Renault Laguna Authentique Car Review

How does the new Renault Laguna Authentique hold up to today's high standards? It actually holds its own very well and is a very nice car. You get tons of features packed in along with other great qualities of the vehicle, but the good part is the price. You get a powerful 3 liter V6 engine, great quality equipment, on-road dynamics, and a very spacious cabin area. There is one downfall to one of the enhancements that was made. The auto transmission tries a little too hard to be intelligent and often makes the wrong choices for you. You will find that it reads the driving style a bit too much and can cause more problems than benefits. There are plenty of reasons and features that make this car a great one to own, but this is certainly not one of them. In fact, this car is excellent in many ways. This is the one and only flaw that the car has and most people will never even notice that it is happening.

To explain the downfall of the auto transmission I will give you an example situation. Let's say you are taking a drive and you are ascending a fairly large hill. The auto transmission will come to the conclusion that you won't be changing gears up or down while climbing the hill. That is indeed what the function is for, however the auto transmission doesn't realize when you are over the hill quick enough. You find yourself stuck in hill mode for about 15 to 20 seconds after you have passed over it. During that time you will be unable to change gears up and that can be a total pain to deal with. Going downhill can be a bit of a pain to do as well because the auto trans doesn’t always make the right choices. When you have something making decisions for you, you need it to be 100% accurate and not a guessing game of any kind. Though it doesn't pose any immediate danger, nobody likes to be stuck in a gear when they don't want to be. The people who notice this will mainly be the major car buffs out there and not your average every day driver. With that said this isn't something to dwell on because overall it's just not that big of a deal. The manually selectable section of the gearbox is just fine and functions as expected. Unfortunately, there is nothing to confirm that you got to the next gear so you will have to check the dash display to make sure that you have successfully achieved the desired gear.

Now lets move on to the good stuff! The engine in the Renault Laguna Authentique is quite impressive. The 24 valve 3 liter V6 engines build is setup in the standard fashion, but there are a few additions that set this one apart from the rest. They added an electronic throttle and high-stall torque converter as well as inlet valve timing to make this engine even more of a beast. The engine is very strong and you certainly can feel it out on the road. You can go from zero to one-hundred in approximately 8.5 seconds which is pretty impressive in itself, but it feels so much faster than it really is. The power of this engine makes this car very fun to drive with its need for speed persona. The only downfall to having an engine like this is that you will need Premium Unleaded fuel to get this vehicle going. However, the fuel consumption with this vehicle is actually very good so you won't find yourself filling up the tank more often than should be needed normally. The government test didn't produce the most impressive numbers, but when given the task of average real life driving it holds up quite well.

Going for a drive in the Laguna Authentique couldn't be any more comfortable than it currently is. The great suspension control in this vehicle provides you with a very smooth ride. It doesn't stop there though, the Laguna handles like a dream as well. You will easily take corners, hills, and pretty much any other driving condition without any problems. This can partially be attributed to the stability control system that comes with this vehicle as standard. Yep, that's right I said it comes as a standard! I am always happy to see features as sophisticated as these are coming with a standard vehicle, and I am sure you feel the same unless you just enjoy spending more money. The brakes are nothing short of superb. The vehicle is equipped with huge 308mm ventilated discs in the front and 274mm solid discs in the rear. With these brake discs mixed along with the Antilock Brake System (ABS) and emergency brake assist, you shouldn't have any problems stopping even in an emergency.

As far as features go, you get a lot out of this vehicle. One of the more modern time features is the way you start the vehicle. No more traditional key needed as now you use a slim credit card shaped key that you insert instead of the old key. Then with the push of a button the engine starts up revving and is ready to go. The same goes for turning off the car as well. By pressing a button beside the starter button, the engine will shut off with ease. Though this feature doesn't really hold any positives over the older startup method, there are not any negatives either. This feature is only present because it is something new and innovative for the driver to enjoy. Another feature worth noting is the steering wheel controls. You can control any of your radio and CD-player controls without taking your hands off the wheel which sure beats fiddling with knobs and buttons by the actual radio. Other features that can be found in the standard model of this vehicle are as follows; Cruise, trip computer, alloy wheels, six airbags, climate control, ABS, Stability control, CD-player, and even front and rear reading lights. If you are still in need of more features then you can shell out the extra $5,000 to upgrade to the Privilege model to add on rain sensing windshield wipers, xenon headlights, CD-stacker, and power seats. If that is still not enough then you can opt for the Privilege LX which is certainly more expensive than the previous two, but should fill your feature quota if you are demanding as many features in one vehicle as possible.

Overall, the Renault Laguna Authentique is an awesome car in almost every aspect. The one and only downfall is the auto transmission and that isn't even that big of a deal. The starting price for the Laguna with the standard model is $46,990 which is great for everything you are receiving. You get tons of features packed into it along with a powerful engine and a spacious cabin. Everything aside from the auto trans with this car is flawless. For the price you are paying you couldn't ask for anything more. This car has style, comfort, luxury, and enough features to please the average buyer at least. If you are in the market for a new car I would suggest taking a peek at the Renault Laguna Authentique.