(first posted 5/9/2013) The Fuego has become almost mythical in the US. It seems to typify all of the issues that plagued Renault in its final years in the US: attractive if quirky designs that didn’t stand up to the (brutal) test of time that typical American buyers subjected their cars to. Sold in the US between 1982 and 1985, they went up against the Japanese coupes like the Celica that were built more like a Toyota Hilux pickup, and simply wilted in the face of them. I’ve been hoping to find one for years, but no luck so far. But the Fuego had a somewhat different image in Europe, and was quite successful, becoming the number one selling sports coupe for several years (1980-1982). r0b0tr10t shot this fine example in Germany, at what must have been a car show.
The Fuego was based on the R18 platform, with front suspension components borrowed from the larger R20/30. It has several bragging rights, one of them being its very slippery body, with a Cd as low as 0.32, very impressive for the time (1979). With a turbo-diesel, it was the world’s fastets diesel production car in 1982, with a top speed of 180km/h (110 mph). It also had the first remote keyless system with central locking, based on the invention of Paul Lipschultz (PLIP system).
The Fuego arrived in the US in 1982, in both conventional and then also as a turbo model. The naturally-aspirated 1647 cc SOHC four made 81 hp; the 1566 cc turbo version cranked out a mighty 107 hp.
The Fuego’s advertising invited one to enter “the turbo zone” and share the same technology that made Renault’s F1 turbocharged racers so renowned at the time. Needless to say, not enough buyers took up the invitation, and by its third and final year, Fuegos had a lot of cash on their hoods to clear out the AMC dealer lots. Good luck finding one today.
Very rare car Paul I havent seen a live one in ages though they used to pop up in classified in OZ regularly Ive not seen one in NZ recently. Rust feasted on the Fuego it was its biggest downfall and few sales meant not much parts backup and they all died.
Not seen one for ages in the UK,everyone bought Capris or Celicas when these were new
In 1984 the US received the Fuego 2.2, which practically matched the turbo’s performance while enjoying the advantages of not being turbocharged. The Fuego was one of the early ’80s cars that seemed to point to a return of good design after the challenging ’70s. Alas, it was short lived. Designs like the Fox Mustang, the Porsche 944, the Peugeot 205, and the FIAT Panda gave reason for optimism about cars that could be purposeful and distinctive, even if it didn’t last.
I stumbled upon a cache of Fuegos in a wooded junkyard in Madison County, Virginia about fifteen years ago. I think the yard was called Leon’s. It was on the southbound side of highway 29, and it was the biggest junkyard I’ve seen. I can’t find it on google, so maybe the green zombies put him out of business.
Yes, forgot about the 2.2 in the last year or so. A better choice for the US, but it was too late to stem the tide; or ebb, as it the case was.
Are you sure it was available as a diesel model ? I remember the petrol turbo, but not a diesel.
Only for European LHD markets, it turns out, for some reason; that might explain your question.
Taxes and the price of diesel being lower (then) than gasoline.
Leon’s is still there, but the woods have pretty much subsumed the cars. Apparently, he forgot to regularly swap out his inventory, so everything left is just dissolving into iron ore.
I do wonder sometimes how much various fluids from the cars have leaked into the nearby stream that separates Madison from Culpeper County. (Leon’s is actually on the Culpeper side of the line.)
One time a friend of mine bought a ’64 Fury he found in the woods at Leon’s. We got it started and he drove it out. It overheated on the way back to Charlottesville. I told my friend to let it idle rather than shutting it off. He shut it off anyway, and the radiator blew a couple minutes later.
There used to be a little new car dealer on the other side of 29 called Madison Motors. The woods behind it were full of cars from the ’50s. We wandered around looking at them one time, but they were too rusty to save.
I was living in Virginia between 1982-1985 (Tidewater) and it seemed that these Fuegos were EVERYWHERE up and down the Eastern Seaboard. However, leaving the Tidewater area and going back to the S.F. Bay Area in June, 1985, I don’t recall seeing any outside of PA heading west. Like Alliances, these things were destined for the junkyard early on and/or, in salty climes, rusted out.
