The Ligier JS4 is a 3-door hatchback / Pickup from Ligier, built from 1980 to 1987, in the age of turbocharging and the first electronic engine management. Under the bonnet: 49 . Robert Broyer / Philippe Ligier drew it.
How it came about
The Ligier JS4 is a four-wheeled, two-seater microcar manufactured from 1980 to 1983 by Ligier, the street vehicle branch of French Formula One manufacturer Équipe Ligier. It marked a change in Ligier's priorities as they had recently ended manufacture of the Ligier JS2 sports car. It is a "Voiture sans permis", a light vehicle which did not require a driver's license and was thus popular with the elderly, the young, or with those who had lost their driving privileges. The JS4 was first presented on 25 July 1980.
The hardware
Power comes from 49 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 215 kg. It shifts through a CVT. The layout matters: the engine hangs behind the rear axle, a layout that gives ferocious traction out of a corner and a reputation to match on the way in. The wheelbase is 1350 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Its family tree is legible: its successor was the Ligier Série 7; assembly was at Abrest, Vichy, France. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Dodge Ram, the Audi Quattro, the Lancia Delta — show what else the money bought that year. Its Ligier stablemates include the Easymile EZ10 and the Ligier JS2.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the Ligier JS4 — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.