What you didn’t know about Renault

 You would also see a number of the rear-engined R8 and R10 models mixing it with R6s and the advanced-for-its-time R16.

Later, the nifty if tinny R5 became a top-seller and it shared space with the droop-tailed and soft-riding R12 which in turn made way for the bigger R18 in various guises.
One way or another, you simply could not avoid seeing a product sourced from the “Regie”, but today, spotting a Renault is akin to finding a road without a pothole.
The underlying reason for the presence of so many of the French automobiles was local assembly rather than product preference and once this assembly ceased, few wished to spend their hard currency on an import.
I am advised that the R18 in particular was somewhat notorious for incurring a disproportionate number of warranty claims, but the reliability issue is not the reason for devoting space to this famous brand.
Of more relevance is the history of the brand and what prompted me to delve into the past was a comment from a reader who told me how much he enjoyed reading about the history of Mercedes-Benz in a Top Gear article of yore.
You see, Renault’s origins are not that different, and ironically, both share space on today’s F1 motor racing circuits.
The founder of the eponymously-named company was Louis Renault who was born in 1877 into a relatively wealthy family, resident in Paris.
Young Louis was not especially keen on his studies and in his early teens, he spent much time in the workshops of one Monsieur Serpollet who built steam cars.
The presence of a large garden shed at the family’s second Paris home lured Louis back because it was here that he tinkered with a Panhard engine and before the turn of the century, converted a DeDion cycle into a four-wheeled car complete with a new invention, the jointed propshaft, which carried power to the rear wheels via a revolutionary three-speed gear box, which also included reverse.
This system was patented by Renault in 1899 and marked the end of chain and belt drives.
The appearance of this car in the streets of Paris led to 12 firm orders being received and virtually forced Renault to build a factory, the funding of which, was shared with his two brothers.
The company, rather logically, was named Renault Freres and marked the birth of the giant organisation we know today.
Just like Ferdinand Porsche, the Renault brothers believed that motor racing sold cars, so the name appeared regularly in early French classics such as the Paris-Madrid road race, which claimed the life of Louis’ brother Marcel in 1903.
This tragedy led to the employment of “professional” drivers while the two surviving Renault brothers concentrated on expanding plant and production facilities, which were stretched to the limit in 1905 when the company received an order for 105 taxis.
By 1913, Renault employed 5200 workers who produced no less than 10 000 cars annually, many of which were equipped with trend-setting devices such as hydraulic shock absorbers, but the ingenuity did not stop there as the Renault name was also adorned on omnibuses, vans, generators and aircraft.
The outbreak of the Great War seriously affected normal production and in the aftermath of that war, the USA entered an era of consumerism and mass production, which made life more difficult for Renault, notwithstanding that four wheel brakes were introduced on larger car models and that 30 percent of production was now exported.
Even women were becoming mobile, but fierce competition with Citroen forced Renault into an era of self-sufficiency right down to foundries, forges and sawmills.
Interestingly, the company was also increasingly negatively affected by the application of “luxury” taxes. Sounds horribly familiar, does not it?
In 1925, the familiar diamond-shaped Renault badge appeared and the company continued to dominate all forms of mechanised transport, setting records on land, sea and air.
New factories were opened in Belgium and England and in 1927, an 8-cylinder Renault headed a range produced on mass production lines, which made the company a little less reliant on manual labour and the machinations of unions.
Not much could flourish in the face of the Great Depression that began in 1929 and stretched on towards World War 2 such that in 1936, Renault made its first loss and numerous strikes afflicted the assembly lines.
For the first time, Renault production fell behind that of Citroen and Peugeot. The German occupation of France further affected production and the small remaining work force had developed a deep mistrust of the increasingly merciless Louis Renault whose death in 1944 was followed by nationalisation of his factories the next year.
In a period of galloping inflation, the state ordered that Renault produce only trucks, but thanks to the intervention of resident engineer, Pierre Lefaucheux, permission was granted to manufacture a small 4 hp car, which bacame the backbone of the company and continued in production until 1961.
Five years earlier, the Dauphine, a model that was also very familiar on local roads, supplemented production of the evergreen 4 hp and within four years, more than one million units had left various Renault factories.
Quality problems then afflicted sales and the Regie was rescued by the introduction of the front wheel drive Renault 4 in September 1961, and then the rear-engined 8 the next year.
The truth is though, that Renault floundered in the 60s partly owing to under-capitalisation by the government.
The signing of a technical agreement with Peugeot helped reduce development costs and while the R16 model introduced many clever features, it was not until the 70s and the introduction of the Renault 5 and subsequently the 15 and 17 models, that Renault sales gained momentum.
The oil crisis of the mid-seventies then upset the applecart and Renault was forced into industrial diversification to keep its head above water.
Nonetheless, the company stretched its limited resources to breaking point by spending huge sums in the 80s on motor racing, an activity which, I do not believe has had the positive rub-off that the engineering prowess should have generated.
An earlier collaboration agreement with AMC floundered and the beginning of the Japanese invasion made things more difficult still as Europe’s car makers were forced by legislation to spend more money on addressing ecological issues.
This was a “tickover” period, but the next decade saw the introduction of the trend-setting Espace and the big-selling Clio as well as a merger of sorts with Volvo.
Most importantly, the company was privatised in 1996 and it continued to invest heavily and with great success in F1.
Months before the turn of the century, Renault bought into a floundering Nissan and sent the now well-known Carlos Ghosn to get the Japanese company on its feet, a mission he accomplished with marked success.
In the meantime, the oddly-named Koleos arrived on the scene and the mid-range Laguna was well-received in its home land. The hatchback with a bum, the Megane, also became a serious contender in this huge market sector, but other oddities such as the Vel Satis and the R25/30 did not find too many customers unlike the kinky Twingo which was well-established in the supermini category.
The combined resources of Nissan and Renault have created greater production efficiencies for both brands which are seen in all corners of the earth, but it would be remiss of me, given Louis Renault’s interest in commercial vehicles, not to mention how big the Renault name is in European trucking circles.
The founder would also be impressed with Renault’s continued involvement in many spheres of motorsport from feeder series right to the F1 level which saw a Renault-powered Fernando Alonso secure world titles in 2005 and 2006.
Closer to home, there is clear evidence of a greater interest in the South African market, but for now, a rather limited dealership network and a slightly dubious quality reputation mean that Renault has lots more work to do to upset the dominant duo of Toyota and Volkswagen.