Renault Laguna

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Renault's brand new Laguna range, now available in South Africa, is the culmination of 41 months of intensive effort by the engineers at Renault.With its bold but elegant styling, technologically advanced features and sophisticated interior, it offers an unbeatable package in its class.

Although the new car is slightly longer and wider than its predecessor (7 cm), Renault deliberately decided not to increase the car’s overall size simply for the sake of it. The objective was to achieve the optimum balance between compactness, weight, performance and economy.

The Engine

Renault’s Laguna II range for South Africa boasts two sophisticated multivalve powerplants, both designed with optimum levels of driveability, fuel economy, reliability and environmental efficiency in mind.

Both the 1.8 Authentique and Expression are powered by a 1783 cm³ four-cylinder powerplant with double overhead camshafts. Know internally as the F4P, this engine features variable inlet valve timing for an optimum spread of torque across a broad speed range. 90 Percent of the maximum 170 Nm is available between 2500 and 5500 revs/min - the peak figure is delivered at 3750 revs/min - for progressive throttle response and sparkling driveability.

Peak power of the 1.8 16V engine is 89 kW at 5750 revs/min. Innovative features include tubular (hollow) camshafts, with the lobes forged directly on steel tubes, saving 400 g per camshaft over conventional designs; roller cam followers with hydraulic adjustment to reduce valvetrain friction by 50 percent; and optimised inlet manifold designs that achieve increased flexibility and torque at low revolutions without compromising cylinder filling at high revolutions.

Safety

Safety is one of Renault’s strategic objectives in the development of all its cars. For the new Laguna, a new range of active safety equipment was introduced, in addition to the development of new passive safety systems for all occupants.

Accident prevention is one of the major challenges of active safety. The Laguna II scores highly in the key areas of stability, braking and handling, but it has also been equipped with electronic systems to assist the driver under extreme conditions. In addition to ABS brakes with EBV electronic pressure apportioning, Laguna II also feature ESP dynamic driving control with ASR traction control on the Expression & Privilege models , emergency brake assist (EBA), and an innovative tyre pressure monitoring system.

ESP helps the driver to maintain control of the car in the event of a sudden loss of grip, such as experienced during an emergency manoeuvre. Whenever such a situation is detected, ESP attempts to negate it by modulating engine torque and braking one or several wheels as appropriate.

The ASR traction control operates in a similar manner, complementing ESP in low grip conditions by applying the brakes to any wheels which start to spin when the car is accelerating, in so doing transferring torque to the wheel with grip. Both systems are inextricably linked to the drive-by-wire accelerator system.