Sold as the Renault 11 in the rest of the world, the Renault Encore was introduced in 1984 to compete with other hatchbacks like the VW Golf, Ford Escort, and Chevrolet Chevette. While there were over 600,000 Alliances and Encores sold from 1983-1987, very few remain since they were budget cars. Of those, very few Encores remain, to the extent this seems to be the first one available for purchase in several years. You can find this 39,000-mile 1985 Renault Encore with bidding at $1526 and about one day left to go in San Luis Obispo, CA.
It’s amazing, this truly does look spotless, and the California blue license plates mean it’s probably been there since new. The seller has done much work to bring the car back to reliable driver status, including replacing radiator, hoses, thermostat, spark plugs, oil and transmission fluid, and new shocks and hatch shocks. He does not mention brake work, so that’s worthy of investigation, and the car also needs a new headliner and repair to the inaccurate speedometer. The seller says the tires have good tread on them, but make sure they’re also fairly recent, not hard and cracked.
Where the Renault 9/Alliance was simply bland and boxy looking, the bubble-like rear hatch on the 11/Encore gives a bit more of a distinctive look. Outward visibility must be pretty good for a hatchback – normally, wide C-pillars make it hard to see motorcycles over your shoulder. Everything looks straight from this perspective as well.
Looks like the interior of a 3-year-old car! French cars are known for having comfortable seats, and this is hopefully one area they did not change for the American market. Unfortunately, they went out of their way to accommodate the American market by adding air conditioning and a 3-speed automatic transmission, which must make this car dog slow.
The engine compartment is also very tidy, and you can see an Optima gel-cell battery hiding in the background, suggesting the seller didn’t cheap out on anything. So will the rarity win you over? At this point, only the 4-door version of this car could out-oddball you. Perhaps a donor GTA would make this car more exciting, and on that note, if you need more power and 1980s flash, keep your eyes on this site for another French choice.
Lastly, here’s a period advertisement to help you pitch the car to your financial partner. It’s a safe bet to assume you can get this for much less than $5755:
Tags: 11, encore, Feature, french, hatch, hatchback, renault, under $2000
Rusty But Trusty 
April 22, 2015 at 5:17 pm |
Nice example of a low mileage Encore. Too bad it is the “stripper” base model. Wow, not many amenities on this one. Back in the day, I bought a brand new 1985 LS 3 door. Not many options on it except tinted glass, cruise control and the “Mica Red” metallic paint. I got some nice comments on the beautiful color. But then again, the LS models were well equipped by 1980’s standards anyways. The Kenosha build quality was less than stellar, and they used some rather cheap materials in them. Although it was never fast from 0-60, the 5 speed transmission excelled in fuel economy, about 30-34 MPG in town and up to 50…yes 50 MPG on the highway. The thing was geared very tall. But you could really wind it up and the engine seemed to be happy with that. One day I wanted to see how fast it could go. So I kept it in fourth gear and buried the speedometer needle at the stopper at 85 MPH. And it still had a lot more to go before it would be at red line. Unfortunately it met it’s end when I bagged a 12- pointer with it one night. I kept good care of it and that was kind of a waste of a fine piece of machinery. It was 16 years old then, with 134,000 miles, and it still did not use a drop of oil between changes.