Picking our favorite wagon of the exhibit proved to be more
difficult than we anticipated; they were all spectacular in their own way. But
our wandering eye kept roaming back to this rarely seen 1981 Renault 18i, also
known as a Sportwagon.
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| Photo: REVolution |
For a car that few have noticed on the street, much less actually
driven, there were reportedly 3,000 sold in the United States from 1981 through
1986 via AMC dealers. A hugely popular car in other parts of the world, the 18i
station wagon (and sedan) was not much more than an update to the R12 and
featured an underpowered fuel injected 82 hp 1.6 liter engine matched to a
notoriously problematic ZF automatic transmission.
According to owners, while the soft but grippy handling was
French fantastic and fuel economy outstanding, the build quality was a step
behind and small but irritating problems would constantly pop up to drive them
crazy. Despite all of these typical qualities seemingly inherent in cars of
that nationality, critics felt that they weren’t French enough!
Like so many cars from overseas, the 18i/Sportwagon suffered
from the American federalization process, with larger, heavier bumpers, and
strangling emission controls. It our opinion that this absolutely (the pictures
don’t do it justice) fantastic example in the AACA Museum’s exhibit might have
been repainted or this is a special order as the cars were supposedly shipped
two-tone paint. The wheels on this car are not original, either; hubcaps were
standard. Note the tow hitch on this car. We wonder how many times that was
used to pull a trailer. Those are probably some custom pinstripes, too.
Sorry about the terrible video quality. We couldn't find much of an option featuring the wagon. GM-style, the final year was the best for this car, when a
2.2 liter engine was standard. The car was succeeded by the Eagle Medallion,
the rebadged and redesigned Renault 21. In 1986, the last year you could buy a
Renault-badged car in here, a Sportwagon had a base MSRP of $10,199 and weighed
only 2,579 pounds. For comparison, a 1986 Peugeot 505 GL wagon carried a
$13,185 base MSRP (that went up quickly), weighed 3,120 pounds and had 96 hp.
In the future, we’ll attempt to feature an example of the
cars from the AACA Museum’s station wagon exhibit for sale here in the States.
We were unable to locate an 18i for sale, much less a Sportwagon. They do crop
up, just very rarely.
Interesting wagon. I never drove one, but I generally prefer Peugeots to Renaults, so a 505 wagon would have been more my speed. Your comment on the trailer hitch hit a sore spot for me. Small-engined cars are perfectly suitable for pulling light utility trailers, or small sailboats, for example. The presence of a trailer hitch does not necessarily mean the car has been overtaxed and abused. I always have at least one 2-litre-class car with a hitch in my fleet.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Bobinott and I didn't mean to imply that having a hitch was a bad thing, just interesting. It seemed a tad incongruous with this particular car. Though, why not? It's not a bad idea; towing a small trailer.
ReplyDeletePeople overseas seem to be more willing to tow light loads than here in the States, where we think we need a semi truck for that sort of thing.