The Renault 6 is a 5-door hatchback from Renault, built from 1968 to 1986, in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar. Under the bonnet: 845 . The total made was 1,674,381.
Where it came from
The Renault 6 or R6 is a C-segment small family car, manufactured and marketed by French automaker Renault from 1968 to 1986. The Renault 6 used the Renault 4's platform, initially including its small 845 cc (51.6 cu in) engine, but its five-door hatchback body was larger and more modern. Visually it resembled the larger D-segment Renault 16.
The Renault 6 was launched at the 1968 Paris Motor Show, and was intended as an upmarket alternative to the 20 cm (8 in) shorter R4; and the R6 aimed to compete with the Citroën Ami 6 and the just launched Citroën Dyane (both based on the Citroën 2CV. It used a dashboard-mounted gear-lever with forward, over-the-engine reaching gear-shift linkage, principally the same as those used in both the Renault 4, and in the subcompact Citroëns it competed against. The R6 was produced in France from October 1968 and sold in Europe until 1980, continuing elsewhere until 1986.
Under the skin
Power comes from 845 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 750 kg. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 2400 mm (left) / 2450 mm (right). These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Renault Dauphine; its successor was the Renault 5 / Renault 14; assembly was at Boulogne-Billancourt. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Toyota Hilux, the Peugeot 504, the Range Rover Range Rover — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Renault catalogue sit the Renault 10 and the Renault 10CV.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Renault 6 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.