Everybody was expecting for a new Safrane to replace the defunct VelSatis, and here comes Renault with a completely French attitude, offering us their latest effort to bring on the fight in the big-boys class: Renault Latitude!
Now, for a car that is 4.89 meters long, 1.83 meters wide and 1.49 meters tall, Latitude is situated at the bottom of the big-sized (or in some countries, still medium-sized) cars. With a wheelbase of 2.8 meters, it’s sure to have enough space to room a riot, and enough boot space to accommodate a French strike.
If you seem to have already seen this car somewhere, don’t bother to check: it’s the Samsung SM5 all-over. Not that the French car is a rebadged Samsung, it’s the other way around: Latitude is still French in all that it offers. Except the design, that’s so Korean it makes a French man cry.
Now, Renault tells us that Latitude will come not only with an excellent chassis (that is already well received in Korea), but also with a plethora of equipments to level the score: adaptive and directional bi-Xenon lights, dual-mode air ionizer with double fragrance diffuser, triple-zone climate control, a massaging driver’s seat, Bose Premium audio, the Renault hands-free card, etc.
We still have to wait to see what engines will be offered on the European version of the car, and we’ll have to thank the Paris Motor Show in October for that. The car will be ready to sell towards the end of 2010.