Renault Laguna Sport Tourer 2.0 dCi Dynamique S

	It’s clean and tidy, but overall it’s not handsome enough to attract image-conscious ‘lifestyle’ customers.

Spending time in the Laguna is no hardship – the stylists should be proud of what they’ve achieved. The engineers responsible for the 2.0-litre diesel have also done a good job. With a turbo that’s on song from 1,500rpm and no loss of composure even at the 5,000rpm red line, it’s so good that it’s overtaken the Honda unit as the best in the class. The dCi 175 is never strained or coarse, yet with 380Nm of torque, has easily the most impressive flexibility.

That’s just as well, given the poor six-speed manual. The lever flexes under load, it doesn’t shift cleanly unless the clutch is fully depressed and it seemed as if it had already covered 100,000 miles, rather than being brand new. This really takes the edge off the Laguna’s quality feel.

The Sport Tourer makes up for it by being extremely quiet and well insulated – on smooth roads at least. However, it’s obvious that the Laguna came nowhere near a British B-road when it was being developed. There’s too much rebound damping, which means that the springs over-react to even small bumps.

This causes the whole car to feel jittery. Added to this is kickback and a lack of steering feel, plus a fair amount of body roll. So even though it has good grip and agility, it’s difficult to have full confidence in the Laguna’s behaviour.

However, with a new 100,000-mile warranty and 18,000-mile service intervals, Renault clearly has confidence in its family car. It’s also very attractively priced at £21,400 – although the 148bhp diesel is £750 cheaper – and Dynamique S trim includes electric leather seats. It has just gained a five-star Euro NCAP crash test rating, too.