So THAT’S why they call it a plip! I have some French friends who refer to their key fob as a “plip.” I always thought “plip” was French for “beep” (since the car beeped when you lock it).
Another good reason why they don’t sell Renaults in the US anymore…puke
When I graduated from college, I only seriously considered buying 2 cars; Scirocco or Fuego. Bought the Scirocco.
That’s like old “death or mumbo jumbo?” joke.
I spotted a Fuego parked on the street in Lima, Peru last week, and I stopped and looked because I had not seen one for 25 years. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me to record it.
The Fuego got a longer lifespan in Argentina, it was made until 1992. Here a Argentinian 1989 Fuego ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krMyH92OR0Y
Intriguing! Thanks for posting that Stephane, I had no idea it lived longer. I quite like the revised bumpers etc too, the facelift looks quite attractive.
Agreed 100%. I always thought the Fuego’s 1980-era styling looked really modern (ultramodern) when new. The slight restyle on this ’89, with just detail changes from the original design, looks just as modern to me as any other new car design that came out around that time – I’m thinking Chevy Beretta, Ford Probe, etc.
The biggest problem with the Fuego was the race between terminal body rust and terminal electrical fires to see which killed the car first. A real pity because they were striking looking and a decent drive. On the other hand gen 2 Sciroccos neither rusted nor ignited. In the Fuego’s defense In should note that 1st gen Sciroccos were susceptible to the legendary Karmann body rust and also occasionally caught fire due to a poorly designed fuel pump relay socket (fixed in a recall).
Sorry dude. Fuegos never ignited and they didn’t rust any more badly than other cars of that era. Lies often make the funniest jokes. But you should remember that Americans look so pathetic and jealous when talking s@#! about the French and French things.
Shall we consider contemporary American cars of the same era such as the Ford EXP? Let me count the ways….
Pathetic and jealous to who? And of what? We had Citroens, Peugeots, and Renaults. We didn’t want any more. Many elements of the EXP were not as nice as the Fuego, but I know which one I’d have counted on to get me to work. The 2nd generation Prelude arrived for 1983 and made the Fuego look like a badly made and dated suppository. That’s the sort of car that killed it in the US. The French had to compete for import buyers, since there was still quite a bit of blind loyalty to Detroit at the time. Japan delivered products that were so much better engineered and built than anything from England, France, or Italy that only a couple high end makes survived in our market.
Are we jealous of Peugeot for needing cash infusions from GM to survive in France? Nissan is propping up Renault. Dacias are the sales success of France these days, and I’ve seen photos of new ones with rust issues. Maybe we’re jealous of stories like this one:
http://www.limitstogrowth.org/articles/2012/08/25/socialist-run-france-faces-up-to-its-hostile-muslim-allies/
Our county has serious issues too, but thanks for reminding me that things could be so much worse!
CJ: The tacit understanding here at CC is that we do not inject politics, especially when it’s as irrelevant as what you’ve done here. That has nothing to do with the Fuego from 30 years ago. Please keep the conversation focused on cars, and in a civil tone (That applies to you, Ken, too). Thank you.
Sorry Paul. I considered Ken calling joe a liar and saying Americans were jealous and pathetic to constitute a plea for a reality check. I try to leave politics to more appropriate forums and I’ll do so in the future.
“But you should remember that Americans look so pathetic and jealous when talking s@#! about the French and French things.”
Renault cars in the US were sold by AMC dealers. (AMC, as in AMERICAN Motors.)
Peugeot, Renault, and Citroen are all gone, and it isn’t because of envy. The cars just weren’t very good, and they were particularly ill suited for American driving conditions. They looked interesting, but drove only so-so, and most importantly, they were horribly unreliable. If that upsets you, then blame Toyota and Honda for doing a better job.
Hell, blame GM for doing a better job!! 80’s Renaults were shit-boxes. We may be slow, but we’re not stupid. Also remember, the 80’s were the pinnacle years of Japanese reliability and perfection. I can count on two hands how many 80’s vintage I see still running on the roads daily (even here in Hawaii where rust from all corners is an issue) – I’ll bet even in France you cannot say the same about French cars!
