One of our readers, Mohamad, pointed us to this thread on nissan-arabia.com, showing local photos of the GCC-spec Renault “mystery sedan” that we exposed some time ago. It looks like the new sedan will revive the Renault Safrane nameplate for this Japanese-designed Korean-built French-badged car.
The original Renault Safrane from the 1990s was a weird midsize car with a liftback body that never caught on in the GCC, and quietly disappeared even in Europe. As reported earlier, this new model is a rebadged version of the Korean-market Samsung SM5, which itself is a facelifted version of the Japanese-market Nissan Teana, which again is based on the Nissan Altima platform.
It looks like the “new” Renault Safrane will only be available in the GCC, with a 170-hp 2.3-litre V6 mated to a front-driven platform and automatic gearbox, and outfitted with entry-level luxury equipment.