By ALISTAIR KENNEDY
20 November 2006

The past year in Australia has seen a small but significant swing away from petrol-powered cars towards diesels. European car-makers that have pressed the case for diesel-powered passenger cars such as those which dominate their local markets.

Surprisingly, Renault, one of Europe’s biggest manufacturers has not, until now, included a diesel passenger car in its Australian range. That first car has now arrived in the form of the company’s Laguna and, in a first for cars in Australia, it is only available with a diesel engine.

The new Phase II Laguna has been on sale in Europe since March 2005 where it is available in a number of body styles and with a choice of petrol and diesel engines. In Australia it comes in a single variant: four-door sedan, four-cylinder diesel engine and five-speed automatic transmission. The delay in bringing the car to Australia has been attributed to the unavailability, until recently, of a suitable automatic transmission.

Typical of the new breed of sophisticated diesel engines, the Laguna’s 2.2-litre common-rail turbo is only barely discernible as a diesel at start up but almost impossible to pick as such when cruising. And it has what most attracts Australian drivers - plenty of torque, reaching a peak of 320 Nm at just 1750 rpm.

The chief advantage of diesel is fuel economy and, according to the ADR81/01 Australian standard test for fuel consumption, the Renault Laguna uses 7.7 litres per 100 kilometres in combined city/highway running.

We were able to test Laguna on a fairly undemanding route to the north east of Melbourne. It cruised smoothly and comfortably throughout our test with the suspension slightly on the firm side in the European manner. Handling was safe and predictable because of the firm suspension and many Australian drivers like their cars like that.

Our only real complaint was that the tiptronic manual override on the automatic transmission was quite stiff in its action although that may have been because the car was so new. We’ll look at this and other aspects of the Laguna when we do our full road test.

Laguna comes well-equipped and includes a number of leading-edge features such as an automatic parking brake and the ‘credit card’ keyless entry system. The card only has to be within the car to start the engine. The new card also allows the car’s headlights to be switched while you are still outside the car.

Other standard equipment includes ABS brakes with electronic brake distribution and brake assist, front, lateral and side airbags, stability control, cruise control, dual zone climate control air conditioning and 17-inch alloy wheels.

The new Renault Laguna dCi is on sale now at $46,990 plus on-road costs.

Diesel-powered Scenic and Megane models are expected during 2007.