The story of Renault in America is one of big swings. At its peak, the company sold more than 100,000 Dauphines here in a single year. Yet within a decade, those sales had collapsed, and Renault kept coming back with new small cars.

Here are seven models that tell the story of Renault in America, each sold new here, in the order they arrived. Every sales figure below comes from the source we link, and we flag it where two sources count differently.

1. Renault 4CV

The little rear-engined 4CV was Renault’s entry-level car here in the mid-1950s. Early U.S. sales were small, and the company’s exclusive importer, John Green, aimed to sell 300 cars a month in California and Florida, but he neglected after-sales service and Renault ended his contract.

According to Planète Renault’s history of the Dauphine in the USA, about 1,500 4CVs found U.S. buyers in 1955. Then, in 1956, Renault decided to export the Dauphine alongside the 4CV. From that point, the 4CV served as the entry-level model.

2. Renault Dauphine

The Dauphine became the car that put the brand in American driveways. It used an 845cc water-cooled inline four, rated at 32 to 40 horsepower. Renault even chartered its own ships, each carrying about 1,200 cars from Le Havre.

According to Mac’s Motor City Garage, U.S. Dauphine sales reached 28,000 in 1957 and 57,000 in 1958. They then peaked at more than 102,000 in 1960. However, the 1960 Detroit compacts arrived that same year, and Renault’s thin dealer network never recovered from the slump.

3. Renault Caravelle

In France, this sporty two-door was the Floride. For the U.S., Renault renamed it the Caravelle. Renault’s own heritage site says that kept buyers in the other 49 states happy.

The car arrived stateside in early 1959, according to Old Motors, with 13,000 U.S. orders already taken. It used the Dauphine’s 845cc four, which Renault’s heritage page rates at 40 hp. In all, Renault says it built 117,000 Florides and Caravelles from 1959 to 1968.

4. Renault 8

The boxy R8 followed the Dauphine as Renault’s mainstream sedan. In Europe, it launched in 1962 with a new 956cc engine rated at 44 hp. Even so, its American job was hard from the start.

As Curbside Classic puts it, in the U.S. the R8 was fighting a huge uphill battle. Dauphine memories lasted longer than the Dauphines themselves. In fact, Wikipedia’s Renault 8 entry says Renault’s U.S. marketing openly acknowledged the older car’s shortcomings and pitched the 8 as an improvement.

5. 1967 Renault 10

The Renault 10 was an evolution of the R8 with a longer nose. Old Motors dates its U.S. arrival to the 1967 model year. It came at a low point for Renault in America, too, because the company sold just 12,100 cars here in 1966, down from 91,000 in 1959.

According to Old Motors, the 10 first used a 1,108cc four rated at 48 hp. For 1970 it got a 1,289cc, 56-hp four from the R12. Renault sold more than 21,000 cars in the U.S. in both 1967 and 1968, nearly all of them 10 sedans. Then the 10 left the American market in 1971.

6. 1969 Renault 16 Sedan-Wagon

The Renault 16 was a family hatchback, and Renault marketed it here as the Sedan-Wagon. A page in the Torrance Press-Herald’s 1968 archive announced the 1969 Renault 16 Sedan-Wagon with a 70-hp engine and a 93-mph top speed.

That page is in the Torrance public library’s newspaper archive. Meanwhile, Curbside Classic’s look at Road & Track’s test describes a 1.6-liter pushrod four with 70 hp. The magazine liked the soft ride, but American buyers showed the R16 little love.

7. Renault 5, sold in America as Le Car from 1977

The next small Renault in America was the 5. It reached the U.S. in 1976 under that plain name. Then, for 1977, it became Le Car, as Curbside Classic notes.

According to Consumer Guide, the first American cars used a 1.3-liter four. Prices started at $3,295 in 1976. Le Car’s last year in America was 1983, when the base three-door started at $4,795.

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This article was created with the help of AI and was reviewed and edited by Fast Lane Only editors before publication.