When I was in Europe last summer, I had a mental list of ‘80s and ‘90s cars that I wanted to find for CC. Most were utterly unremarkable saloons that we hadn’t covered yet. Even the more mundane classics deserve their fifteen minutes of fame on this website, don’t they? There were quite a few Renaults on the list, and the series 1 Laguna was certainly near the top. They’re fast disappearing now, so finding a decent one took a little luck.
Some carmakers do bland very, very well. In Japan, Toyota fits that bill pretty well. In Germany, that’d be Opel. In the US, I’m thinking Ford – the Taurus, the Fairmount, the Tempo… That’s not to say that Fords, Opels and Toyotas are all uninteresting. Most are not and some are the very opposite of boring, but nobody does bland like these carmakers. I’m also not saying that other marques have never done a yawn-inducing product (or several – looking at you, Mitsubishi). But to be both boring and competent, i.e. to excel in selling beige, takes a special sort of skill. And in France, that is one of Renault’s strongest suits.
Renault was always present in the big family car market. Well, almost always. After the war, it took a while for the newly-nationalized concern to get its act together, but the 2-litre Frégate (top left) eventually made it to market for MY 1952. It lasted until 1960, but was a pretty bad miss for its maker – unlike the thoroughly novel and daring R16 (1965-80, top right) that eventually followed it. The R20 (1976-84, bottom left), the R18 (1978-89) and R21 (1986-94, bottom right) were all pretty successful too, though the boring was starting to become increasingly apparent.
To be fair, big-ish Renaults were kind of forced into the boring and comfy niche. Larger Peugeot had the bulletproof angle, Citroëns went for high-tech weirdness, Simcas for a dose of American glitz. There weren’t a ton of options left. So in November 1993, the Laguna was unveiled, replacing the R21 during MY 1994. Nobody whooped with joy and no fireworks went off, but people did take note: Renault were definitely quitting the two-digit numeral system that had been in use since the ‘60s for more allegorical model names.
The Laguna was perfectly acceptable for the ‘90s, both in name and shape. Not a hint of ‘80s boxiness remained from the R21. After many years of hired guns (Giugiaro and Gandini, especially), Renault had fostered a new generation of home-grown designers in Patrick Le Quément and Jean-Pierre Ploué. Le Quément led with the flagship, the new Safrane; Ploué took the Safrane’s design but softened it, shrunk it down and gave it a little bit more character, especially the front end.
The only body variant other than the standard hatchback was the wagon, which joined the range in July 1995. Unlike the R21, which had both transverse and longitudinal engines (oh, Renault… those weren’t just Gauloises you were smoking back in the ‘80s, were they?), the Laguna went for east-west for the whole range. And there were several engines to pick from.
For petrol engines, the 1994-98 base model had a 1.8 good for 90-94hp, depending on the model year. There were two 2-litre motors on offer: the sportier Volvo-made 16-valve (140hp) or Renault’s own 114hp 8-valve unit. The latter, which is what our feature car has, was the most popular choice for the model, at least in its home country. A very high-end trim was also available with the 3-litre 6-cyl. – initially, the PRV providing 167hp, switching to the new-generation 190hp ESL in 1997. The sole 2.2 litre Diesel option had no turbo initially, then got one in 1996, jumping from 83 to 113hp.
The Laguna had a mid-life facelift in late 1998, which introduced a bunch of new engines as well. The completely revamped second generation Laguna only took over in 2001. Our CC here is a mid-level trim model with the 4-speed auto – at the time, most folks would have opted for the 5-speed manual, but this slushbox was at least far more competent and reliable than the notoriously terrible ones Renaults had in the ‘80s.
The all-independent suspension featured MacPherson struts up front and four torsion bars in the back. Coupled with soft seats, this apparently made for the most comfortable car in the 2-litre segment, according to several testers at the time.
The Laguna soon developed a reputation for reliability and, at least for the 4-cyl. models, pretty good value for money. The only real vice, which made itself known a couple of years after launch, was subpar rust protection. But by the time this became evident, Renault had already addressed the issue. Case in point: this is a late ‘90s car from the Alpine area, and it’s still in very good shape.
