Renault is thinking about making a Renaultsport version of the new Renault Laguna III, making it the first Laguna to have a sporty tuned up performance version. There are currently two Renault models that have Renaultsport variants – the Clio and the Megane which are B-segment and C-segment cars respectively.
“We are thinking about it but we have not decided yet. The chassis with four-wheel steering could be used as the base for the car. The question is which engine would we use, and do we have enough customers who would want the car. We will see with the launch of the standard Laguna and the Coupe at the end of next year. But I would like it,” says Patrice Ratti, programmer director for Renault’s larger cars.
The upcoming yet to be launched coupe version of the Renault Laguna III will also get a new system called Active Drive that will give the car four-wheel steering capabilities. It will first debut on the coupe when it is launched in late 2008, but will eventually be available on the Laguna III sedan and estate later.
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Well, why not? As long as they find there are market for this car, they should do it.
dont used the engine that used by tiara sudahlah hahahahaha
carefull, might end up as an understeering Vectra VXR
Rear look nice!
wildthingz, this is a renault, the tiara was a rebadged Citroen AX.
not comin out in m’sia ?
i juz saw dis car 1st look in the topgear m’sia mag….nice front but damn ugly back…..but it has nice interior though….
no point for renault considering it for sale in malaysia. honestly, how many malaysians would buy it instead of the camry or accord? yeah, it looks nice and probably drives good too but the malaysian facination with cheap ckd japanese cars will just kill it, so renault better not launch it here and save themselves the embarrassment. its nice to have variety over here but what’s the point of bringing it in as malaysians cannot agree to paying the premium for a cbu and have negative attitude against europeans marques other than bmw and mercedes benz.
So true, I personally like Euro sedans and luxury cars, but I prefer Jap. tuner and sport cars. No money for either…so, whatever.
Looks nice…but being a French car, I doubt it will sell well, if at all in Malaysia. Remember the last Renault Laguna imported by Quasar Carriage ? well it didn’t fair well at all.
wildthingz said,
September 4, 2007 @ 8:36 am
dont used the engine that used by tiara sudahlah hahahahaha
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Don’t you have anything better to comment on?
Beside, there is nothing wrong with the Citroen AX or its engine. Damn reliable, low maintenance and good fuel economy unit. Even we dont seem to value the Tiara here, out in the French countryside, you still see an abundance of old AX’s running around.
4G63T DSM,
i agree with you that the tiara is a pretty good car. sadly, it was poorly represented in malaysia by the then pesb. but from owning one, i can safely say that it is definitely fun to drive. handles like a go-kart and the engine is super smooth. fuel consumption, well that’s debatable. but from 98′ onwards, the cars were pretty much sorted out already.
the parts are as expected a little pricey as pesb did not make the effort to manufacture enough components locally and this was the sore point of the whole tiara exercise. no point making a cheap car for the masses but make them pay higher maintenance costs at the same time than those driving bigger cars.
fact remains though, the japanese car mindset is set to stay in malaysia for a long time… until the europeans can get their act together and make cars that compete strongly on price, reliability and spares & service accessibility. one can say that merc and bmw can afford to be exclusive but for renault and the other mid to low range europeans, there really must be more service centres, cheap and available parts in order to shift bigger numbers. remember these aren’t lux cars even in europe ad consumers here know that too. so, there is no point in buying the european equivalent to a persona or civic but pay ridiculous prices to own and maintain. thanks to the high import taxes for the cars AND parts though. and we all know who controls the taxes i’m sure.
so renault or tan chong for that matter, think hard before introducing the Laguna as a CBU here. you have so much against you already even before the car is made public.
almost 100% agree with 4G63T DSM and lowprofile..
but still .. accessibility to reasonable-priced european car spare parts is the minimum requirements for a comeback of european cars in malaysia. that genuine parts at authorised service centres.
there are a few part shops that sell genuine and oem parts at price much much lower than imposed by authorised part / service centre but many either not aware abt this shops or skeptic about the genuinity and reliability of items offered by this kind of shops.
even if the sale price is a litle higher, if the cost and availability of after sales (parts price are comparable to japanese car parts price and numbers of service centre are more than what we have now), i believe they could shift more units, as potential customer might be less worry about maintenance & repair cost hence the total cost of ownership.
IMO, its the two above that are the biggest hindrances for possibility of healthy sales of european car in malaysia. however, the car price itself should be lowered too.. only then the ripple effect cycle could be completed.
Yeah, we could blame the body that imposed tax on CBU car and exported parts too as another contributor of the problem but that not going nowhere and not going to solved the problem in hand.
they should ckd this car, they can forget about the malaysian government lowering the import taxes