Go ahead. Order that extra helping of fries, the pint of dark lager and whip cream for the cafe latte.
There are sports cars that demand you get trim to match their athletic demeanour, but the Laguna Coupe is not one of them.
It’s made for fat lounge cats and the gentlemen who prefer to take things easy.
Renault’s latest offering is a coupe in the most traditional sense and not the new-fangled “four-door coupe” interpretation of the CLS concocted by Mercedes-Benz.
Lighter-coloured upholstery lightens up an otherwise sombre cabin.
It’s a car built to fulfil the old-world interpretation of a coupe – one that satisfies the unhurried man who wants to look and feel good.
Basically, the car is an elaborate styling exercise over the not-bad Laguna saloon, and it’s a job that goes further than sealing off two doors to qualify it as a “koo-pey”.
Like what BMW did with its 3 Series coupe and saloon, the Coupe only looks like a close relation to the saloon but shares no body panels.
Parked beside the saloon, the Coupe’s design looks a whole lot more expressive, like a sexier derivative of the saloon.
The details are definitely sharper than the car it’s based on, but it stays away from bold slashes and cuts so popular with car design of late.
The window graphic is shallow and free from having blocky B-pillars like the saloon’s.
In true coupe style, the doors feature frameless windows that are perfect for resting the idle elbow.
The only “hard” cue is the deliberate kick-up at the end of the hatch that seems to work like a spoiler.
There’s certainly an air of sophistication about the car’s exterior – one that can proudly hold its head up in far more exclusive company like the Audi A5, the Jaguar XR or even the Aston Martin DB9 (a car Renault seems to have been studying very closely).
There’s certainly a bit of Henrik Frisker’s design about the Coupe’s rear quarters.
While the Coupe has a skin that looks rather special, most of the cabin comes straight off the saloon, down to the button to lock the doors, which is marked by an icon of a car with four doors, not two.
Speaking of locking, the car comes with a card-shaped transponder, which will thoughtfully lock the doors when you walk away from the car – a really clever feature.
Rear quarter is good for two, with plenty of bolstering to pamper.
The small quip about the icon aside, the interior looks and feels well built. It manages to echo the car’s flowing exterior styling as coherent and understated.
The predominantly sombre and dark tones would have created an awfully dull car, if not for the light-coloured leather upholstery.
Behind the grey fascia is a sound system created by French audio specialist Arkamys.
Well, I haven’t heard of the company before either. And, to be honest, whatever it did hasn’t turned the Coupe’s cabin into a concert hall or anything like that.
The front seats are generously bolstered, as is the bench behind.
Together with the car’s lowered roofline (it’s 47mm shorter than the saloon’s), the Coupe’s cabin will take four in comfort but can’t match the saloon for flexibility.
Frankly, that’s all one should want to know about the Coupe – it’s spacious (enough) and it looks darn good.
In truth, there’s little to be gained from probing further.
Mechanically, it’s similar to the saloon, so there’s a 170bhp 2-litre turbocharged engine hooked up to a 6-speed automatic gearbox.
Renault is claiming that the car is 8kg lighter and takes 0.2 seconds less to get to 100km/h from rest than the saloon.
But the Coupe is not a car that seeks out twisty roads and eggs the driver to deactivate its traction control to have fun.
There’s plenty of grip in the corners, with a steering rack set up to give very sharp initial turn-ins, but the car doesn’t involve the driver very much.
The dynamic behaviour is safe rather than livewire reactive.
The engine, too, is effective rather than affective, with sufficient poke to move the car along briskly.
But it doesn’t have the effervescent spirit of a performance powerplant or the cultured purrs of a large displacement lump.
The gearbox is also optimised for relaxed motoring, as it does a top job with light- to mid-throttle upshifts.
But it doesn’t like to be hurried too much, even when the driver is keenly demanding rapid kick-downs.
It’s not as if Renault doesn’t know how to make a vivacious and “hot” performance car.
We only have to turn to the work of the RenaultSport, department with models like the Clio R26 and Megane-based R27 for proof.
It seems as if the big cheeses are worried that making the Coupe more “fun” to drive will expose it to the risk of being enthusiastically driven, potentially ruining its handsome body.
Well, with the car doing such a fine job looking good, it leaves the driver to get fat on fries, beers and froth.
Laguna Coupe’s rear end seems inspired by the Aston Martin DB9’s.
2009 Renault Laguna Coupe 2.0 (A)
ENGINE
Capacity 1998cc
Type 16-valves, inline-4, turbocharged
Bore x stroke 82.7mm x 93mm
Compression ratio 9.5:1
Max power 170bhp at 5000rpm
Max torque 270Nm at 3250rpm
Power to weight 114.9bhp per tonne
TRANSMISSION
Gearbox 6-speed automatic with manual select
Driven wheels Front
PERFORMANCE
0-100km/h 9.2 seconds
Top speed 220km/h
Consumption 11.4km/L (combined)
SUSPENSION
Front MacPherson struts, coil springs, anti-roll bar
Rear Multi-link, coil springs, anti-roll bar
BRAKES
Front / Rear Ventilated discs / Discs
TYRES
Type Continental ContiSport Contact 3
Size 235/45 R18
SAFETY
Airbags 6
Traction aids ABS, ESP
MEASUREMENTS
Length 4643mm
Width 1811mm
Height 1398mm
Wheelbase 2694mm
Kerb weight 1480kg
Turning circle 11.2m
BUYING IT
Price incl. COE $132,999
Warranty 3 years/100,000km
+ Classy design, quality feel, highly equipped
– Drive can be more engaging, cabin can be more special, needs a more interesting drivetrain