Well, yes. I had no idea Renault ever tried to sell the Fuego in America. I can’t blame Americans for not wanting to buy it. Matter of fact, I can’t blame anybody for not wanting to buy it.
I remember very vividly that back home in France they were popular for a few years,they were like the national equivalent of the Opel Manta and the Ford Capri. Trouble was, hot hatchbacks like the Golf GTI were all the rage then, not these coupes. Trouble number two was, quality generally sucked (that’s like 1980s music to me, heh heh). Basically all French cars from the 1980s are off the streets now – save a few cult cars really worth preserving like the Citroen CX or the Peugeot 205 GTI – and frankly I don’t think they are missed by many.
Things got better later (believe it or not :-)) but clearly the negative impression drawn from 1980s horrors like the Renault Encore lingers on in America. Which is understandable since French carmakers have never made a serious attempt to get back on the US market ever since. Lost opportunity, really. As we all know, there are a few of these in the long history of US-French relations, but let’s not get carried away here and focus on this nice blue Fuego. Which does look good!
Gee, if I had been told in 1982 that it’d ever be a cult car in Germany three decades later, I’d never have believed it. Hell, why not! Who am I to laugh. I love the Ami 6.
Hell, blame GM for doing a better job!!
In a two-option universe, I think that I would have taken an N-body Grand Am over a Fuego. But if you tell anyone, then I’ll have to kill you.
that’s like 1980s music to me
If given a choice between a Renault Fuego and A Flock of Seagulls, I think that I’d take the Fuego. Which tells you something about how bad the music was.
clearly the negative impression drawn from 1980s horrors like the Renault Encore lingers on in America.
Honestly, I doubt that most Americans have an opinion. French cars never sold very well in the US, although I have met the occasional Peugeot loyalist.
It’s pretty funny that the Renault 5 was sold here as “Le Car.” (If you put “Le” in front of a word, it makes it French!) http://www.productioncars.com/vintage-ads.php/Renault/LeCar
I suppose that calling it the “Sank” would have been appropriate enough, pun intended.
Renault was actually one of the most successful imported brands here in the ’50s. They outsold VW in many states, and brought over 100,000 cars here in 1959. Then word got around that they were problematic, even by the standards of the day for small imports. Their sales collapsed and many import customers were reclaimed by Corvair and Valiant.
I would think that most Americans in their 40s and above with any interest in cars remember Renault’s last effort in the US market. Renault bought AMC and rebadged the R9 and R11 as the Alliance and Encore. They had follow up products based on the R21 and R25 too, but by the time they arrived they’d poisoned their market. The Alliance was hugely successful, and most of the 600,000 people that bought one would not be buying another. As word spread of their issues, sales went from 208,000 in 1984 to 35,000 in 1987. I’ve been told that some were still on the road in Kenosha Wisconsin fifteen years ago, but in much of the country they went from common to gone faster than anything this side of a Hyundai Excel.
The R9 wasn’t just a US market Lemon either. I had an Austrian car magazine that featured a long term test of an R9 almost 30 years ago. They drove it for 50 or 100 thousand kilometers, tracked what needed repair, and then completely disassembled it. They were shocked by how worn out almost every part of it was. It was the worst car they’d ever tested, and their market had some iron curtain stuff.
To the extent that Renault is merged with Nissan, the biggest obstacle to bringing Renault back to the USA is that Nissan already has two US brands and a full line of US appropriate products.
Not a joke or re-telling an urban legend: a friend of mine had a Fuego (in the US) and it was consumed by fire.
My father, being the loyal AMC retiree that he was (and armed with a substantial discount on new car purchases) bought a 1982 18i Sportwagon. Mechanically pretty much interchangeable with a Fuego.
One Sunday morning he and a couple of my nieces drove to Road America to watch me race. On I-43 just outside of Sheboygan smoke started to billow from under the hood. He pulled over, got the fire under control, and had it towed to the local AMC-Renault dealer. The car was less than a year old. Apparently a harness near the intake manifold was routed a tad too close to the exhaust and had a meltdown. I seem to recall that eventually there was a recall for this.
