic rigour in the treatment of their design" explains Patrick le Quément, Senior Vice President, Corporate Design. This expressive and structured aspect is most notably seen in the taut shape, the incisive lines and the wide-shouldered upper body side sections. The front-end design seeks deliberately to emphasise the car’s width.

Situated among the ranks of dynamic, even sporting cars, the hatchback adopts an approach which is unusual in this segment: an absence of the rear quarter windows and wrap-around of the rear hatch itself which is typical of Renault. It is a back end which is also notable for the wide horizontal lamp clusters and for the largely visually undefined upper section of the hatch. The short rear overhang allows the "propulsive" aspect of the car to be emphasised. "The feeling of a 4-door coupé" adds Patrick le Quément.

The quest for elegance in the estate version was assisted by a rear section of extremely graphic design. A car which, according to Patrick le Quément, has been "made deliberately highly desirable when the motivation is usually professional and practical". the design of the rear side windows in a circular arc allows the line of the door windows to be continued while still emphasising the presence of the rear pillar. This window design itself blends with that of the rear lamp clusters which significantly extend around the body sides.

Inside the Laguna II, the overall feeling and travelling comfort express the Renault company philosophy: an interior in which all occupants are treated as equally important within a cabin whose colours are above all clear and luminous. The design of the dashboard reflects the exterior design approach: taut and structured lines, pronounced double curvatures. To achieve a different look, perceived quality is equally important: control of clearances, the selection of materials with the use of thermo-grained finishes (dashboard and door panels) or soft-feel paint on several parts of the dashboard.

The Laguna II is a car with a high technological content, but it still remains faithful to the Renault spirit: the technology is abundant but discreet, with simplified man-machine interfaces, with no superfluous information or unnecessary controls. This image of systems integration is seen in the keyless "Carte Renault", the new integrated radios, or the new air conditioning system.

Source: Renault