THINK OF RENAULT in this country and you think hot hatches, quirky MPVs and more recently entry cars like the Sandero and Logan. It’s particularly the locally built Sandero hatch – which regularly features as one of the top ten best selling cars in South Africa – which has rejuvenated the Renault brand here.

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But now Renault’s thrown a R500 000 coupe amongst the hundred grand bargains, swapping its utilitarian Crocs for some fancy French leather loafers. The Laguna Coupe is supposed to showcase the fact that Renault can do luxury in a uniquely different way to the usual German, Japanese and British contenders.

Renault is realistic enough to realise owners of Audis, BMWs and Mercs won’t just jump ship to a brand with no local track record in this segment. So they won’t be bringing in more than a hundred Lagunas in the first year. But the hope is that this fully specced car crammed full of kit, where the only option you pay for is metallic paint, will woo first-time luxury car buyers and current Renault owners looking for something different.

It certainly looks different, even beautiful from some angles. That’s true especially from the rear, where it might be mistaken for an Aston Martin as it cruises past.

A lot of S-words pop up when you describe the design of the car. Words like stylish, sleek, smooth. I had one guy at a traffic light and another at the petrol station asking me what car it was and declaring it ‘gorgeous’. You can say that kind of thing in Cape Town, even if you’re a Bulls supporter. In profile and from the rear I’d say yes, but the design at the front becomes too fussy for my taste. Overall it turns heads though, in an appreciative way.

The inside is classy enough, but not as impressive as the outside. The good includes comfortable, well bolstered leather seats, (very) soft-touch dash and trim, decent leg- and headroom in the back and appealing black and aluminium trim and panels. It feels well put together, but still doesn’t rival the interior of a Jaguar or one of the German trio.

The bad part is the rotary dial and accompanying buttons behind the gearshift which one uses to access the navigation, trip computer and entertainment system. It’s unnecessarily complicated and finicky. You’ll get used to it eventually, but there are far easier systems to use where one push of a button does the job instead of lot of twiddling and pushing that one has to do in the Laguna.

Even though there’s a 3.0-litre V6 diesel available in European markets, Renault South Africa has decided to only bring in the petrol model. It’s Nissan sourced 3.5-litre V6, a detuned version of the engine used in the Nissan 350Z.