Renault 16

Start with what the Renault 16 is: a 5-door hatchback with 1470&nbsp, built from 1965 to 1980, in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Gaston Juchet.

The story

The Renault 16 (R16) is a large family car which was manufactured and marketed over a single generation by French automaker Renault between 1965 and 1980 in Le Havre, France. A five-door hatchback, the 16 was the first French car to win of the European Car of the Year award.

What is underneath

The engine is 1470  other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 980 -. Drive goes through a 4-speed manual / 5-speed manual / 3-speed automatic. The wheelbase is Left: 2720 mm / Right: 2650 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

Its place in the line

In the Renault line-up the Renault 16 has a clear place: it replaced the Renault Frégate; it handed the line to the Renault 20 / Renault 18; the factory was Sandouville Renault Factory. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Ford Bronco, the Nissan Silvia, the Ford Transit. Nearby in the Renault catalogue sit the Renault 10 and the Renault 10CV.

Owning one today

MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Renault 16 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.