The
Renault Alliance is a subcompact automobile that was built and marketed in North America by the American Motors Corporation (AMC) through its partnership with its majority owner
RenaultRenault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, buses, tractors, and trucks. Due to its alliance with Nissan, it is currently the world's fourth largest automaker. Headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Renault owns the Romanian automaker Automobile Dacia and the Korean automaker Renault...
between 1982 and 1987, when the Chrysler Corporation acquired AMC. The Alliance was based upon the Renault 9 & 11, but received its interior styling courtesy of AMC's Richard Teague. The Alliance was joined in the 1984 model year by the
Renault Encore hatchback, which shared many of its components with the Alliance.
History
Relentless competition from the "Big Three," new safety regulations and two energy crises in 1973-74 and again in 1979, left American Motors in a weak position in the U.S. marketplace. The company had three product lines: a generally profitable line of government vehicles;
JeepJeep is an automobile marque of Chrysler. It is the oldest off-road vehicle brand, with Land Rover coming in second. The original vehicle which first appeared as the prototype Bantam BRC became the primary light 4-wheel-drive vehicle of the US Army and allies during the World War II and postwar...
s, which sold well and at high margins when consumers were not overly concerned about fuel efficiency; and passenger cars, which appealed mostly to price-sensitive buyers. However, when the bottom dropped out of the market in 1979 and all of the U.S. automakers saw sales plummet, it was AMC which faltered first.
That year, AMC signed an agreement with Renault of France giving that company a share in AMC's ownership, in exchange for the rights to sell Renault cars in the U.S. Later, Renault acquired a controlling interest, and thus was born what some were quick to call "Franco-American Motors." With the
United States dollarThe United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
then relatively weak against the
French francThe franc was a former currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...
, manufacturing in the U.S. seemed the best way to grow especially since fuel prices were rising and the major U.S. carmakers had yet to bring out large numbers of small, fuel-efficient cars. Renault's thrifty, front-wheel-drive models looked like sure winners in the U.S. market and the partnership with AMC gave Renault a ready-made manufacturing base and dealer network.
The Renault 9 was voted the 1982 European Car of the Year and it quickly became France's most popular car and Renault's best selling model ever, so the car already had a well established track record. Renault executives came in to run things alongside AMC officials, and the old
NashAlso see: Kelvinator and American Motors CorporationNash Motors was an automobile manufacturer based in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the United States from 1916 to 1938. From 1938 to 1954, Nash was the automotive division of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation...
factory in
Kenosha, WisconsinKenosha is a city in and the county seat of Kenosha County, United States. The city motto is "Great Town - Great People - Great Lake". With an estimated 2006 population of 96,240, Kenosha is the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. The city lies on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, south of...
was retooled to produce an Americanized version of the European Renault 9 subcompact, which was aptly renamed Alliance. Market research found that consumers preferred the Renault name over AMC, but not strongly; thus the model was christened the Renault Alliance, with the AMC name relegated to a small sticker and to the tail end of the advertising materials. The cars were aimed at the lowest price range in the U.S. market, the Alliance had a sticker price starting at US$5,995.
Production
The Alliance was a 2- or 4-door sedan, launched in June 1982 as a 1983 model. Although it was branded as a Renault, the car bore AMC's logo on rear window decals. The Alliance appeared on
Car and DriverCar and Driver is an American automotive enthusiast magazine. Its total circulation is 1.31 million. It is owned by Hachette Filipacchi Magazines. Originally headquartered in New York City, the magazine has been based in Ann Arbor, Michigan since the late 1970s.-History:Car and Driver was founded...
s Ten Best listCar and Driver magazine annually nominates a list of what it considers the Ten Best cars and Five Best trucks.All production vehicles for sale in that calendar year are considered with these restrictions:# The vehicle must be on sale by January...
for 1983 and was the 1983 Motor TrendMotor Trend is an automobile magazine. It first appeared in September 1949, issued by Petersen Publishing Company in Los Angeles, and bearing the tag line The Magazine for a Motoring World. Petersen Publishing was sold to British publisher EMAP in 1998, who sold the former Petersen magazines to...
Car of the YearIn the USA, Motor Trend magazine was the first to give a Car of the Year award, doing so to Cadillac in 1949 . It has since expanded the award category to include the Truck and SUV of the Year, awarding these separately from the Car of the Year...
. The Alliance seemed just what the doctor ordered for AMC: modern front-drive sedans with a overall length on a
wheelbaseIn both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels.- Road :In automobiles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the center of the front wheel, and the center of the rear wheel...
and a thrifty, transverse
four-cylinderThe inline-four engine or straight-four engine is a four-cylinder internal combustion engine with all four cylinders mounted in a straight line, or plane along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a...
engine. The Alliance had a long list of standard equipment and got in city driving. Fuel economy on the highway with the 5-speed manual transmission approached . It was a sensible car for a post-oil crisis period in which good fuel economy was highly prized.
