Renault Latitude news - Revenge of the Vel Satis - 2010

If you have a penchant for big, luxurious Renaults - and hell, who doesn't? - times have been tough since the departure of the Vel Satis in 2009.

But now Renault is back in the luxo-game with this, the Latitude - the first car, to our knowledge, to be named after a nouveau-hippy festival.

Big luxurious Renault fans rejoice! At least, rejoice if you live in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Gulf, Mexico or Russia, for those are the markets where the Latitude will initially go on sale.

Not Europe, and not Britain: Renault is yet to decide whether to sell the Latitude on these shores, doubtless dissuaded by the less-than-stellar sales of the Vel Satis.

The Latitude isn't a replacement for the Laguna. Oh no, it's bigger than that: at more than five metres long, it's far closer to a Citroen C6.

Architecture is shared with the Laguna, but the Latitude is most closely related to the Korean-only Samsung SM5. We're promised a ‘silent ride' and ‘a particularly precise chassis'. No word on residual values, curiously.

Renault is expected to decide by the end of the year whether to offer the Latitude in the UK. The petition starts here...