Renault Laguna test drive since 2007 hatchback

Another couple!

Recently, when Renault and Nissan began to be often sold in the neighborhood, exhibited in the same show rooms, the problem of choosing a particular model has become even more complicated. You will praise one brand to the detriment of another, and the buyer, it turns out, wanted to hear something diametrically opposite in confirmation of his own thoughts. In short, the effect of Buridanov of a donkey arises, who could not make a choice between two proposed carrots and threw back the hooves from hunger. We are deprived of a significant share of prejudices and are much more free in assessments. So, the heavy selection of Renault Laguna II or Nissan Primera with a station wagon.
 
Both cars are fresh, new, interesting to face and body, they are a little over 20 (thousands) and therefore they bring a noticeable excitement to the ranks of those who planned to update their vehicle. But their attractiveness has different roots, or rather, origin. For all the model freshness Laguna II, the evolutionary product, unlike its relatives, Vel Satis and Avantime. A typical French wedge -shaped silhouette, heavy front, wheels placed at the corners of a wide body. And Primera is a child of the revolution in design, a guest from the future, all consisting of sophisticated-chopped lines, complex and defiant. It is built on the principle around the driver with the hood line, almost without changing the angle of the windshield. On the other hand, its more controversial appearance requires a greater internal training of the viewer.
More than modern interior decoration in Renault calms the smoothness of forms, the quality of materials and muffled tones. The central place on the instrument panel is occupied by a discreet of the shield-key-card. After a couple of days of trips, you begin to wonder why other automakers have not yet switched to a similar system? How convenient, having set the automatic mode, to leave the car in the belief that it itself will be constipated. And returning to Renault again, you just have to pull the door handle, without any search for the key in your pocket. Yes, and starting, turning off the motor with a button, inspire pleasant associations with hot sportsmen.
A thick steering wheel, an absolutely comfortable Lagunov planting and acoustic comfort allow you to forget that you are in a station wagon. You recall this only when reversing moves worse than the Hatchbekovsky. With the same maneuver, Nissan marks noticeably: on its console the monitor, which is automatically with a rear gear. The viewing sector is small, but you do not need a camera mounted over a license plate, it is required not to control the side dimensions, but only in order not to inadvertently run into a low obstacle like a fencing or border. Again, you quickly get used to the good, and soon customers will force you to equip with such pampering and competing models. I am sure that in the near future this innovation will appear on business class cars and above. And then Primera is gaining many points. But a small part of them, alas, loses at the expense of ... front head restraints. They are put forward so close to the back of the head that you have to even stoop a little. They are not lendering to longitudinal adjustment, but the vertical does not save. I understand that this is explained by the increased requirements for passive safety, the faster and denser the head restraints the cervical department and the head will be wrapped, the less the likelihood of severe injuries, but then the creators clearly overdo it.
 
In general, the security in the new generation of related machines is given special attention. This is the body frame with the zones of programmable deformation and the frontal pillows and lateral eirbegs-stamps for the entire length of the cabin and the belt pretext guided by force/fooling. Laguna is generally a champion: 5 stars are the maximum possible assessment based on the results of the Krash series for the first time awarded to EURO NCAP to her! But Nissan has a completely unusual design of intra -sulfate. The instrument shield according to the last fashion in the middle of the cabin. I note that in most other machines a similar layout is not always convenient. The premiere scales are at an angle deployed to the driver, and there is nothing in the slots of the lamb except even plastic. This is much better than placing some rarely used devices in the traditional place of the speedometer. And all climatic and musical information is put on the same display as the image from the rear camera, and is controlled by two rounds and a number of keys. Not I-Drive, of course, but in order to learn to instantly enter the desired place of the menu and the submenu, it will take some time. Both trunk sheds are very impressive, without thresholds and, most importantly, equal to their volumes.
If we talk about behavior on the road, then cars have some differences here. I deliberately do not pay attention to the difference in the dynamics of cars, especially since we are weaker, in our case, Laguna (1.8 l) has the same as Nissan (2 l), an option with a 140-horsepower engine. And Primera is completely automatic, by the way, very lively, equipped with manual control, a box. The acceleration of each of the cars is adequate expected. But along a given path, cars go differently. Laguna Estate, shod in 16-inch rubber (and sometimes 17), seemed to us somewhat amorphous. A fuzzy, delayed reaction to the movement of the steering wheel and a noticeable lead in steep turns. First of all, this applies to an underloaded rear axle especially on an uneven road. But as soon as I planted a couple of weighty stock passengers on the second row, and the negative effect was almost disappeared. It seems that these are the costs of layout of the station wagon capable of taking a fair cargo. But in a straight line, Renault is going like an arrow with a heavy tip from the path. In general, typical behavior for the front -wheel drive with insufficient rotation.
And Primera? It is more complicated, and the turns and the snake passes perfectly, almost like a good rear -wheel drive sedan, which makes it honor. But at high (prohibited by the family traffic police) speeds (about 140-160 km/h) I was no longer so comfortable. Even when driving a straight and flat road, the car is noticeably blinking. The most interesting thing is that after a few -day comparison of the two station wagons, I came to a paradoxical conclusion. I could not identify an outsider! Both cars pose a clear threat not to each other, but to competitors, primarily VW Passat and Ford Mondeo. But if you choose the same thing equal, Primera is noticeably more futuristic and perfect that was before, and Laguna II is just a real ideal of safety and comfort.
 
