New Laguna under knife already

Text: Jack Carfrae / Photos: Auto Plus

11th November 2008

It’s back to the drawing board for the Laguna. Slow sales have forced manufacturer Renault to revise its family car, as buyers have been turned off by the latest model's styling.

The front and rear ends have been revised, as these exclusive pictures from our French sister magazine, Auto Plus, reveal. Other changes include the introduction of darker, more defined headlamps, a mildly reworked grille and redesigned, S-shaped tail-lights positioned lower on the boot.

The new shape arrives in 2010 – a year earlier than originally planned. Renault has the capacity to produce 200,000 examples annually, but expects to sell only around 90,000, due to fierce competition in the sector.

The Laguna isn’t the only model to get styling revisions. The Twingo will also have a fresh look for 2010 but, unlike its bigger brother, it hasn’t been forced into an early facelift. Instead, Renault intends to take the city car back to its roots with cuter looks – so the grille has been reshaped into a smile, and the bumper is chunkier. Flared wheelarches, colour-coded door mirrors and revised lights will also feature when the Twingo arrives in 2010.