Renault aren’t expecting to make a major dent in numbers terms in the luxury car area with their new VelSatis, but they certainly will make a serious visual impact.

They expect to move around 200 units this year, rising to 300 for 2003. Put that against a background of close to 10,000 sales of BMWs and Mercedes-Benz cars in a year, and it is clear that the latest Renault big car will be outstanding at least in rarity terms.

But they will be 300 customers a year who will be absolutely coddled in a vehicle whose chief designer gave his staff a simple brief - make a car that will transport just four people in absolute luxury and comfort and safety. They’ve achieved this ... with real style.

The shape of the car is somewhat unusual, but it definitely grows on you. There’s nothing else quite like it on the road. Long and high, steeply raked in the front with an usual grille and sort of cut away at the back, might just describe it. But it’s stylish too!

Inside, the cabin is total luxury - very elegantly furnished. Like being in a 5-star hotel. You sink into sumptuous leather seats, fabulously moulded and stitched.

Front seats come with an integrated seat belt which means no stretching back to grab the belt off the door pillar. The front seat backrests can be electrically adjusted in separate sections, along with the headrest, providing maximum support in the right places.

The review car had lots of wood trim, with marquetry inserts. This look is featured over the glove compartment and repeated along each door.
Charcoal coloured plastic and nice touches of chrome, on door handles, the Renault badge, and the top of the gear stick knob, completed the stylish look.

The central console sweeps down, curving out and upwards to meet up with the huge armrest.

The instrument panel is tucked in under a big sweeping arc that seems to stretch forever. Instruments are classy and feature white numbers on a dark background. To the left of the instrument panel, another screen tells you what radio station you are on, outside temperature etc.

Cubbies abound. The good sized door bin can be pulled out so as to be able to put things into it at a better angle. The glove compartment is quite good and has a smaller compartment on top. If you press the wood trim above it, it comes out to reveal two fold-in cup holders with a padded tray area in the centre. This is really neat.

The front armrest hides a 12V accessory socket and a place for your mobile phone, along with massive space for cameras and other stuff like that. A rear arm rest incorporates a large storage area and two pull-out cup holders. You’ll find storage drawers under the front seats and swivel out ones under the rear seats.

There’s a little digital clock, with a ‘jewelled’ area in the centre, in the middle of the dash. It adds its own luxury touch to a car in which every detail seems to have a cosseting reason as well as a functional one.

Features naturally included air conditioning, a CD player, cruise control and an unusual speed limiter which you could set in a limit area and the engine simply won’t drive the car above that limit unless you do a ‘kickdown’ on the accelerator. There are places where you’re likely to get ‘done’ for even a slight infringement of the speed regulations, and this might indeed be useful here.

The very big boot is opened by pushing in the top of the Renault badge. The lower part comes out to form a handle. And there’s a motorised ‘final closing’ system that means there’s never a need to slam the boot shut.

Like the Renault Laguna, the VelSatis is started by inserting a card into a slot on the central console. Next, you press the ON/OFF button on the dash. The car’s computer then runs a check on all systems and you can chart its progress on the screen. This even includes a check on tyre pressures.

There may be a bit of confusion over the automatic 'hand'brake, and this should be clearly detailed to new owners before they’re allowed drive their new pride and joy away. This only comes into force when the engine is switched OFF. Otherwise, when stopped in on a slope for example, the handbrake (on the driver’s side of the dash) must be pulled forward if you want to be held on the hill.

When you’re ready to start off again, simply accelerate a bit more than normal and away you go. This means no roll back ... at all! Every car with a clutch should have this option.

The 2.2-litre dCi has a power output of 150bhp and it is very quiet and refined indeed. The only diesel-typical downside was that it really didn’t like pulling away at anything less than 1400rpm.

Fuel consumption was about 35.3mpg for a week of very mixed driving. This included a drive to the West Wicklow village of Hollywood, famous for its very steep hill, an ideal location to test that parking brake on the incline. Also, when run over some very rough roads in that area, the suspension proved itself mightily. Hardly a bump got through to the passenger compartment.

The 2-litre petrol version was even quicker, quieter and smoother than the diesel. But it returned less, achieving just over 30mpg for the combined rural and urban cycle.