Text Vladimir Smirnov
Photo Alexander Nozdrin

How do they look:
Nikita Rozanov
     
OUTSIDE:
Station Wagon is a station truck, which at the beginning of the 20th century worked as a station taxi. Sport Tourer car for tourism of the same period. Now, both of these vehicles with such a serious functional and ethimological past Nissan Primera Station Wagon and Renault Laguna II Sport Tourer are just sporting universals with good trunk capabilities. The cars are very stylish, they are perfectly painted and blind, and their silhouettes and many details are extremely dynamic what a taxi is there! Take a look at least at the expression and completely corresponding to the spirit of the modern approach to the image of automobile tourism the rear lights and the tilt of the rear rack D at Laguna. The continuity of the new, no less impulsive Primera from the original sedan is also obvious, from which the original relief of the window sill, which the designer Stefan Schwartz, who came up with the designer invented it was inherited, has been inherited. The identification of the French car is difficult on the face, because Laguna does not really stick out the Renault emblem and is deprived of the radiator, characteristic of this company, and the design with the previous model has not much in common. Primera, although it repeats the drawing of the Nissan company face, is perceived by a completely new car and, most likely, will become the legislator of the style of the entire gamut. And in farewell, both cars flaunt the memorable V-shaped outbris of the window of the fifth door and the rear lights elongated vertically. Very stylish!
Results
Nissan Primera Station Wagon a modern and very radical design can put a model to the rank of legislator of a style of not only export products of the company. However, an excessive character can limit demand.
Renault Laguna II Sport Tourer Bright and memorable design, qualitatively made in the traditions of the company and the class of sports-oriented European station wagons.
INSIDE:
If Laguna designers dwell on the new-fashioned central arrangement of instrumentation, then the overall impression of the design of the whole car would be emotionally overloaded. The architecture of the instrument panel, and the entire internal design, came out already very sensual and sharp -shaking. The feeling of patriarchality of the composition and ligaments of the panel with the central console disappears quickly, and the sweeping lines of the clips of the combination of devices and the central block of defrosters vividly remind the appearance of the car. Primera inside is different than outside. And so it can also be. Although if you look more attentive, then in the dashing and ultradynamic entry of the instrument panel on the front doors, there is undoubtedly there is something from the Schwartz line, which turns the banal windowsill into the main theme of the sharp-shaking appearance of the car. And look at the composition and organization of the central console, this is directly the keyboard of some home computer of a near future: everything is clear and extremely informative. The solid four -spoke steering wheels are equipped with an impressive central pillow, but it seems that the PRIMERA steering wheel could be different, because there are no devices in front of the driver and the upper knitting needles now do not block anything.
Results
Nissan Primera Station Wagon quality design, combining a fashionable and very characteristic solution with the original architecture and a very peculiar color fabric composition.
Renault Laguna II Sport Tourer is very high -quality and organic design, which very subtly combines both the style of appearance and the branded features of Renault, and promising trends.

A source: Cars