The Renault 16:
... one of the first cars with a hatchback body style, that is, a car halfway between a saloon and an estate, and, before the term "hatchback" was coined, journalists struggled to describe it. A review in the English Motoring Illustrated in May 1965 stated: "The Renault Sixteen can thus be described as a large family car but one that is neither a four door saloon and nor is it quite an estate. But, importantly, it is a little different."Saloon = sedan. Estate = station wagon.
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I remember an earlier Renault model (we did not then pronounce it Ray-Know; it was Ray-Nawlt) that was well-known for having front seats that tilted back so as to create essentially a twin bed. The guy in my school who owned one did a pretty good business lending it out on weekends to guys who hoped to get REALLY lucky. I don't know if anyone did. I didn't.
I am not a robot.
I can't say I like that French model but I must like the hatchback form: My primary vehicle has always been a car of this type. The best hatchback, of mine and possibly of all time was the BMW 318ti. All are here
...neither a four door saloon and nor is it quite an estate...
In the US most saloons have only a front door, a back door, and possibly a side door (formerly known as the "lady's entrance").
Again, in the US most estates lack wheels and are not motor driven.
The US and Britain: Two nations divided by a common language. -Oscar Wilde?
I had a 1968 Ford Country Squire station wagon. Great car. The Carter era idiots killed them off with convertibles. Now we have SUVs instead.
I like hatchbacks. Our current car is a Saab 9-3.
Manual transmission, 'natch.
It isn't the first hatchback.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_4
This was also a hatchback.
My Dad had one for a while.
Hey, my first car! It carried three people, a string bass, mandolin, violin, two guitars, a banjo, two Bose 800s, a Yamaha PA head, assorted microphone stands and such, along with personal luggage around New England in the 1970s. But it wasn't really large, and it had weak transaxles. The seats were quite comfortable and it was good in the snow. Oh, the memories.
Renaults, MGs, Triumphs, and Fiats were great for teaching you how to do your own maintenance when you were too young and too impecunious to afford to take it a garage every couple weeks.
Do you know how many hours it could chew up to balance a pair of SU carbs on an TR3?
Reliable those cars were not. But they were great for an education in the difference between metric wrenches, Whitworth, and US, and how to gap plugs and set timing. Also how to remove a rounded bolt when the previous owner used US wrenches on a foreign car.
Good times.
Not.
Good post dbp. I have a pic next to my first car, a 1978 Datsun B210 hatchback. Great summer memories and then a year at college driving that one. No more hatchbacks until the current Lexus SUV, another Japanese hatchback that won't quit. I am certain it will go to school with one of the kids in a few years. Graet for hauling stuff.
You know...the TESLA Model S and Model D are both hatchbacks.....
There is a saying: "Nobody copies the French, and the French copy nobody."
I guess even a blind squirrel....
My first car, but mine was green. It was also an early front-wheel drive car of the modern era. In many ways it was a great car, but the front axles didn't last (early front-wheel drive issues) and you had to learn how to do brake work because it certainly needed a lot.
My R16 scared my local garage so much that they reversed two plug wires at the distributor cap. They had no idea what they'd done wrong, and I drove home on two cylinders. I was not particularly car savvy at the time, but was able to figure it out mostly by reading. I did go back and show them what they did but the reaction was mostly "G.D. foreign cars". It was one of the first times that I experienced the thrill of fixing something oneself, a thrill that hasn't abated over the years, just like another thrill that comes to mind.
I hate "one of the first". The "first" is unique, is it not, a superlative; there cannot be two that are first. One has to be second.
And if it was Renault, did it actually start and run?
It started and ran great. It got amazing gas mileage for the time (35+ mpg on the highway). Mine lived in Chicago and it might have had a problem today, but temps down to 10 were not a problem.
It was 50 years ago today
when they brought the hatch back our way
only people that are in the know
know how to pronounce Renault
So may I introduce
the car you've know for all these years
Midway between a station wagon and sedan.
Sorry can't resist. Every time I hear that "it was x years ago today" I have to turn it into a song to the tune of Sgt Pepper.
I learned to drive in 1972 in my Dad's Renault 12 wagon, which was new at the time. Crappy gearshift, but everything else was pretty cool. It was light blue.
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