I was fully aware of the advanced dilapidation of thinking heads Renault travel in the back of the latest Scenic. Court. It was a top model equipped with flight tablets on the back of the front seats.
They were very thick, silly interfering with the footwell of the rear passengers, so that even when the seat was moved to the maximum, it hardly remained a good city car. In the minivan. Signed Renault…
Remember that Losange launched the remarkably well-equipped Mégane Scenic in 1996: independent, reclining and removable seats, storage space everywhere, and especially on the floor.
Since then, the minivan has only degraded its functionality and reached the bottom with the 4th generation. The manufacturer wanted it to look like an SUV. But what a brilliant idea! It is not that Kadjar already exists to fulfill this role within range …
The same degeneration has affected Space, the European pioneer of a large minivan. As a result, he disappeared, like Scenic. Renault is trying to revive it with the Scenic Concept, which at the expense of functionality takes on the awkward idea of giving it a touch of SUV. But what do we think of the former Regency?
This crazy conformism drives me crazy all the more because Renault is one of the manufacturers that has really pushed the car forward. After building France on 4 wheels with a very modern 4CV in 1946, the Billancourt brand invented the Colorale SUV in 1950, just before the introduction of the Frigate, although poorly motorized but much more equipped with independent rear suspension. more efficient than the Mercedes. *
Above all, it brought in 1961 a brilliant 4L, a Swiss army knife that managed to appeal to all sections of society. The remarkable R16 followed in 1965, equipped with a rear door and a modular bench. Then the R5 in 1972, whose design was 10 years ahead.
R14 missed the target, but its stylistic language was also very advanced in 1976. Definitely influenced the language of the Peugeot 205!
We dared Renault, which was the first European generalist to offer turbine gasoline engines in 1980. Then it was a blow, very inflated, to Espace in 1984. Amazingly well organized, this elevated vehicle reopened the way for minivans in Europe. . Its concept is more successful than the Scenic prototype that has just been unveiled. In almost 40 years, Renault has retreated at this point.
In 1990, Clio redefined the B-segment standards through its comfort, ride quality, and finish, and two years later, Hurricane Twingo fell at the Paris Motor Show in 1992. It was conceived with such intelligence, not even drawn. with so much genius. What happened then? Renault offered offspring, whether ugly or not very functional. In short, he sabotaged a great car!
In fact, the turning point came in the early 2000s. The hastily launched and notoriously unreliable Laguna II, Espace IV and Vel Satis denied the enormous efforts made since the R19 of 1988 to give Renault a qualitative image. Vel Satis also showed the design office’s inability to produce other and nicer cars for lack of coherent direction.
The automobile entered an era of stupidity under the onslaught of notoriously conservative German industry. We expected the diamond to resist: in fact, it submitted to these stupid dictates. Very, very unfortunate, because before that, every Renault that came out was an end in itself, thanks to the powerful event design. The Louis Schweitzer / Patrick Le Quément duo worked wonderfully.
Schweitzer still signed two smoking weapons before giving the way to Carlos Ghosn in 2004. The first was an alliance with Nissan in 1999, which created one of the world’s leading automotive groups: Renault Nissan.
The second, equally relevant, comes from the same period: the acquisition of Dacia. The real Renaults are here. why? Because with a concept, certainly not new, but very successful, the Romanian manufacturer has launched models with an important social role since 2004, such as the 4CV and 4L in the past. Reliable, convenient, practical and cheap, they allow low-income households to get from point A to point B on good terms and at a lower price. As a result, the Sandero has been the best-selling car to individuals for several years, not in France, but in Europe!
Renault dealt the final blow, stemming from a fairly visionary spirit: Zoe, who, supported by Ghosn, anticipated an impressive electric car expansion. Since 2012! Only the one who could have revolutionized the market, such as Tesla, was not successful enough and did not know how to develop fast enough, especially in terms of autonomy. And the current model is just an evolution of one that is already ten years old.
Since ? Nothing. Renaults are certainly excellent cars, consistently designed and manufactured, but they no longer move lines. Neither its concept nor its design, massive, clumsy, banal and reassuring, following the safe car that the Germans introduced twenty years ago.
Electric drive could be a great opportunity to rethink the architecture of Renault cars. Come up with new ideas that will benefit everyone. We definitely have brain juice from a French manufacturer. It would be enough to put it back into circulation.