There were a lot of Fuegos and 18i’s in Kenosha, probably more than anywhere outside of France.
You might like this article from a former Fuego owner: “Kenosha probably had more Renaults per capita than any city outside of France…The Fuego was like owning a $1,600 Ferrari.”
http://cgdailydrive.com/my-name-is-don-sikora-and-im-a-recovering-renault-fuego-owner/
Uh, Ken – a Ford EXP was a chopped down, 2 door clone of a Ford Escort (US version) – not in the same “class” as a Renault. Fortunately (for us, the world’s largest car market), Renault ran out of North America with it’s tail between it’s legs. Lousy cars. The best thing Renault did was acquire a controlling interest in Nissan. Trade off of engineering and QA from the Nissan side apparently has made the Renault a better car. Howevere, it’s “shit box” status in America still lingers. Perhaps when Fiat has a firm hold in America may Renault return. Please do not compare how “good” Renualt cars were back in the 1980s. They sucked. Only thing worse were British-Leyland products.
Ken, I actually happen to be of French extraction, grew up in a largely French enclave where Peugeots and Renaults were fairly common, and I’m here to tell you that the things said and written about French cars of the era are neither lies nor pathetic jealousies.
As I’ve written on this site before, the issues are similar to those that VW has faced in recent years: A network of indifferent dealers, selling affordable cars that were engineered to perform well, yet few compromises were made to durability, nor to ease and low cost of repair.
And like it or not, mainstream Americans buyers prefer simple, crude and inexpensive reliability over elegant, crafted fussiness. Fortunately, the country’s relatively open markets generally allow the consumer to make that choice…
Love the Fuego, but not nearly as much as the BMW E3 behind it!
Can someone please move this scrap so we can see the Big Beautiful Buick B-Body in the background???
I thought that these were neat when they first came out, I remember they had an optional LeCar style fabric roof, except it was electric, the seldom seen Fuego was the successor to the never seen Gordini coupe.
That “ribbed for her pleasure” trim that runs from the headlights to the liftgate was always one of the odd features of the car
There you go 🙂
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robotriot/8715319988/in/set-72157633412989806
Yeah, another B-body. Prime drives for the unimaginative sheep in America.
The strange, black beltline molding on these always bothered me.
It looks like it was an afterthought, as though at the last minute the designers realized they needed to raise the roofline and hood a few inches, so they placed the black strip there to cover the gap.
I know, what’s with that? its like an accordion, does it expand?
I think the texture thing was in style back then like the body cladding mess we had here during the early 2000s. I blame it on aftermarket rear window louvers that were popular at the time.
It was an attempt at a vertical crumple-zone. And a surprisingly successful one.
Drop a grand piano or a bank vault on the hood of a normal car, boom, your whole front end is done for. But drop these items on the hood of a Fuego, and that accordion-like beltline molding compresses to absorb the impact! Your hood may be somewhat crumpled, but your “civilized turbo” four-banger below remains miraculously untouched. Just remove the piano or vault from off the hood, flex the beltline molding back up into the full upright position, and you can drive off like nothing happened.
Quite ingenious, really. A quintessentially French engineering solution to a nonexistent problem.
Alexander Of Hollywood:
That is the most ridiculous story I’ve ever heard about the Fuego! An entertaining but baseless one.
The black plastic body strip was purely a decorative design element and nothing else.
I have read a huge amount of info about the Fuego, its design history, etc.
Further, regarding the body strip:
the Fuego continued in production in Argentina up to ’92 or even ’93 – with a facelift in ’89, (if I have the year correct). The ‘GTA’ and ‘GTA Max’ re-stylings replaced the ribbed body strip with a flat, body-coloured strip and also updated the bumper mouldings – the overall result being an arguably more modern, sleek and less polarising design.
The Fuego still enjoys a strong following in Argentina today.
