Test drive by Renault Laguna 2001 - 2005 hatchback

Global savings

The issue of fuel consumption, as it turns out, is concerned not only to those who buy a cheap old car. Even acquiring a completely new car in the dealer’s cabin, the buyer considers one of the most important criteria fuel consumption. Naturally, everyone chooses by himself: someone is 8-9 liters per hundred, seem to be ruined, and someone, on the contrary, believes that having spent only 20-22 liters on the city cycle is a great savings. Naturally, it all depends on the car and on what the buyer is ready to sacrifice for the sake of economy - the accelerated dynamics and acceptance in economical small -leafers leaves much to be desired. However, there are always options to save without prejudice to all other characteristics of the car - dynamics, maximum speed, traction, etc.
 
It is enough to simply turn your gaze to diesel cars - with full compliance with customer requests, they remain much more economical, regardless of the car class and engine power. It is only a pity that in reality not everything that is available is available to our buyer. Most modern cars with a diesel engine are not supplied to our market. Cause? The low quality of diesel fuel sold in the Republic, which does not allow some companies to give a guarantee for the cars sold from us.
 
However, there are firms that are confident as their engines, and their products are supplied to our market. There are few such manufacturers, as well as diesel models intended for our market, but even among those that are available, you can find really interesting options. For example, Renault Laguna II DCI is one of the few diesel cars that really deserve attention.
 
We have already written about Renault Laguna II. Last summer, a car with a 1.8-liter gasoline engine visited our test. I really liked the car both in design and in running qualities, and it was very interesting for us to know how this magnificent car with other engines would behave, including diesel.
 
I must say that Laguna DCI, equipped with a 2.2-liter engine with the Common Rail system, really struck. For a long time I did not have to drive cars with such a perfect diesel engine. All competitors, and in addition to Laguna, VW Passat and Ford Mondeo are supplied to our market with turbodiesel engines, somehow stick out their diesel entity too much. Passing by such a car, you immediately understand what fuel it works on. Laguna may come out of a mistake - a distraction characteristic of a diesel engine is present only in the first minutes of the cold engine, but as they warm up, the sound becomes more and more like the sound of a gasoline engine. Compared to the same Ford Mondeo, the French car is felt as more expensive, the presence of a diesel engine is given only by barely noticeable vibration in the rear seats. There is no strained revision, and the speed range at which the motor pulls well, in Laguna DCI is much wider than Mondeo.
 
In general, as it turned out, there are very few good diesel cars in our market. More precisely, the cars themselves are quite good, but the installation of a diesel engine on them turns these wonderful sedans and hatchbacks into a kind of tractor - noise and vibrations from some diesel engines much more than could be expected from a new car. Four -cylinder versions sin especially in this. You might think that for some decent in appearance and according to the price tag, their models borrow from commercial trucks. Laguna DCI has nothing of this at all - the car is really very dynamic and comfortable, and some can only guess about the presence of a diesel engine only at the gas station.
 
The dynamics will not force you to blush - it was not possible to find accurate acceleration data from a place to hundreds, but if we take into account that the less powerful 120 -horsepower turbodiesel version accelerates to the above limit in 10.7 seconds, we can assume that 2.2 -The liter version does it much faster. It seems to me that in this case we are talking about 9-9.5 seconds - a very good indicator even for a gasoline car, not to mention the ramily diesel, as owners of powerful gasoline cars speak dismissively about such cars. But these snobs will be even more surprised during the gas station - the average fuel consumption in such a powerful and speed car is only 7 liters per hundred. Moreover, even if you constantly compete with everyone in a row and go first at each intersection, fuel consumption will still remain within normal limits. This, in principle, is the advantage of diesel engines: their fuel consumption is not as much as that of gasoline depends on the driving manner.
 
The 6-speed mechanical gearbox installed on the turbodiesel version works very clearly. Vibrations of the engine are not transmitted to the lever, and the clarity of turning on at heights. The only but concerning the governing bodies is that the clutch pedal is completely uninformative, which causes some problems when touching. Rather, not so much a problem, but a kind of driving manner. The driver, not feeling the moment of engraving of the disks, involuntarily adds gas so that the motor does not stall. Although the latter is problematic - the 2.2 -liter engine is quite enough in the bottom of the bottom of the 2.2 -liter motor to draw from idle revolutions not only in the first, but also in second gear. A gentle curve of the torque, and its peak is reached already at 2000 rpm, allows you to particularly puzzle yourself with the choice of transmission when moving in the city: it is worth a little tackle the pedal, and the car rushes briskly forward. Moreover, thanks to the presence of the sixth stage, the rest of the program was made shorter, which made it possible to achieve excellent acceleration even at high speeds.
 
A diesel car, especially if it costs good money, is more likely a need for some features that are characteristic only for diesel engines than usual a desire to save on an average Belarusian. And what savings are there. Compared to the 2.0-liter gasoline version of Laguna DCI, it is much more expensive, and this difference will be covered, even despite the cheapness of diesel fuel, very soon. Although, on the other hand, a gasoline car does not have such a pleasant pick on the bottom, and in general, a gasoline engine of this volume pulls much worse. True, another option appears - for the same money you can buy Laguna Privilege with a 3.0 -liter gasoline engine. So everyone chooses to their liking and money.
 
(+) Pleasant design, good quality of the finish, a perfect diesel engine, a rich equipment, an elastic suspension.
 
(-) High cost, not an informative clutch pedal.
 
Text: Pavel Kozlovsky and Sergey Mitskevich
 

Source: Autogazet / N 12 (358) dated 03.04.02