The Alliance was slightly smaller on the outside than the competing first generation Ford Escort (North America), but a somewhat bigger on the inside where it looked larger and more inviting.
Interior space was good for four or occasionally five people, in part due to a cleverly engineered front seat that was mounted pedestal fashion on a wide central frame that allowed rear passengers to slide their feet under the front seat, and in addition to the usual recline and fore-and-aft movements, the upscale DL
models got a curved track that allowed the seat to be adjusted in a "rocking" motion to find the most comfortable position for driver and passenger.
The Alliance sold well with over 142,000 of the debut 1983 models. Bolstered by two- and four-door hatchback derivatives called Encore, sales zoomed to over 208,000 the following year. However, the cars came out just in time to encounter a sag in the small-car market because as fuel prices fell, consumers began to drift away to larger automobiles, leaving the Renault-based models to scramble against low-priced
Chevrolet ChevetteThe Chevrolet Chevette was introduced in September, 1975 and produced for the 1976 through 1987 model years. It is Chevrolet's version of GM's worldwide T platform which was also sold as the Vauxhall Chevette, Opel Kadett, Isuzu Gemini and the Holden Gemini, among others.-History:The T-car was...
s, Ford Escorts, and the
Dodge OmniThe Dodge Omni and the similar Plymouth Horizon were front wheel drive cars introduced by the Dodge and Plymouth divisions of Chrysler Corporation in North America in 1978, and were based on a European Simca-based design of the same name...
and Plymouth Horizon twins, as well as a slew of Japanese imports. This meant that total sales fell to 150,000 for 1985, then to 65,000 in 1986, and finally to only some 35,000 in 1987.
In addition to the sedan, the Alliance was offered as a
convertibleA convertible is a type of automobile in which the roof can retract and fold away, converting it from an enclosed to an open-air vehicle. Many different automobile body styles are manufactured and marketed in convertible form....
(Kenosha's first droptops since the 1968
Rebels}The AMC Rebel is a mid-size car produced by American Motors Corporation from 1967 to 1970. It replaced the Rambler Classic...
) between 1985 and 1987. In the 1987 model year, the Encore, the shortened Alliance-based
hatchbackHatchback is a term designating an automobile design, containing a passenger cabin with an integrated cargo space, accessed from behind the vehicle by a single, top-hinged tailgate or large flip-up window...
, was renamed the Alliance hatchback.
For the final 1987 model year, a limited production, high performance version of the Alliance was marketed as the
Renault GTAThe Renault GTA was a performance version of the Renault Alliance vehicle line, a U.S. market subcompact car that was based on France's most popular car and Renault's best selling model ever.. It was manufactured by American Motors Corporation in the U.S...
. It came in 2-door sedan or convertible form and had a 2.0 L engine. The GTA was an entry in the expanding "souped-up" or "hot-car" market segment as the price of gasoline decreased, and the two top models served as last-ditch sales boosters for the economical Alliance line.
The Alliance used Renault supplied
OHVAn overhead valve engine, also informally called pushrod engine or I-head engine, is a type of piston engine that places the camshaft within the cylinder block , and uses pushrods or rods to actuate rocker arms above the cylinder...
engineAn engine is a machine that produces mechanical force and motion from another form of energy . It is also referred to as a prime mover. An automobile makes use of several motors to start the car and drive the car's various pumps – but the power plant that propels the car is called an engine...
in 1.4 L and an OHC 1.7 L engine with Renix throttle-body fuel injection from the Renault Le Car. The proven four-cylinder was now dressed in the latest electronics boasting an electronically controlled fuel system, a digital ignition system, and a microprocessor to manage the optional three-speed automatic transmission. California emissions standards required the use of port injection. Power went through either a four-or five-speed
manualA manual transmission, or manual gearbox is a type of transmission used in motor vehicle applications...
, or a three-speed
automaticAn automatic transmission is an automobile gearbox that can change gear ratios automatically as the vehicle moves, freeing the driver from having to shift gears manually...
transaxle. The base engine produced to get the Alliance from
0 to 60 mphThe time it takes to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph is a commonly used performance measure for automotive acceleration in the United States and the United Kingdom. In the rest of the world 0 to 100 km/h is used, and it takes about 0.1 or 0.2 seconds longer to reach 62 mph, than it does to...
in a leisurely 14.3 seconds, and gave it an top speed. Steering was
rack and pinionA rack and pinion is a pair of gears which convert rotational motion into linear motion. The circular pinion engages teeth on a flat bar - the rack...