To all readers, regarding Robert Opron and Fuego design:
It was NOT really a ‘Robert Opron design’. It was designed by Michel Jardin, with Opron merely overseeing some of the finer details as it went along.
I believe you have a broken sarcasm detector friendo!
My first guitar teacher had one of these, in red!
I took my driving test in a 1982 Fuego Turbo (F7 Package–turbo, alloy wheels, A/C, cloth interior) that my parents owned at the time and have somewhat fond memories of it. It had good power for its time, handled well and rode exceptionally well as you would expect from a French car. The seats were exceptionally comfortable for a sporty coupe. My dad wouldn’t spring for the F8 package that included the cool sunroof, brown leather interior, cassette radio and power windows. Ours had the same cheesy AM/FM radio that came in an AMC Concord and looked totally out of place in the otherwise cool European interior. It spent plenty of time at our local AMC/Jeep/Renault, Volvo & Volkswagen dealer in the three years my parents owned it. At 30,000 miles it was already showing its age; long term durability was not one of its strengths.
That car sold like hotcakes in Venezuela. It was along the Sierra XR4i (86) the only sporty coupe game in town. No turbo engine there.
That thing, even in the 90’s, still looked hot. The interior was nothing like the one on the R18 and it looked the sporty part with its high, bolstered buckets, leather covered steering…
They even made a dedicated race series for them, and people usually souped up the Renault 2.0 engine fitted to them, lowered them and made them look “racy” by 80’s stds.
I can’t remember if they could go neck and neck with the Sierra (V6 only), but I remember them to be quick.
Also they rust, the A/T ones are to be avoided (the electronic trans controller tends to go south and its $$$$ to replace) and they overheat from time to time (bleeding the cooling system correctly is a bit complicated).
I’m 27 years old and I’ve never seen one of these cars in person that I remember.
There are a few left in Australia, it seems that most are either in very good or very bad condition and the former are usually not for sale. Apparently they handle pretty well, and with 30 years’ collective knowledge can be made into a good car (like many).
I’m sure I saw a few running around as a child in the ’80s, but I don’t remember them.
The only one I DO remember was in my neighborhood in PA back in the late-90s and early-2000s. I imagine the annual state inspection did it in as most of the body below that weird wide trim strip was perforated.
I am one of the few who actually remember these cars. Oh the horror!
Screw the broughams! We need more (well-built) Fuegos!
I had about forgotten these. I once knew someone who knew someone who bought one. That’s as close as I got.
Same here! Someone who went to my church graduated two years ahead of me in high school. He was in the ROTC program at Penn State, and, just before he graduated from college, he bought a brand-new Fuego. It was an interesting car, but, in all honesty, that was the first and last Fuego I’ve ever seen on the roads around here.
I remember these. They were rare, but not as rare as the Renault 18 and Sportwagon that were sold here in Canada at the same time as the Fuego.
College girlfriend had one of these as a loaner while her POS 2.8L Cherokee was in the shop. Fuego was also crap, but not because of the engine. The thing had the weirdest electrical bugs I’ve ever encountered. I seem to remember having to keep flipping the turn signal to prevent it from stalling on the highway.
Last time I seen one of these it was being driven by a Waffle House cook. Explains alot doesnt it?
I don’t believe you. Since when has Waffle House hired anyone who could cook?
Oh, anyone can claim to be a “cook.” It’s the “chef” title that makes them into liars…
The Scirocco beats this any day. Despite VW’s well known foibles, they at least had decently constructed bodies and they held their value well, A1 chassis or not.
These, on the other hand, were $300 cars within 5 to 6 years of age.
A good friend of my parents had a Fuego and I remember riding in it when I was very young. Earlier they had a mint green Volvo 144 and later on traded their silver Fuego for a gunmetal-gray Alliance. Eventually Ward learned his lesson and he and his wife bought a brand-new 1987 Volvo 240DL wagon, which they had for at least ten years.
I have a Fuego emblem in my car emblem collection. They were neat-looking cars but I haven’t seen one in twenty years.
