In A Barn Since 1997: 1983 Renault Le Car
I wonder how many Renaults are hiding away in barns? In France, probably quite a few but in the U.S., I would guess not that many compared to American vehicles. This seemingly well-preserved barn find is a 1983 Renault Le Car and it’s posted here on craigslist in beautiful Agoura Hills, California. The seller is asking $5,900 or best offer, here is the original listing, and thanks to T.J. for the tip!
“In order to fully appreciate the Renault Le Car, let’s state the obvious first so we can on with the things that separate it from every other car in its class. Yes…it does carry one of the lowest sticker prices in America. Yes…it is extremely efficient with EPA estimates that are bound to increase your smiles per mile.” So says a 1983 Le Car brochure. This was a unique design, I wish car companies took risks these days on design rather than making everything look angry and aggressive.
This car appears to be in amazing condition inside and out and it’s hard to argue with this color combo in my world, the red stripes on the bottom of each side go well with the red interior. The Renault Le Car was more formally known as the Renault 5, or R5, in some other markets, but was called the R5 in its original North American year of 1976. Their marketing department changed the name to Le Car the following year, hoping to spur more sales and it seemed to work. With 250 dealerships in the U.S., it wouldn’t be until the company’s partnership with AMC in 1979 that they could take advantage of their 1,300 dealerships.
They were fun little cars to drive, at least when compared to a Dodge Van. This is a repeat, but my dad had company cars and after years of Chevy Bel Airs, they gave him two successive Ford Pintos. The next in line was a Renault Le Car as seen here in a winter photo. Now that was a change, especially for our town. The interior of this Le Car looks great overall, but we don’t get to see the back seat or the rear cargo area. Not to mention any underside photos.
Worst of all, but not surprising at all for a craigslist ad, there are no engine photos. I know. There are four photos of paperwork and even one photo of an ad, but no engine photo. You can see the issue with the “check fabric trimmed” front bucket seats, but that’s an easy fix. The engine is a Renault 1.4-liter OHV inline-four with 51 horsepower and 70 lb-ft of torque, which sends power through a four-speed manual to the front wheels. The seller says that it runs and drives well but it needs a new clutch. A new one is included, so that’s great. They also say that after finding this car, which had been parked in a barn since 1997, it has a new gas tank, new sending unit, new fuel lines, and a new battery. Have any of you owned a Le Car?
Auctions Ending Soon
1965 Ford Falcon Station WagonBid Now2 days$2,300
2002 Jaguar XK8 ConvertibleBid Now3 days$4,250
1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28Bid Now4 days$4,500
1960 Dodge D300Bid Now4 days$300
2006 Ford Mustang Saleen S281 SCBid Now6 days$100
Comments
I’ve owned three R5/LeCars, Scotty. My ex-wife owned one as well.
I really liked them. They were reliable (yes, really), economical, fun to drive and easy to service. I put over 100,000 miles on my first one, with nothing major going wrong. R5s rode better than any other small cars I drove, and the giant fabric sunroof was wonderful.
Worst thing about LeCars — ALL Renaults, to be honest — was the parts situation, which went from “poor” in the mid and late ’70s to “abysmal” by the ’80s. I was eventually forced into pulling parts of every R5 I could find in the Pick-Your-Part yards, and there were, sadly, plenty of them.
One of mine had the Europe-only 93-horsepower “Alpine” engine, installed by the previous owner. It was enormous fun to drive, at least until the aluminum cylinder head cracked (I understood that wasn’t terribly uncommon).
I’d be a little bit tempted, but not at that price. It’s more than I paid for all three of mine, including the one I bought new.
I agree and I think the seller must think the little LeCar has aged like fine wine and therefore commands a high price. Even if they repaired the clutch they are still commanding unrealistic expectations.
RayT if i had a dollar for every guy ive seen claiming to own 3 LeCars and put over 100K miles on the first one with no issues, i’d now have a dollar. 🤣 Seriously though, there cant be many of you. Fun comment to read. My brother’s girlfriend had one in the late 70s and he claimed “its really not a bad little car!” I mean it was the late 70s so expectstions were low…
Decent wee motors, but they’re designed to be thrashed, not poddled along.
If you have one, gie it beans! They go much better…
My first job was as a lot boy for a Renault dealer. Graduated to mechanics helper and ond day I was installing an antenna which mounted on the left rear quarter panel. The instructions said to drill a small hole for the upper mount and a larger hole for the lower mount. I accidentally reversed the hole sizes. Oops. The engine and transmission configuration is reversed so if you need to replace the timing chain without removing the engine you remove the radio and cut a hole in the fire wall. But these little cars are great and a joy to drive.
Interesting approach. I drove four of these (still have two in service today) beyond 100 kmiles each and never had to replace the timing chain. This engine is quasi indestructible unless you play stupid with it.
