Rusty But Trusty

Note: Found this unpublished article in my posts. So the ads may no longer be up, but an interesting read nonetheless.

To break the chain of Fiats, we’ve got a handful of interesting Renaults. Personally, I lean more towards the stuff they made in the 60s and 70s, but some of the 80s products were noteworthy, at least to a funny furrin’ car lover. And there are some real oddballs out there still… these cars came around at a point when Renault was already having a bumpy time of it in the US market.

This car was already featured on Just A Car Geek, but I still think it’s worth including in the group. With only 24,800 miles, it’s been parked with a blown head gasket since Bush Sr. was in office, so that engine will be locked up good and tight. On the bright side, even though its body is rust-free (or nearly so) and the red paint is shiny, nobody will be able to steal it. It even has a cool Webasto-style rollback sunroof. Pick it up for $1100 in Novi, MI.

Apparently little driving and much parking was a common fate for Fuegos to suffer. The press at the time panned them for their poor shift mechanism, soft handling, and turbo lag, although that last one can be kind of fun if you expect it. But they did have some interesting innovations – apparently they were the first with remote locking and the first to put a diesel engine in a sports coupe. That, and a design team lead by Robert Opron (who did the Citroen SM), still did not prevent this car from being parked most of its life. It’s only done 12,000 miles, and according to the seller, was bought new from the dealer (Really? What car wasn’t?). Much money has been invested in paint and drivetrain, so in theory, you should have a drivable car. It does appear to have a dent in the same rear quarter as the red car, which is odd if it’s got fresh paint. Buy it for $3000 in Creve Coeur (my French tells me that means Crush Heart… if that isn’t a warning sign!), MI, near St. Louis.

The third car in the grab bag is a Renault Medallion, which is the US-market version of the Renault 21. All the seller shares about this car is that it doesn’t run, and that it has an automatic transmission. Could it be that the two are related? It’s a shame, because these cars were real workhorses in France, so it’s hard to understand why they didn’t do as well here – maybe the additional luxury, emissions, and safety features required here asked more of the engineers than they could handle. Check it out in Portland, OR for a mere $300, with only 94,000 miles.

Lastly, here is a non-runner GTA, in Spokane, WA for $500. I’d normally avoid such a weak listing, but these cars are rare, as well as fun, and if all it needs is a fuel pump, it could be a good deal.

Tags: alliance, Feature, fuego, gta, medallion, renault, turbo, under $2000

This entry was posted on October 29, 2010 at 6:39 pm and is filed under Feature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.