I can remember, during the time, how Fuegos would catch fire with enough regularity that it made the name seem appropriately funny. Then again, about 5 years later, the general had the same problem with V6 Fieros…
Actually, both fours and V6s caught fire.
All of the first year Fieros were fours. They were recalled because they burst into flames.
Then GM added the V6 engine. Those caught fire too.
You can see a few in the wild in France or even Spain. Like most cars (other than Japanese and some German) from that era, Rust in Pieces.
I had one of these! I wanted one ever since I had read about them in Playboy in 1981-they said it was a car that could even make you feel good about Socialism (a nod to Renault’s state ownership, I suppose.) It was a ’84 I bought used; catching fire was the ONLY thing that didn’t happen to it and the only mechanic who would touch it was “the guy who knows Renault” at the local AMC dealer, but it had that great French ride and I still miss it!
Funny, now let’s speak about Chrysler products sold in Europe during the nineties, old design compare to euopean products, absolutly no reability, dash falling apart, holding the road…like all american cars, of course, rusting like all the cars and to be franck, we haven’t seen any american car on our roads for almost twenty years.
Technically inlate on the european products of course…
Why do the Americans hate the French and the popular-in-Europe Italians, but love the Germans, English, and “exotic” Italians? And really, I do mean to ask, not rhetorically. Was Renault a lower priced import back in the 80s? So what did one expect from Renault? Or any other small car from the time? Honda and Toyota took off due to providing more than expected, while everyone from Ford to GM to VW (anyone selling on the lower end of the market) built to price. Chrysler took the large Renault platform and based the LH sedans on it, and it sold like hotcakes. That, and a not-as-crappy-as-it-was-expected K Car saved that company from extinction. British Leyland was known for crap sports cars, and Audi was learning the lessons of the Audi 5000 and “unintended acceleration” and almost died as a result.
All companies build their share of crap. Every damned one. I get that. Some build really good cars too, and some of them never get sold in certain markets. It happens. But the piled on hate from those who never have had their butt cheeks inside a French or Italian or whatever car complaining about how it is absolutely the worst car ever gets me a bit worked up. I do remember that the Fuego got the absolute worst rating ever from Consumer Reports at the time, so I am willing to concede that this one was an overall loser, but even a crap model can have some good ones built. This one pictured is proof. If we are only on this site to hate on cars, what is the point? An ugly kid’s mama loves him even if nobody else does.
Remember, the loathing of this car is only in the comments. Unless you think no one should ever publish an article about this car and allow comments about it, the commentariat will take the discussion where it wants.
“Honda and Toyota took off due to providing more than expected, while everyone from Ford to GM to VW (anyone selling on the lower end of the market) built to price.”
Toyota and Honda were built to about the same price as the other products, and they wholesaled to dealers for comparable money. They commanded a premium at retail (full MSRP) because they were more desired than similar products from other mass market builders, because they were better at the minimum functions of a transportation device (get me where I want when I want).
“Why do the Americans hate the French and the popular-in-Europe Italians, but love the Germans, English, and “exotic” Italians?”
Americans do not much love Volkswagens, because they’ve burned their fingers on many of them. There are no mass market English branded cars.
Exotic/specialty car buyers aren’t happy about reliability problems, but their choices are basically to either put up with it or to drive the same Toyota or Honda as their dental hygienists and their kids’ piano teachers. It’s really that simple. Want a really neat and prestigious Range Rover or Audi? You may be inconvenienced by one or two more repairs than a Toyota 4 Runner or Honda Accord. Make your choice.
Loved the Fuego when it came out. Never drove one, but did mooch a ride in one once. With it’s typically Renault ultra rigid structure and supple suspension it soaked up Michigan potholes with nothing but a distant “thump”.
Puzzled me why Renault insisted on bringing them in with the ancient pushrod 1.6. I drove an 18i with the 1.6/automatic and it seemed glacial, even compared to my R5. The modern Douvrin 2.0 was available in the Fuego in Europe from 81. As the OP says, by the time the 2.2 arrived in the US along with an updated instrument panel, the train was long gone from the station.
