Renault Laguna Coupe concept

By Tim Pollard Motor Shows 10 September 2007 10:11 Renault Laguna Coupé Concept: the lowdown Critics of the new dull-looking new Laguna - and there have been a few - can seek solace in the new two-door coupé version unveiled today in Frankfurt. It's a far sleeker affair, although a concept. And we all know what happens to sexy concepts before they reach the high street.

Zaha Hadid Z-car concept

Zaha Hadid is an Iraq-born and London-based architect, who became the first female recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004. Her ambitious buildings have earned her much acclaim, and having designed the latest BMW factory, Hadid has now turned her sights on cars with the unveiling of the Z-car concept. Not to be confused with the similarly titled Nissan/Datsun, Hadid?s Z-car is a small plastic-bodied monocoque with a prominent lifting door.

Driven: Volkswagen Golf Mk7

Walking up to the seventh-generation VW Golf, redesigned flip key in hand, you're in no doubt that this is a) new or – perhaps more importantly – b) a Golf. It's the "200 meter test" lead exterior designer, Andreas Mindt tells us and, while we're suspicious of the idea of self-conscious ‘iconic design', you have to concede he's right. In fact the Mk7 Golf's pared-back graphics and a return to a true two-box proportion create a more accurate vision of what we imagine when we think ‘Volkswagen Golf' than either of its two most recent predecessors.