(first posted 8/30/2012) The nationality of vehicles can be hard to discern these days, what with manufacturer collaboration, world cars, overseas production and remote design studios. However, the blurring of automotive identities is not a recent phenomenon, as we will see in this look at the Renault GTA. The GTA was the high performance version of the North American-market Renault Alliance, itself a derivative of the Renault 9 and 11, that was built and sold by AMC. While some consider the Alliance a French car, it wasn’t built for the French market. On the other hand, I can’t imagine a die hard bow-tie, Mopar or blue oval man embracing it as American. In any case, all Alliances were officially classified as domestics whose contents were at least 70% locally-produced.
Ask a European what a Renault GTA is, and they’d probably point you toward an Alpine GTA like the one above.
Before we dig into the GTA story, here’s a bit of background: The (perhaps unimaginatively named) Alliance was the product of an alliance between AMC and Renault. At the time, AMC’s model lineup was, to put it kindly, rather dated and conservative. Yes, Jeep was doing well, and AMC did offer a couple of 4WD passenger cars, but they had nothing really fuel-efficient. AMC desperately needed a contemporary small car to sell. At the same time, Renault was looking to expand its presence in what they considered the largely untapped American market. The few LeCars being sold weren’t cutting it, and the Fuego was a pleasant but expensive coupe relegated to a niche role. The current USD-to-Franc exchange rate made importing French-built cars a losing proposition. And thus it was that from Kenosha, Wisconsin emerged the AMC-built Renault Alliance.
Aimed at the MPG-conscious lower end of the market, the Alliance was a minor hit. On the strength of mostly favorable reviews and a $5,995 base price, AMC moved 142,000 copies in 1983. What’s more, the new Alliance made the Car & Driver 10-Best list and was also named Motor Trend’s Car of the Year. Buyers were attracted to its small-on-the- outside, big-and-comfortable-on-the-inside design. If today we wonder why anyone would have bought an Alliance, well, just consider its competition. The Chevette was no-frills basic and crude. The Omni couldn’t match its fuel economy, The Corolla was solid, but stuck with an outdated rear-drive layout. The Civic was highly rated and priced to match. Besides, none could approach the Alliance’s passenger comfort.
The 1983 AMC-Renault lineup must have been among the most varied ever sold beneath a single banner.
The 1984 Alliance lineup included new convertible and three- and five-door Encore hatchback models. Total sales topped 208,000 that year, but things quickly went downhill as competitors raised their game and stabilizing fuel prices softened the small car market. A mere 35,000 Alliances were sold in 1987.
Today, it’s quite rare to run across a survivor. In fact, the only Alliance I’ve seen recently is this one, which I found in a local junkyard. It seemed basically solid and complete, but looked dirty and unloved. I imagine it had been scrapped due to the combination of a minor mechanical issue and the owner’s lack of desire to track down the needed parts. By the way, you can tell this is Southern Alberta–in this case, the PGA vanity plate refers to an association for professional potato growers, not professional golfers.
As you can see, AMC converted some Alliance four-doors into limousines as a publicity stunt.
The Renault GTA, introduced in 1987, offered performance that matched the brand’s renowned interior comfort.
Regular Alliances offered a choice of 1.4-liter, 64-hp OHV and 1.7-liter, 77-hp OHC four-cylinder engines; however, the GTA was blessed with a beefier 2.0-liter, 90-hp OHC power plant whose long-stroke design produced plenty of useable torque. Mated to the mandatory close-ratio five-speed transmission, it got the GTA from 0-60 in a respectable-for the-time 10.2-seconds.
In this promotional video, Renault claimed better performance than the Corolla GTS, Honda CRX and Volkswagen GTi. Maybe the GTS driver left his parking brake on (or granny-shifted), since it finished faster in contemporary road tests.
In addition to a hotter engine, the GTA received upgrades to its suspension and brakes, body cladding and Michelin performance tires mounted on 15-inch alloy rims. Of course, no late-80s car with a performance package was complete without a small, trunk-mounted wing, so the GTA got one. The GTA was available only as a two-door sedan or convertible painted Sebring Red, Olympic White, Classic Black or Metallic Sterling. Here is a rather lovely Darth-Vader- on-a-budget black GTA with red accents–in my opinion the best color, although the convertible does look sharp in white.
