Shed of the Week: Renault Laguna GT
Shed loves a little-known gem and they don't come less heralded than a lightly spiced Laguna...
Laguna. Say it loud and there's music playing. Say it soft and it's almost like praying.
Actually, that's Maria from West Side Story. Shed isn't afraid or ashamed to admit that he's quite partial to a musical. He used to watch all the matinees up Soho after collecting Mrs Shed from the big casino where she worked as a croupier, sucking up to the high rollers who paid big money to play roulette all day and poker all night.
Back then Shed smoked around in a 1.9-litre Laguna diesel. Although it had none of the quirkiness that typified French motors in the grand old days of yore - we're talking 305 Peugeots and Renault 6s here - it was nevertheless an unpretentious and functional sort of beast that served him well.
If, in the mid 2000s, you'd told him there was such a thing as a Laguna GT205 churning out 200hp-plus, he might have questioned his own sanity. At the very least it would have made a nice change from Mrs Shed questioning it all the time. And yet, here it is, le proof de la pudding, in Shed de la Semaine.
The GT205 was up at the pointy end of a 2005 Laguna refresh which was mainly about (a) introducing Renault's new face and (b) reducing the damage to pedestrians' faces when they hit Renault's new face with their own faces.
As so often happens when safety is driving the bus, elegance took a back seat to style. Somehow, the new '05 Laguna managed to look even more boring than the old one, which was quite an achievement as the '04 one was about as conservative as a conservative person sitting in a Conservative Club, thinking conservatively.
But if you ignored the external looks of the thing and concentrated on what was in front of you, things weren't so bad. You had your 3D sat-nav, your Keyless Go, and your nicer cabin materials. You had your stiffer suspension and your tweaked gearshift action.
And in the GT205 you had a slightly detuned version of the 2.0-litre turbo four that produced 222hp in the Renaultsport Mégane 225. Running through a six-speed box, that made it good for low-7-second 0-60 times. The suspension took an additional 10mm drop on even stiffer springs. There was weightier steering and bigger brakes.
It's all sounding quite promising so far, but let's not get carried away. It was still a Laguna, after all, France's equivalent of the Mondeo or perhaps more accurately the Vectra. This was no firebreather of an engine: it was more a case of warm breath that turned into a bit of an old-man wheeze if you tried hanging onto the revs in a vain search for some top-end power. The excitement was pretty much done by 5000rpm.
But as a competent and under-the-radar tool for putting away big mileages fast, this is a little-known gem. The midrange torque is meaty across a 3000rpm range starting at 2250rpm and peaking at a highly respectable 221lb ft. She will respond to a flowing hand rather than a violent one. Pick your corner line early and you'll be pleasantly shocked by the car's flat attitude and body control. Touring can be surprisingly grand in a Laguna GT205.
The only cabin décor for this model was what you see here, black leather with dark red inserts cloaking really good seat frames. The wheel is wrapped in leather and so, it would seem on this one at least, is the gearlever - although Shed seems to recall that factory cars were meant to have Puma-style aluminium balls.
Mind you, his memory isn't what it once was. Well, he thinks that's true anyway. What is for sure is that there aren't many of these GT205s around. Very few were brought into the UK in the first place, as folk like Shed kept saying things like "no, no, we want 130hp diesels'. There's still some mystery in the mainstream limited production French performance saloon. It might take a bit of finding in this case, but you may well be rewarded by what you uncover.
If I didn't have too many sheds already, I'd really have loved that car it looks genuinely nice.
Great catch and a pleasant change to the 'predictables'.
That and people will think you shop at Poundland!
That and people will think you shop at Poundland!
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
for those myths about all Renaults are unreliable etc,
first one - sold at 115k.
second one - scrapped just shy of 270k due to turbo failure and car generally getting tatty.
current one - bought at 100k, now on 216k, did 800 miles yesterday and going (back home) to france next month for a fortnights tour.
mine takes me all over the UK and relatively speaking, have never had anything major fail. I had a gearbox, clutch and flywheel overhaul last year bit this was planned and, although an expensive, still resulted in a years cheap "budget" motoring. other jobs are tyres, brakes and a 12-16wk service, but genuinely with a 10yr old Renault on 50k/year, this is about the lot.
yes theyre a laguna, yes they're boring and yes theyre a poor drive compared to the blue oval. BUT! paid £1500 for my latest 2yrs ago, a car loaded with kit compared to the equivalent; elec/heated leather, Bluetooth, keyless entry, and on some - not this one - the "idrive" style satnav is quite good for its age, even integrating addresses and phone numbers of thousands of POIs, including all of the Renault dealers....
the electric handbrake can be problematic and costly to fix (touches some faux wood). keycards at 10yrs could be susceptible to failure, and as such, would advise any cars come with 2pcs as a backup. (new are £300plus from Renault). back bushes can fail and wear, particularly on the estates.
i've over wondered if the masses would be curious or baulk at these cars. mine can quite genuinely fit in the shed / modified car / budget motoring / cars you didnt know existed / high mileage car / crap plate / good plate thread. I might park it over the lines at asda one weekend and try and fit all threads!
oh, and shed, youre right about them being fitted with an aluminium gearknob - theyre a nightmare on winter mornings!
Two window regulators failed
Instrument cluster failed
Spurious STOP warnings that we never got to the bottom of.
Alarm sensor for the bonnet failed.
Power steering motor failed
Glowplugs failed
Repeated limp mode traced to a split in a vacuum pipe going to the boost control solenoid
Electric parking brake failed
Gearknob worn smooth and threadbare B-pillar trim from seatbelt rubbing against it
Concentric slave cylinder on clutch failed
All this in 18 months on a well looked after, serviced-by-the-book car bought at 2.5 years old, and sold at 4 years old, with under 50,000 miles on it. I cannot even begin to comprehend how you'd keep an old one going.
It was comfortable and drove nicely, but nothing it did came even close to making up for its appalling build quality and reliability.
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