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Renault 14
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The Renault 14 is a small family car produced by the French manufacturer Renault between 1976 and 1983.
Featuring front wheel drive, the 14 was developed as a competitor in the small family car segment, which had been opened up by the Volkswagen Golf. Initially, the 14 was available in L and TL trim levels with a 1.2 L single overhead camshaft engine sourced from Peugeot; later 1.4 L versions with (R14 GTL) or (R14 TS) joined the line-up.
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Encyclopedia
The Renault 14 is a small family car produced by the French manufacturer Renault between 1976 and 1983.
Featuring front wheel drive, the 14 was developed as a competitor in the small family car segment, which had been opened up by the Volkswagen Golf. Initially, the 14 was available in L and TL trim levels with a 1.2 L single overhead camshaft engine sourced from Peugeot; later 1.4 L versions with (R14 GTL) or (R14 TS) joined the line-up. The design was generally well thought out and practical with interior space a major selling point, including a rear seat that could either be folded or removed completely. In addition, the spare wheel was carried at the front, under the bonnet and above the transverse 4-cylinder engine that was inclined backwards by 72°.
Things got off to a bad start with a disastrous advertising campaign that compared the 14 to the shape of a pear. A preview at Paris' Pompidou Centre as a bare bodyshell did little to win it customers. The car would later gain a reputation for premature body corrosion which saw the 14 being dubbed as the "rotten pear" by the motoring press. In France, "La poire" (literally "the pear", but also slang for "gullible") still refers to the 14.
The car also had a reputation for being difficult to start in damp conditions. The siting of the temperature gauge on the transmission tunnel behind the gear-lever, rather than on the instrument panel where it was directly in the driver's field of view, led to incidents of engine damage if the engine overheated and the driver failed to notice.
Renault later attempted to enhance the car's appeal by relaunching it with improved equipment levels, but the damage was done and the production run ended in 1983 with around one million units sold over a period of just under seven years. The 14 is now a rare sight on the roads of Europe, even in its home country of France where they have tended to last longer than elsewhere due mainly to easy parts availability through the extensive dealer network.
Its joint successors, the 9 and 11 appeared in 1982 and early 1983, respectively.
Timeline
- 1976 - R14 launched (L and TL), with 1.2 litre engine on all models.
- 1979 - TS specification launched with 1.2 litre engine. R14 L and R14 TL rebadged R14 and R14 GTL.
- 1980 - New 1.4 litre engine for the R14 TS and new LS specification.
- 1982 - GTL specification given new 1.4 litre engine (different unit from 1.4 on TS and LS).
- 1983 - Production of the R14 ends, the car is replaced by the Renault 9/11.
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