Has it already been 27 yrs?!!! Dang i’m getting old 😂
Nope just me?
I was a salesman for an AMC/Nissan dealer when AMC started selling these. We didn’t have much demand for them, but it probably didn’t help that we had Nissans to sell. I did drive one for a demo. It broke down on the interstate the second night I drove it. Something electrical if I recall correctly.
I was broke in 1988, and suddenly without a car – my beater expired. A local Olds dealer had a used Le Car for sale…$300, IIRC. Don’t remember the year, but it was probably about a 1982.
It was advertised in the paper, and when I showed up, of course, they didn’t hustle their senior sales leader out to work with me. I got a young man, probably his first month or so as a salesman. Suit and tie, all clean and new.
We go out to the object of my interest. He had never sat in the thing before. He let me drive it…and backing out of the space and turning onto the street led us to a wide variety of interesting noises.
Coming up on the first red light, I apply the brakes – and there’s a cacophony of grinding and clunking. My sales-boy was starting to sweat.
“Just stop,” he said. “Pull it into this driveway and park it. This car is not for sale. I’ll go back and get you a ride.”
It was only two blocks, so I declined the offer and walked back with him…where he was probably going to be in the doghouse for aborting a possible sale. But, however it went, I had my initial impressions of Renault, which were not good….had them reinforced.
I think everyone would be surprised that there are most likely many R/5 LeCars put away for one reason or another. I see them pop up on different sites quite often. I think one at a cars and coffee heads would spin.
Would I not already own two of these today, I would definitely take the plunge. This one seems to have no visible corrosion which is a great bonus. This revolutionary car never had the success it deserved in the US contrary to the rest of the world.
I have owned several Le Cars as i rented them thru my rental co. Very good cars contrary to the negative BS I hear. They rode well with the torsion suspension, got great mileage, room for a comfortable 4 people, got 35 mpg.
The only problem was they blew head gaskets (or as I recently learned was not the case). They had sleeves and the bottom seal on the sleeve sometime gave out.
I still have a R5 in my yard with a “blown gasket”. I bought a replacement engine but never installed it. I also have an Electric Cars of America car which I bought from AAA. I intended to put a gas engine in it but never did..
Recently, while away, I got 2 phone messages of guys who were peering over the fence and saw the cars. I know why they wanted the cars< to replicate the mid engine R 5's with a mid engine, now selling for $100K.
In summation , very nice little cars.
In high school autoshop a classmate was dubiously awarded one of these for his first ride. Le’ Turd as he called it didn’t make it to graduation. It was yellow. A bunch of us picked it up and placed it on the walkway.
Their slogan when these things came out was “Get To Know Renault.” People sure did. And fled the showrooms.
Girlfriend had one, as did her sister, presents from their stepfather. My impression is that they were POS. I remember the master cylinder went bad in a year. 3 wheel lug nuts? Scary car.
3 wheel nuts! If only it were closer!! I have been looking for another Le Car. This one is very nice. We owned a red one with the same stripe package and black interior, Fantastic fuel economy, the best of any car I owned over 50 years. Would love for my 6 kids to get to drive one of these.
Dad had one of these during my last couple years of college… I got to drive it quite a bit on semester breaks and the occasional weekend home. Fantastic car. Not fast by any stretch, but a great back-road burner… Stick shift had all the precision of a broom handle in a bucket of rocks which added to the fun. Great in the snow. Suspension could really soak up the bumps in true French fashion. Borrowed it for my senior year spring break road trip from my northeast campus to West Palm Fla… 27 hours… just stopping for gas and bio breaks… filled with 4 of us. Two cars driving together the other was my roomate’s brother’s Datsun something. People jockeyed to ride in the R5 because it was much more comfortable. Sipped gas. I know that many dump on these things, but my experiences were great. Much better than any US economy design of the period… …but ya, I know that bar is low.
I had one. I’m probably the only person on the planet who got a speeding ticket driving this car! I loved it. I remember tooling around Houston in the rain, five people on board plus luggage. The car did fine. Very comfortable–those seats were great. Daily driver for years. Finally scrapped it because of rust in the rear wheelwells. Yes, they were great in the snow. I never had any regrets about buying it. It never let me down.
Early 80s, used to commute in a LeCar every other day. Well, every other day when it ran. Friend’s car. Seemed to be in the shop a lot, waiting for parts. Alternated his car and my Rabbit. The VW was a much better car all around.
Bought this exact car new and drove it in the SF Bay Area until we added a second kid. We needed more room. Replaced the clutch at 90K and other than normal servicing, that was it. Gear shift lever was something to get use to for sure, but as someone wrote earlier, that added to the sport of driving the thing. Referring to the smooth, thin bodywork, my wife famously said, “It’s like driving in a TV dinner!” We moved on in 1990, but we both have fond memories of our R5.