. Suspension was fully independent via
MacPherson strutThe MacPherson strut is a type of car suspension system which uses the axis of a telescopic damper as the upper steering pivot, widely used in modern vehicles and named after Earle S. MacPherson who developed the design, based in part on designs created by Guido Fornaca of FIAT in the mid-1920s...
s in front, and a compact and quite ingenious system of transverse
torsion barsthumb|250px|A front [[VW beetle]] suspension crossectionA torsion bar suspension, also known as a torsion spring suspension or incorrectly torsion beam, is a general term for any vehicle suspension that uses a torsion bar as its main weight bearing spring...
and
trailing armthumb|220px|Trailing arm rear suspension of [[Front-engine, front-wheel drive layout|FF]] carsA trailing-arm suspension is an automobile suspension design in which one or more arms are connected between the axle and the chassis. It is usually used on rear axles...
s at the rear. At just under for the base model, the Alliance was the also the lightest car assembled in the U.S. in its time.
Reliability
Mechanical problems and indifferent workmanship were as evident on the cars built in Kenosha, as on French-built Renaults. The 1986 Consumer Reports "Annual Auto Issue" surveyed owners after five years of ownership. The 1983 Renault Alliance scored with low ratings in "engine", "clutch", "driveline", "engine cooling", "suspension", "exhaust system", "automatic transmission", and "manual transmission" categories. A
Car TalkCar Talk is a radio talk show broadcast weekly on National Public Radio stations throughout the United States and elsewhere. Its subjects are automobiles and repair, and it often takes humorous turns...
survey with a total of 55 respondents, indicated low ratings, but many praised the fuel efficiency of their cars.
Legacy
While initial sales were promising, these concerns hurt sales. AMC's declining profit picture, combined with Renault's concerns with declining sales, hurt the Alliance's chances in the American market.
The Alliance afforded AMC the opportunity to field a new compact car without the expense of its design and tooling, still the alliance with Renault exacted a heavy price on AMC, which was required to shed its profitable
AM GeneralAM General is an American heavy vehicle manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, best known for the civilian Hummer and military HMMWV.-Corporate history:...
line of commercial and military vehicles because of U.S. Government regulations prohibiting foreign companies from owning domestic military suppliers.
Alliance production at the Kenosha plant ended in June 1987, shortly after Chrysler's buyout of AMC was announced. The damaged reputation of the Alliance would also affect attempts to launch other Renault cars, including the brief appearance of the Renault Medallion, and
Eagle PremierThe Eagle Premier is an automobile developed by the American Motors Corporation and Renault partnership. The model was inherited by Chrysler Corporation when it acquired AMC in 1987. It was sold from the 1988 through 1992 model years...
(the latter which would be the basis for the successful
Chrysler LH platformThe LH platform served as the basis for the Chrysler Concorde, Chrysler 300M, Dodge Intrepid, Eagle Vision, and other models. The platform pioneered Daimler Chrysler 's "cab-forward" design; featured on several Chrysler, Dodge, Eagle, and Plymouth cars in the 1990's and early 2000's.- Development...
-based automobiles).
The Alliance provided many donor parts (engine and suspension) for the
Sports Renault race car, a single make series created by the
Sports Car Club of AmericaThe Sports Car Club of America is a club and sanctioning body supporting road racing, rally, and autocross in the United States and was formed in 1944...
in 1984. Designed by
Roy LunnRoy Lunn is an engineer in the automotive industry. He has forty-one years in the design development and production of vehicles and most notably served as the head of engineering at American Motors Corporation from 1971 to 1987....
, it was a low-cost purpose-built racer. The car was developed and manufactured by Renault/Jeep Sport USA in
Livonia, MichiganLivonia is a city in the northwest part of Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Livonia is a very large suburb with an array of traditional neighborhoods connected to the metropolitan area by freeways. The population was 100,545 at the 2000 census...
under direction of
Vic ElfordVictor Henry Elford is a former sportscar racing, rallying and Formula One driver from England. He participated in 13 World Championship F1 Grands Prix, debuting on 7 July 1968...
, with more than five-hundred were built. Most cars still exist, although the majority have been converted to use a Ford engine (thus now known as
Spec Racer FordSpec Racer Ford is a class of racing car used in Sports Car Club of America road racing events. The Spec Racer Ford, manufactured and marketed by SCCA Enterprises is a high performance, closed wheel, open cockpit, purpose-built race car intended for paved road courses, such as Mazda Raceway...
s), and run in the SCCA club racing program.
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