Renault Talisman Sport Tourer — station wagon on the go?
Recently, the official presentation of the Renault Talisman in the station wagon version with the proud name Grandtour took place. After a brief introduction, it's time for a test drive. We managed to ride on a black Talisman with a powerful diesel engine under the hood in a luxurious Initiale Paris package. How it works?
At first glance Talisman looks much better than its predecessor Laguna. You can see the intent of the designers - there should be a lot of things. The front of the car attracts attention with sharp embossing and voluminous C-shaped headlights. And it's impossible not to notice the huge, almost vertically placed brand logo, surrounded by a shiny chrome grille. The whole thing looks massive, one might even say muscular. A little quieter on the side. The profile of the car gives the impression that the designers put all their creative inspiration into the front and rear of the car, and just waved a pencil to the side. Be that as it may, the "swipe" turned out well. The roofline slopes very thinly towards the rear, creating a cross between a typical station wagon's boxy and "broken" Shooting Brake. The rear of the car should become the hallmark of the brand - longitudinal lights, made using LED technology, occupy almost the entire width of the tailgate.
You can see that Renault is another company that unifies its new cars to the limit in terms of styling. Unfortunately, fitting almost identical taillights to the sedan and station wagon bodywork so that they look great in both is almost miraculous. The Volvo brand didn't do it very well with the V90 and S90 models: if in the "V" the headlights look phenomenal, in the "S" they are a little pressed down by force. In the case of the Talisman, the opposite is true. They look great in a sedan, but in the Grandtour they look like a slightly more angular Megane. The tailgate is optically quite low and superfluous: embossing, a large logo, dominant lights and a rather “taut” bumper make it difficult to focus your eyes.
However, the overall impression of the Talisman is very positive. Interestingly, the Grandtour version has very similar dimensions to the sedan, although visually this model seems larger. This is mainly due to the spoiler, which is the culmination of the sloping roofline, or the proportion of the side windows to the steel body elements 1/3-2/3. Everything is complemented by a palette of ten exterior colors, including two new ones: Brown Vision and Red Carmin.
Inside Initiale Paris smells of luxury from the first second. The armchairs are upholstered in two-tone leather (darker at the bottom and light beige at the top). Such processing is not only practical, but also gives the interior an original character. The seats, above all, are very wide and comfortable, which will make even long trips enjoyable. In addition, they are heated and ventilated, as well as have a massage function that is activated automatically when you turn on the "Comfort" mode. Unfortunately, this has little to do with rest. After a few minutes, the massage becomes irritating and unpleasant. Then the recesses in the onboard system begin to turn off the rollers, persistently kneading our loins.
What immediately catches the eye is the 8,7-inch R-LINK 2 tablet, which sits vertically on the center console. In the pursuit of modernity and connecting electronics wherever possible, engineers have probably pushed practicality into the background. With its help, we control not only the radio, navigation and other options typical for displays, but also heating and air conditioning. You get into a hot car, it's damn hot inside, and for a few minutes you look for an opportunity to cool the car. You find it at a critical moment when the protein in your brain is almost boiling. Cursing modernity under your breath, you dream of a typical pen. However, this tablet offers much more than just airflow control. We can find in it advanced navigation with visualization of buildings in 3D, a voice command system or the operation of the MULTI-SENSE system. Although the manufacturer promises intuitive controls, getting used to the Talisman system can take some time.
Since we are dealing with a wagon version, we cannot fail to mention the capacity of the Talisman Grandtour. The car has exactly the same wheelbase and front overhang as the twin sedan, but the length of the rear overhang is different. The low loading threshold (571 mm) will be a great help when loading heavy items in the trunk. Moreover, the hatch can be opened not only in the usual way, but also by moving the foot under the rear bumper. Manufacturers promise this option, but during the tests we waved our legs under the car for a long time, while looking at least strange. To no avail - the back door of the Talisman remained closed to us. However, upon opening them manually, it turned out that in fact the space offered by Grandtour is impressive. 572 liters with a standard landing of the rear sofa and a trunk length of 1116 mm will allow you to transport bulky items. With the rear seatbacks folded down, cargo space increases to 1681 liters and we can carry items over two meters in length.
There is also a head-up display for the driver. Unfortunately, the image is displayed not on glass, but on a plastic plate located almost at eye level. It gets in the way a little at first, but with longer use you can get used to it. However, as the Talisman is clearly pushing its way into the premium segment, making a decent head-up display on the windshield shouldn't be a problem for the brand.
In today's luxury cars, it's hard to forget an appropriate audio system. For the acoustics in the Talisman Grandtour, the BOSE system with 12 speakers and digital signal processing is responsible. This, combined with the thicker (4 mm) glued side windows in Initiale Paris finish, makes listening to your favorite tracks a real pleasure. However, it is necessary to properly adjust the sound settings to suit your preferences, because the two built-in subwoofers are too intrusive.
The Renault Talisman Grandtour promises a lot in terms of handling. Thanks to the 4CONTROL four-wheel steering system, familiar to us from the Laguna Coupe (even before it got its proud name), the car is truly agile and easily handles turns in narrow streets. When cornering at speeds up to 60 km / h, the rear wheels turn slightly in the direction opposite to the front ones (up to 3,5 degrees). This gives the impression of a shorter wheelbase than it actually is. At higher speeds (over 60 km / h), the rear wheels turn in the same direction as the front ones, up to 1,9 degrees. This, in turn, creates the illusion of a longer wheelbase and contributes to better vehicle stability when cornering at high speeds. In addition, the Talisman Grandtour received electronically controlled shock absorbers, so that the unevenness of the road surface ceases to matter. It's comfortable inside while driving, though second-row passengers complained about the noisy rear suspension when driving fast.
We won't find much joy in the Talisman Grandtour's engine offering. The brand offers only 1.6-liter engines: 3 Energy dCi diesels (110, 130 and 160 hp) and two Energy TCe spark ignition units (150 and 200 hp). The weakest diesel works with manual transmission (although in some markets it will be available with automatic transmission). With the two more powerful ones, the customer has the option to choose whether he wants to work with the EDC6 dual clutch gearbox or with the manual option. On the other hand, petrol engines are only available with a seven-speed automatic transmission (EDC7).
After the presentation, we managed to ride the Talisman Grandtour with a powerful diesel engine under the hood. The Energy dCI 160 is the only unit on offer that boasts two compressors in a Twin Turbo system. The engine offers as much as 380 Nm of maximum torque available at 1750 rpm. How do these promising parameters translate into driving? During the test, there were four people in the car, which somewhat justifies Talisman's slowness. Theoretically, acceleration from 0 to 100 km / h should take him 9,6 seconds. It's not a little, it's not a lot. However, with an almost full number of passengers, it is felt that the car is a little tired.
Manufacturers of modern passenger cars pay great attention to security systems. The same is true for the Talisman Grandtour. On board there are, among other things: an assistant for monitoring the blind spot and keeping the car in the middle of the lane, range radar, automatic high beam switching, active cruise control, emergency braking system, turn signals and many others. In addition, the car was equipped with a hands-free parking assist system. Thanks to him, we can park a large car, because not only perpendicular and parallel, but also at an angle.
Finally, there is the issue of price. We will buy the weakest diesel Energy dCi 110 in the basic Life package (this is the only available option for this engine) for PLN 96. However, if we opt for a higher shelf, the new Renault model is very similar to the competition. The unit we tested is the most expensive - the variant with the most powerful diesel in the richest version of the Initiale Paris package. Its cost is 600. The brand, however, wants to attract buyers with the rich equipment and sense of prestige that this car has to offer.
