I SAW A RENAULT, IN AMERICA!!!

"Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man" (jordaneer1)
10/08/2014 at 11:57 • Filed to: car spotting, renault

In a land of japanese beigeness and american blah, there is a little slice of frenchness

So I was driving to go get gas and as I was driving I saw a car I hadn't seen before, and as I drive past I saw it was a Renault, This is the first one I've ever seen.

Its a Fuego, I know very little about french cars so I can't tell you the year or the generation, other than it has a 1.6 liter engine (because it said so on the side. Maybe you can tell me a little bit more about it.

DISCUSSION (13)

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
10/08/2014 at 12:03

A shame they didn't sell. I wonder if lowering the price point by assembling in Kenosha like the Alliance would have helped.

ACESandEIGHTS > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
10/08/2014 at 12:04

Hehe, you saw the Fuego, which—unlike the Encore and Alliance—was actually built by Renault in Europe. Or South America. Kinda cool looking for a car I'd completely forgotten about.

Almost looks like a French tricolor on the lower left next to the plate. Nice spot, btw.

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > ACESandEIGHTS
10/08/2014 at 12:08

I wasn't even looking for it, and if you look in the bottom picture up above the car, that was the gas station I was going to, but I came from the other way. I pulled off into the grocery store parking lot to snap a few pictures, so it was kind of out of the way. I just happened to see that is said renault and it made me pull over because I have never seen any renaults in my life.

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/08/2014 at 12:09

I haven't a clue. I know very little about them other than they are fairly uncommon, as all french cars in the US are.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
10/08/2014 at 12:11

They were sold by AMC, and were a more modern car than just about anything on the road... but they couldn't get enough people to buy them. Based on the Renault 15. The Alliance, on the other hand, was based on the 11, assembled by AMC in Kenosha, WI, and at least for a while, sold like hotcakes.

EL_ULY > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
10/08/2014 at 12:19

LOL, come to Mexico. French cars everywhere!!! Now that is real beige.

twochevrons > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/08/2014 at 12:19

a more modern car than just about anything on the road

I'm pretty sure that they were the first cars to come with remote-operated central locking. They used a really weird system that used IR, instead of radio waves – like a TV remote control. Not bad for an early effort, but French manufacturers kept on using it for a long time after everybody else started using RF remotes (PSA and Renault both used it at least until the mid-'90s). Since it depended on having a clear line of sight through to the receiver (usually located in the dome light), it was a pain to use – it only really worked if you carefully aimed it through the windows, and was utterly useless unless you were actually standing next to the car anyway.

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > EL_ULY
10/08/2014 at 12:21

Don't you live in texas?

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > twochevrons
10/08/2014 at 12:23

hmm, I thought it was bad when my car wouldn't unlock with the remote from 30 ft away, but that is kind of weird to make it so you have to be standing right next to the car to unlock it.

EL_ULY > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
10/08/2014 at 12:25

yup, common to see a Renault or Peugeot running around with mex plates every now and then.

There was a world record attempt in Mexico DF last weekend in the city central consisting of a buuuunch of classic cars. My wife went and took pictures and video. Sooo many awesome old school cars from all over the world. One picture she sent me had an old FWD Auto Union and a 70's Boss 302. i'll post them once she edits the videos down.

Textured Soy Protein > twochevrons
10/08/2014 at 12:35

My dad's old early-'97 Mercedes E420 had an infrared remote. The receiver was a little nubbin on the bottom of the rearview mirror and you had to aim the remote at the car just right . Mercedes switched to RF remotes in I think '98.

twochevrons > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
10/08/2014 at 12:59

From a security standpoint, IR has benefits – because the signal is being broadcast in a controlled beam, rather than in all directions, it's much less likely that it will be recorded and used in a replay attack – but in terms of practicality, it's pretty terrible.

Still, it was better than nothing, and the Citroën Xantia that I used to own had that system with a folding key. Pretty cool for a 1993 car!

Kinja'd!!!

twochevrons > Textured Soy Protein
10/08/2014 at 13:00

Interesting – I think that the system was made my one of the French OEMs (Valeo, maybe?). I wonder if MB ended up using the same one.

Citroën's implementation placed the receiver nubbin (technical terms there) on the ceiling, between the map lights. Infuriatingly, that meant that if you were approaching the car from the front, the rear view mirror completely blocked the beam.