Not everyone wants excitement and character in their family car. In fact, quite a few folks want the exact opposite for that. Comfortably numb, styled to avoid any excesses and showing a great deal of moderation in its engine options, the Mk1 Laguna was exactly what Europe wanted at the time. A little under 1.4 million were made between 1994 and 2001 – a little better than the Citroën Xantia and the Peugeot 406, and certainly a lot better than the 2001-07 Laguna II, which was plagued by a host of electronic and design issues. None of that for the first-gen car. It was competent, successful and a wonderful remedy for insomnia.
Related post:
COAL № 12: 1997 Renault Laguna & 1998 Citroën Xantia • Intermèdes Français Modernes, by Dion
Thanks for reminding us of the Laguna. Still thinks it is not a bad looking car.
And yes, they all have about disappeared from our roads. Which is normal for any bland car in the 25-32 year range.
Looking at the interior pictures here, once again I feel about to throw up 🙂
Seems like a waste of a perfectly good name.
If you want to see old Euro iron, go to Hungary. I’ve seen so many 20-30 year old cars in one area in my life.
That includes Soviet-era stuff.
You may already know this, but Roshake photographs many cars in Hungary:
https://www.flickr.com/search/people/?username=roshake
This car isn’t just boring—it’s yawn-inducingly boring.
For some reason, strangely mottled upholsteries like the one we see above was all the rage among many manufacturers in the ’90s. It wasn’t just car manufacturers who used them. You could also find them on buses and trains. Some things were n o t any better back then…
I still dont know why, guess I just needed a cheap car fast, but I bought a Laguna wagon twice. Really boring transportation, mediocre at all levels, but still nice in a french way. With the 99 facelift the front became much nicer.
Let’s not forget that none other than the Williams Formula One team ran Renault Lagunas in the British Touring Car Championship from 1995 to 1999, winning the title with Alain Menu in 1997.
“Ford – the Taurus, the Fairmount, the Tempo… ” Ford made a Fairmont but not a Fairmount.
I always thought they’d better made the Vermont …
Maybe this is a function of Renault having left the American market years before the Laguna was introduced. But when I think of Renaults, I think unreliable, weak dealer network–but not bland.
The Laguna is a good car, comfortable and spacious.
I’d go with the Safrane; at least the design seems more appealing to me.
I doubt it got stolen very often; especially the wagon version…ugggh 😏
Back in the late 00s and early 2010s, I spent a considerable amount of seat time in a 2.0 petrol Laguna estate, with a 5 speed manual.
Comfortable, a good cruiser, handling was a bit of a non-event with roll but it did motorways well and was reasonably good on fuel. It was a company pool car and never actually let us down until the battery went flat and we couldn’t open the bonnet to jump it.
it served, it suffered and did 170,000 miles eventually.
We got all three generations of Laguna new here in New Zealand; I remember looking at them in the showroom when my grandparents bought their Renault Scenic. At the time it seemed like most manufacturers were offering bland and blobby shapes, so these 1st generation Lagunas fitted the streetscape well. Stylistically it also fitted in well with the rest of Renault’s lineup at the time, especially the Megane, Scenic and Safrane. Most of our Lagunas seem to have been the V6, and most were hatchbacks – but I always thought the wagon was a great piece of design. Haven’t seen a gen 1 Laguna for a year or two now, so it’s nice to see the featured one still in use!
Renault went away from here for quite a while after the last thimblefuls of R21, then turned up with a tiny fartful of these Lagunas in ’96 under the Volvo aegis (before coming back fully from 2001). A few Tour de Fools bought them, and then suffered the resale value of a used rock.
If the auto in that 4-cylinder car is the AL4/DPO box, then rest assured it is NOT reliable at all, in fact, it’s horribly breakable. To drive, it’s also one of the worst boxes made, hanging onto gears weirdly, lugging uselessly on others, then changing dramatically because it decided your pinned throttle foot was up for sport mode. Sadly, it’s rubbish like this that has done immense damage to French marques (outside France) for far too long. And worse, ALL the French makes used this box.
For the car surrounding it to be boring just finalizes the insult.