Renault will soon unleash the Lodgy, a three-row car-based MPV set to take on the established names. How does it look for this new French-badged Romanian?
Story: Jim Gorde
Photography: Rommel Albuquerque
Classification. It’s a human tendency to segregate, separate. Is it the old ‘survival of the fittest’ thing going or is it much deeper than that? The study of classification, or typology, basically delves into why we classify things like we do. No, this is not a science lesson. This is a look into where the ladder-on-frame SUV ends, where the monocoque sedans begin, and what was created somewhere in the middle, in simple response to classification. Why not have the best of both worlds? Why not an all-road tough vehicle that handles like a car and seats between five and eight people? There are several. They’re called multi-purpose vehicles (MPV), and some of them are pretty good too. In fact, if you lined up every MPV on sale today around the world, the line may or may not reach the moon, but it would still be very long!
The end of classification may be far, but the lines being blurred day by day surely have managed to capture attention. Everything from four-door coupés that are SUVs but barely behave like either, and sports cars that offer all-road ability are now available — they’ve done it all. Of course, on the more mainstream, practical side of things, there are car-platform based seven- to nine-seaters which indeed offer car-like handling and manage to seat their occupants in comfort. We’ve seen them from the Japanese and even the American-badged Koreans, but now, the French-badged Romanians are having a go. Why is this important? It’s because it’s coming from the company which first gave the world an MPV – the Espace – back in 1984, and because their last car became one of the most sought-after cars globally; carving a space in a segment of its own and sitting pretty. This, then, is the Duster’s younger sibling.
I’m not saying Leonard Nimoy had something to do with its introduction (may his soul rest in peace), but when you get a car with this sort of flexibility and practicality, you would immediately think that “it’s only logical”. The Lodgy uses the same platform seen in the Logan and the Duster; lending incredible ride quality, liberating space and allowing the inclusion of several creature comforts. It also runs the longest wheelbase in its class at 2,810 mm.
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