Run-of-the-mill Alliances were known for having a nice interior, but the GTA kicks things up a bit with exclusive sport seats and a steering wheel from the Renault 5 Turbo.
As promising as it looked on paper, the GTA was not a sales success, and thus a rare sight nowadays. Total GTA sales comprised 5,515 coupes and only 1,029 convertibles. Certainly, a high asking price didn’t help: The base model coupe went for $9,000 before the addition of common options like A/C. Complicating matters was the buyout of AMC by Chrysler, which bounced both the Alliance and GTA after 1987.
In an era of European and Japanese hot hatches, this GTA remains a bit of an oddity, with its sedan body and fuzzy national identity. This particular example, in outstanding condition, looks like it just rolled right out the 80s. So to the owner, a big “Bravo” — or perhaps just a simple “Well done”.
Alliance rag top arrived for 1985 model year. Encore arrived in 1984.
I rem. seeing several Alliance models back in the day with Motor Trend Car of the Year white vinyl lettering on the lower rear window. My guess is that it was dealer installed ?
Always thought the body style was as nice or better than other small cars at that time .
Rented an Alliance at Newark airport in the fall of 1984, pick it up Saturday afternoon returned it Sunday night. The only memorable part of the experience was driving with the “pedal to the metal” on the way to the airport and not going very fast. Not entirely because of traffic but the car would just about keep up with traffic. It had to be the most forgettable car I’ve ever driven.
Back in 1998 I bought a red GTA coupe out of the local junkyard which had been T-boned on the driver’s door pillar. $150 bought the car, and a few minutes’ effort with a chain puller fixed the door not closing. I drove it happily for the next year. It was easily the best handling FWD car I’ve owned, and I have owned many. If a car has a cult following, there will always be aftermarket solutions to most if not all of its original weak points.
“… plenty of bottom feeder cars sold in ’83-84 that chugged on and on into the early ’90’s.”
“Renaults broke early, often,”
Yep. Even in AMC loyal Chicago/SE WI, Alliances were nearly extinct by 1993. Were a hit at first, just like Pacer, and were a “hope to save AMC”.
Renault would have been better off building new plant in WI first, and keeping Concorde around a but for profit, before any new car build.
I bought a 1985 Encore GS-with the 1.7 liter engine and the 5 speed it ran fairly well and had excellent handling; the problem I encountered was it suffered from a lot of problems-shortly after taking delivery one the radiator hoses started leaking (fixed by dealer) then the muffler rusted out, I had problems with the front disc brakes squealing and if you hit a curb accidentally it usually knocked the front wheels out of alignment; one night while driving it and trying to keep it in a straight line I got pulled over by a cop who thought I was DUI.
The dealer I bought it from had a hard time making effective repairs; the pressure plate started giving me problems; the dealer never could fix it properly, after repairs I could not get the vehicle to shift into 5th gear.
I finally gave up on the dealer and started taking it to an independent shop for repairs, After about four years I traded it in, after that I never wanted another French car.
Of all history’s auto failures, one of the saddest has to be the Renault Alliance, specifically, the 1985-86 convertible (before the final, dual headlight version for 1987). To me, it had a bargain-basement Maserati Biturbo look to it. Unfortunately, it had about the same level of quality and reliability as the Mazer.
I really wanted to like the car, and would have bought one if it weren’t for the double whammy of poor reputation, combined with a rising price. The only thing worse than a cheap POS car is an expensive one.
At least the Renault 9 assembled both in Colombia and Argentina were such successful and reliable cars. They used to be one of the best buys of the ’90s . Reliable, durable , easy to repair , impressive MPG, excellent acceleration for their tiny 1.4 and 1.6 liter’s engines . It’s hard to digest the Kenosha’s built Renault Alliance were not so good cars as mostly owners quote. With the exception of Brazil ( where Renault still wasn’t available in the domestic market the whole 1990s ) you can still see today down the rough roads of South America plenty of these beloved Renault 9 Alliance commuting everywhere and keeping good efficient little machines. Not to mention, in design , was one of the prettiest cars for its time. Not to mention ( excerpt for Brazil ) the Renault 9 proved to be more popular than Volkswagen’s concurrents. Infact especially the 1.4 liter is a Renault engine than can last twenty years without major issues . Little Renault 9 Alliance better machine than even Renault 18 and Renault 19 altogether