One of the buyers at Radio Shack started his presentation at the annual meeting with “how many here own a Renault?” I raised my hand, as did another guy in my district who had an Encore. The buyer continued “would you buy another?” I said “maybe”. He got to the point. He owned a Fuego. One day he walked up to the service writer at the dealership and started to describe the problem with the car. Before the service writer could ask what model he had, the tow truck rolled into view. The service guy saw the Fuego in tow and said “oh, one of those“. The buyer’s point was, no matter how much of a piece of poo a product is and no matter how many of them we see dragged in for repair, don’t give the customer a negative impression of them, and he used his Fuego as an example.
Still have a soft spot in my head for them.
A compadre on FB teased me last year with a Craig’s list posting for a Fuego in Columbus Ohio. In the space of about 3 nanoseconds, I thought “my Aunt lives in Columbus…I could put my VW in her garage, drive the Fuego home, fly back to Columbus and retrieve the VW.” Then I sat quietly for a few minutes until the notion passed.
I missed the tidbit about the 1982 Fuego being the first car sold in the US with remote central locking. Despite the car’s flaws, that must have been impressive back in the day, particularly considering how it’s a given that virtually every vehicle sold today, even the cheapest, comes with remote unlocking as standard equipment.
Here is the Fuego GTA introduced in 1990 to spice things up a bit. A year later the engine was revamped by Oreste Berta and renamed GTA Max. Production ended in 1992. For some it was the spiritual succesor of the Torino Coupé.
This is a new one for me – I’ve never heard of the Fuego GTA before. I’m not sure that the mods are an improvement. There are an awful lot of seams and body lines to distract from the basic shape.
I owned a repair business years back in Melbourne, Australia when the cars were new in the 1980’s. I only repaired French and Italian cars , so was for sure a specialist. The Fuego here was super reliable and here i never saw a fire or the electrical problems even in the 1990’s. Gearbox synchro became weak later in life and neglect was the problem for late cars.
My thoughts are the US Fuego inherited the wiring loom from the Renault R18 which was a mess.
The big problem with working on these cars is the mind set of the mechanic, many mechanics are not very bright and for sure often forget who actually pays their wage, without the customer there is no wage.
The rust was never a problem here and i have two in a paddock on the farm sitting for 15 years , spots of rust.
A lot of things come out about the way americans think in these posts, some of it alarmingly ignorant.
I lived through Renault’s US expansion in the early 80s. The Renaults that were sold in the US in the 80s proved to be garbage, by and large. They were even less reliable and more expensive to keep running than cars from GM, Ford, and Chrysler, not to mention the newly robust Japanese products. That is fact.
Also, those people who bought new Renaults took it in the shorts when they gave up on these turds and sold/traded their cars.
They especially poisoned the well with young people, who were enthusiastic buyers of the new domestic-built Alliance and Encore (R9 and R11).
I loved these new (I was about 14) and still think they’re interesting, but a friend’s one did indeed catch fire and was burnt to cinders in 1996 in the middle of Toorak Rd peak hour. I knew it was his when Channel 7 interviewed his rather frazzled looking self!
Cas, yes, there is some ignorance sometimes, but I have learnt through this very site that US conditions, speeds and consumer expectations are way, way harsher than anything thrown up in Australia, where we have long been one of the most urbanised populations of any country. Meaning slow-ish speeds in a very mild climate. Oddball French car keepers (like me) generally looked after their small-volume cars. The result being often lovely, even great cars, but only ok and definitely a bit finicky as daily transportation. Throw that same fussy-in-the-details car into the caustically competitive maelstrom of the US and it just doesn’t survive. (I’ll add that there’s a strict policy on this site of avoiding political/cultural comments, however tempting it may sometimes be, as it helps to keep the site a rare refuge of civility on the net).
I sure as hell agree there are some very ploddy mechanics about, and I’m curious; where was your garage in Melbourne, because from the mid-’80’s on, I’ve owned a bunch of crazy French (and two Italian) things and tried quite a few places over time to find good garages?
