Renault Laguna vs rivals

The French maker is emphasising words such as quality and robustness in its promotional material for the new car, so it’s clearly keen to ditch the previous model’s reputation for poor reliability, and catch up with the improving standards being seen across the sector.

With that in mind, the Laguna features an all-new platform, is bigger yet lighter, has six-speed gearboxes across the range, a more slippery body and extra equipment. So Renault hopes the car is ready to challenge the big players once again. And that means the third generation of the popular hatchback must face the might of Ford’s Mondeo. Our current Car of the Year, the Mondeo has rewritten the rules on refinement, space and driving pleasure for this class.

The Renault will also need to beat its closest homegrown competitor, the Peugeot 407, which is available only as a saloon. We have pictured a 2.2, but tested the 2.0 HDi 136 Sport.

Popular with company car drivers, diesels are the big sellers in this competitive sector. So we put each model’s 2.0-litre oil-burner to the test. Read on to find out if the Laguna can inject a little ‘je ne sais quoi’ into this class.