|
1981 Renault R5 (Le Car)
Firsts: 1st hatchback After I sold my R12 back to Brad, he turned around and sold me the Renault R5 that he had been driving. I paid him an even $1000 for it. The American marketing arm of Renault named this model the "Le Car," but Brad and I always referred to it by it's proper European title of R5. The R5 fit squarely into the econo-box paradigm, but it was really much more than that. For starters it had fully independent suspension with torsion bars rather than springs. It handled like a sports car, and except for a higher center of gravity I would say that it was better even than my MG. It's strongest suit was the way it handled rough roads. Even on dirt roads with big bumps and deep potholes, it could travel fast and remain very nimble. It shared the same ass-backwards front wheel drive configuration that my other French cars had. Shifting was even more squirrelly with this car than the R12 (but nothing surpasses the VW van). The R5 was the most "ordinary" car I'd driven to date, but I was very happy with it. It served as my daily transportation when I landed a full-time job in Syracuse, and proved to be perfectly reliable on my frequent road trips.
 That Winter, however, the odometer turned 60,000 miles and a lot of little things started going wrong. Although I had developed great appreciation for Renault design, I knew that this particular model had garnered a bad reputation and I expected that it would continue to give me more trouble as time went on. I decided to look for another car.
|
