Start with what the Renault 5 is: a car with 782 , built from 1972 to 1996, as the oil crises and the first emissions rules rewired the industry. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Michel Boué.
How it came about
The Renault 5 is a supermini car produced by the French manufacturer Renault from 1972 to 1996 over two generations. It is a hatchback with either three or five doors and seating for five passengers. The first generation (also known as the R5 or Le Car), which was made from 1972 to 1985, has a front mid-engine, front-wheel-drive layout.
The second generation (also known as the Super 5 or Supercinq), which was produced from 1984 to 1996, has a front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout. The R5 was marketed in the United States and Canada as Le Car, from 1976 until 1983. Renault marketed a four-door saloon car variant, the Renault 7, manufactured from 1974 until 1984 in Spain by Renault's subsidiary FASA-Renault and exported to select markets. The Renault 5 became the best-selling car in France from 1972 until 1986, with a total production exceeding 5.5 million over 14 years, making it France's most popular car.
The hardware
The engine is 782 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 730 -. Drive goes through a 4/5-speed manual / 3-speed automatic. The wheelbase is 2419 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
In the Renault line-up the Renault 5 has a clear place: it handed the line to the Renault Clio / Renault Twingo; the factory was Flins Renault Factory. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Mitsubishi Lancer, the Lancia Stratos, the Volkswagen Passat. Its Renault stablemates include the Renault 10 and the Renault 10CV.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Renault 5 — 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.