The cancellation of the Retromobile show due to the Covid-19 pandemic deprived the general public of a superb retrospective of the Renault 4, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.
It's a shame: this popular car can be considered as the Boulonnaise firm's first “car to live”.
Pierre Dreyfus, the boss of Régie Renault, has a sense of the formula.
"Make me a volume," he
whispered to his director of the design office.
To discover
What responsibility at the wheel of an “autonomous car”?
Renault
Passionate about sociology, he saw the evolutions of society, in particular the rural exodus nourishing new mobility needs and the growing role of women.
We must invent a versatile car, for all uses: as comfortable in the city as in the countryside, weekdays and weekends.
A car that Dreyfus compares to blue jeans.
The Renault 4 must be in the image of this garment
"that you can wear in all circumstances if you have no pretension to snobbery and social conformism, which provides you with all the services, which is dragged along everywhere, which does not cost much, which can be replaced without feeling disoriented ”
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Attract a female clientele
Renault
Called project 350 in reference to its price, which must not exceed 350,000 francs, the R4 brings Renault into a modern era.
Underneath a hatchback silhouette, this popular vehicle is a traction drive powered by the 747cc of the 4 CV.
The flat floor offers a large load volume;
the two long torsion bars arranged one behind the other result in a difference in the wheelbase (+ 48 mm on the right).
Renault
To appeal to female customers, Renault lends to female drivers, in cooperation with a fashion magazine, vehicles dressed in an elegant "cannage" style, green or red.
This model joined the catalog in 1963 under the name “Parisienne”.
Also available as a van for professionals, the 4L will remain in the catalog for nearly thirty-two years.
More than 8 million copies will be produced during his career.
Hat!
Renault