I had a 78 Le Car in gray with a red solid stripe down the sides. I had worked in the parts department of the VW/Porsche+Audi dealer that also sold Renaults and Bricklins, so I had an in for parts. It was priced at something like $4999 and was excellent on gas. I was 21 and drove it like I had stolen it. The country roads in Illinois were notoriously rough and I did my best to only hit the high spots on the roads. One day, with 22K miles on the car, I pulled up to a stop sign in the boonies of eastern Illinois and the engine shut down, the dashboard lighting up like a Christmas tree. I finally got it to start and limped about 10 more miles to where I could safely leave it. The dealer towed it in and repaired it under warranty, thankfully. I had apparently managed (through constant high revs, I am sure) to pull the rings off a piston. I drove it for another 15K miles, moved to GA in 1979 and sold it to a soldier at Ft. Stewart. His wife was French and got all misty-eyed when she saw it. I got $4K for it, taking a 72 Pinto as part of the trade.
Never owned one but we potatoed our neighbor’s back in ’81. We all hid behind the bushes until she got in it to go to work and it made this blub-blub sound, wouldn’t start and had to be towed to a shop. Those were the days!
Already gone.
These were solid bricks in France. Upgrading them to the US market & trying to make them keep up with US highway speeds hurt them; lack of dealer/parts support killed them here.
My neighbor had one. They had no problems, except that the steering-column binnacle had the ignition keyswitch on the left, and you had to turn the key towards you to start it. Assumed it was installed upside-down, but the turn-signal & light stalks were in their roper position. Never figured that one out.
Had one of these for awhile in the late 1980s, with the big cloth sunroof. Bought for $300 and used it as a commuter for one winter. Completely reliable until the day it just up and died with a blown head gasket. There was an auction advertised for a fleet of Mercedes buses formerly from the city of Sacramento. The auction yard was on the other side of Mendocino Pass in Redding. It was the middle of winter, and a buddy and I took the Renault on one of my more memorable automotive adventures. The north side of the pass had way more snow than could be negotiated, but it was mostly downhill and a few 4wd rigs had gone before. The Renault had some kind of belly pan or smooth underside and we were able to sled in the tire tracks for miles, gaining speed on the downhill enough to make it up the next hill. Getting back home (didn’t buy any buses) we took the long way around, staying on the state highways. Very French car, with two, 2!, ash trays in the back seat area.
HA – that’s like some of the older airliners with ashtrays that are still plying the skies!
If you had one with the sun roof it was big , went all the way to the back seat.
One of my best driving/riding, right up there w/’48-’50 Pkds, ’53 Kaiser Dragon, 300SD Benz /’83 VW Quantum/Volvo740 wgn(diesels), ’93 Lincoln Sig. Torsion susp like my Opel GT was absolutely great. As good in snow as our Jeep Cherokee. Zero issues for 3yrs & 70+K and POOF! Blew up. Head gasket I believe. Drat. ‘
After owning several Le Cars, I recently found out that the blown headgaskets were not head gaskets at all but the seal at the bottom of the cyl sleeves that goes out.
Good little cars that drive well and comfortable.
Wife had one when we started dating. What a underpowered pos. Couldn’t hardly make it up the hill’s going to the beach in Jersey, and those weren’t real hill, constant downshifts trying to find power. Came home from one trip and it blew out a spark plug. Traded it on a new 1984 Cavalier 2.0, much better power! Still see them occasionally in groups when Carlisle has a import show, proving people will collect anything. Crazy price for a incomplete car
Within my current herd, I own this car’s testosterone filled bigger brother, an 1983 Renault R5 Turbo 2. I’m tempted to buy one of the original, narrow body, FWD 5’s on which my car is based simply because, they are very fun, durable cars and historically significant cars that carried the French public through the 70s and ’80s much like the Citroen 2CV did in prior decades. These were important cars, maybe not in the good ol’ U.S., but in Europe, they were hugely influential. The Renault 5 was the first car to have integrated plastic bumpers (which is found on every single car manufactured today). It was also the first car where the hatchback opening went down to the bumper lowering liftover height. (Also found on nearly every single hatchback built today). Suspension travel in these is simply epic… They will drive over nearly any surface at top speed. They were never fast in this poverty form but once Renault green-lighted the high-performance Gordini variant, they created the hot hatch catagory, a full 3 months before Volkswagen introduced the GTI. These are historically significant cars.
A lot of the negative comments are from people who never owned one or bought a beat old used one. Our family owned many Renault and Peugeot cars and never had a bad one. My sister in law owned a new 79 LeCar that she drove for years. Finally traded it for a VW Rabbit diesel which shortly fell apart!