Rust is a major problem in the northern half of the US and basically all of Canada, because salt is used on the roads to melt snow and ice in winter, its’ use potentially stretching from November to March. It’s not just a matter of perception but genuinely one of conditions.
I recall seeing a fuego sitting in a garage in Fall River, MA in 2003, it could still be there.
I’ve been looking for a derelict Fuego to harvest it’s drivetrain and transplant it in my 1972 Lotus Europa. So if anyone knows where there is one please let me know.
My first and only close contact to a Fuego was on a big German car show in 1982 when a sales rep introduced this wonderful car to a large audience in warm words. Then he closed the large all-glass trunk lid, and the glass shattered causing the public to start an endless laughter!
They were around the DC area for a few (5) years or so. That name didn’t do a lot to foster connection.
It sounded like a “rash”, or “condition”.
With no aim on starting any kind of dispute, I’d like to ask your opinion (mostly USA citizens) regarding something that has always intrigued me.
Quite often I read very hard opinions bout European cars reliability, but from my personal experience, at least here in Spain, those very same cars are considered quite long lasting and trouble free.
I’d find it hard to have on opinion the Fuego as, even when new, it was a rare sight, specially the turbo. But the 18, which the fuego was based on, was one of the most common midsize saloons here 40 years. Those cars were common on ours rods till the late 90s and always know as very durable. Not on the level of the Mercedes w123 or Volvo’s 240, but no far behind except for interior materials.
The same can be said for its successor, sold in the USA as the Eagle Medallion. It’s been 30 years since production ended and I still see a few examples weekly, most of them in a pretty decent condition. Yesterday on my way to IKEA I was overtaken by an early black 21 Ti, a sports trimmed 2.0L 120 hp. And I’d said it must have been cruising at 100mph minimum….not bad for a 35 years old French pice of unreliable crap.
I’d love to hear your opinions, thanks.
Yes, this is an issue that comes up often. There’s a couple of good explanations for it, and I brought these up in more detail in my post on the Peugeot 504:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/curbside-classic-1976-peugeot-504-one-continents-french-mercedes-and-coty-is-another-continents-most-rugged-vehicle-is-another-continents-pos/
The two main issues are: Americans preferred cars with lots of power accessories, like automatic transmission, power steering, air conditioning, etc.. These, combined with the relatively new and crude emission regulations that the US had then (and mostly not in Europe) made the cars significantly more complicated, and increased heat and stress on the relatively small engines typically used (compared to American cars).
Often these accessories (like air conditioning) were not well integrated, and created electrical and other issues, like overheating, which French cars with their typical aluminum heads did not tolerate well (warped heads, etc.).
All of this was greatly exacerbated by the spotty and often mediocre dealer network, whose mechanics were just not deeply experienced in these cares, and felt overwhelmed by these issues, especially with the new emission control systems, which were also often poorly engineered and manufactured.
In essence, the French cars we got here in the US were significantly different than what was typically sold in Europe, where the engines and other components were not stressed. Keep in mind too that Americans drove much longer distances, often with much greater heat and heavy traffic (think Los Angeles).
Having to deal with recurring issues related to these factors really soured Americans.
And then there’s the fact that the cars the Japanese were building really, truly were better built and more reliable, and had better dealer networks.
I have to tell you: back in the ’70s and ’80s I had a subscription to Auto Motor und Sport (from Germany) and they did lots of long-term durability tests (60,000 km, and even 100,000 km), and I have vivid memories of some Renaults doing very badly: blown engines, broken transmissions, and lots of other issues. Their reliability even in Europe was widely considered at or near the bottom for European brands. Starting in the mid-late ’80s, Renault did start to make improvements in that regard in Europe, but by that time it was too late for the US.
I hope this helps.
Here’s another post that might also be helpful in putting European reliability in perspective:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/german-reliability-statistics-thirty-years-of-adacs-pannenstatistik/
No joke, back in the 1980s I went to a Catholic high school. The priests who ran it had a large house they lived in way out behind the school with a fleet of cars. One of the cars was a red Renault Fuego, driven by the youngest priest in the group. How he convinced the order to buy a Fuego is a mystery to me to this very day.