This past Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and just over a month ago, I ventured to Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood to watch a movie at the historic Harper Theater with a close friend and her grade school-aged daughter. This was my first time venturing to that part of the south side using public transportation exclusively, but it proved to be a cinch. I took the Red Line south from my neighborhood of Edgewater to the Harrison stop downtown near Columbia College, then transferred to the No. 6 Jackson Park Express bus. This bus then took me within just a few blocks of the restaurant near the theater where I was meeting Adrienne and her daughter.
They were already seated at the table about five minutes before I showed up. What they didn’t know was the reason I was a few minutes late, which was our featured car. Taking purposeful strides westward on East 53rd Street toward the restaurant, I was stopped dead in my tracks by this appliance-white Alliance. This is probably the first (presumably) running Renault Alliance I’ve probably seen in the wild in, literally, fifteen years, and it looked like it was in pretty good shape, save for a little rust at the bottom of the rear quarter panel.
I wondered, as I walked around the car snapping just a few photos with my phone (I had left my camera at home, as it was drizzling that day), if the owner had to get out and push it to make it go in reverse, as did my first piano teacher. That poor woman… Mrs. Eich had to deal with both my initial refusal to practice my scales and a lightly-used example of a former Motor Trend “Car Of The Year” that wouldn’t back up properly.
The year after the Kenosha-built, Renault 9-based Alliance was introduced, an also-American (Motors)-ized Renault 11 hatchback version was introduced as the “Encore”. Our family had an ’85 Encore, which we really liked. That car was as basic as it got, with an automatic transmission (so Mom could drive it) and a rear-window defogger as its only options. It didn’t even have an AM radio, but it was responsive, fun to drive, got phenomenal gas mileage, and was noticeably more reliable and quicker than the ’84 Ford Tempo GL sedan my parents bought new, which served as our regular family car.
Our Encore is pictured above on the right, photobombing this shot my mom had taken in the fall of ’89 of me in the driver’s seat of a ’75 AMC Matador coupe I had wanted to buy for $400. I passed on the Matador, as it needed a ring job and smoked a little, but I loved its styling, inside and out, even if I didn’t care for the white, vinyl roof. (Imagine a swoopy coupe like this coming from the factory with both a landau roof and dog-dish hubcaps!) I did end up purchasing a ’76 Malibu Classic coupe in this same shade of tan which, compared with the Matador, probably saved me from a lot of teenage ridicule I would have experienced otherwise.
I guess what I like the most about this particular Alliance is that it seems to have, literally, found an “encore” by its very existence, just by outlasting just about every other example of its kind out there. Let’s face it – even though its execution and build quality were far less than perfect, this car’s basic design was a good one, and decent enough to merit introduction of its hatchback derivative in the United States. As for our featured Alliance, I quote a refrain sung by the great Cheryl Lynn from around the time it was new: “You deserve an encore.” Indeed.
Hyde Park, Chicago, Illinois.
Monday, January 16, 2017.
Related reading from:
- Vanilladude: My Holy Alliance With The Franco-American Motors Renault Alliance;
- Jeff Nelson: Curbside Classic: 1986 Renault Alliance – Patina Royale; and
- David Saunders: Curbside Classic: 1987 Renault GTA – An Alliance Of A Different Stripe.
My parents bought one the first of the ’83s of this car! Midnight Blue DL. As a 13-yr old car buff I was just thrilled that we owned a car that Motor Trend crowned Car Of The Year. Plus I really dug the digital radio tuner and cassette on it. My Dad hated it for leg room, being just a few hairs shy of 6′ tall.
In two years the paint bubbled and entire car had to be repainted. Reliability wise, don’t recall too much about it, but my folks traded it in 1987 for a 85 VW Quantum GL sedan. Leg room complaints diminished. 🙂
Roommate when I lived in Orlando FL. And his buddy had a business in 1990 of buying cars for cheap at auction, fixing them and flipping them. They seemed to have an over abundance of AMC / Renault’s in the driveway all the time. Always had something wrong with them. Guys said the auction market in central Florida at the time was flooded with them, and could be bought on the cheap.
A cousin of my wife’s bought an Alliance new and kept it for an amazingly long time. She and her husband have a knack for picking cars that develop bad reputations, but keeping the things forever. They either have exceptional luck or pouring money into rolling turds just seems normal to them – I have no idea which. They have moved on to Intrepids.
I cannot think of the last time I saw one of these in operable condition. I remember sitting in the convertible version at the auto show when they were new, I actually kind of liked that one.
Nice tune at the end 😉
+1. Great song! I still think these cars look pretty neat today.
Wow! It’s been a lot of years since I’ve seen an Alliance on the road. I really liked the styling on these especially the 4 door with its skirted rear wheel. Too bad most of them were a steaming pile reliability wise. Around 1986, I went by Back Bay AMC in Boston and saw a row of Alliances and Encores at the curb with 0% interest plastered on the windsheild of every single one of them. That was unheard of back then. I knew then that AMC was circling the drain. Too bad because just a few years earlier there seemed to be so much promise.
For all the hate that many have for French cars, they really are not that bad. They are a unique take on basic transportation, often against the predominant way of doing things. You would think that “individualist” Americans would love them, but they do not. Again, we tend to be guilty of the “say one thing, do another” way of doing things. We also forget that Renault saved AMC, and that the big Chrysler sedans (LH platform) was a Renault 25 with a bit of tweaking. The whole reliability thing is a bad by-product of a lack of a large dealer and service network, as the English, French and Italian makers had regular maintenance requirements that the average American never heeded, and many average mechanics did not understand or care to learn the differences.I will hope that the French-hating will not be too bad here, but I can assume it will rear it’s ugly head.
Joseph, you’re a god among men for finding a roadworthy Alliance in the center of the Rustbelt!
Nice catch there, Joseph !
The Renault 9 was actually one of the first Renaults with a decent rust-proofing. Previous Renaults rotted like there was no tomorrow (in our climate). The parents of a classmate had one back then, it was dark blue. A comfortable and smooth ride, combined with good handling. A typical French family car, in other words.
I shot this -also white- Renault 11 (Encore) TXE last year. Under the hood an 82 hp 1.7 liter engine, the transmission is a 5-speed manual.
A college friend of mine had an ’85 Alliance convertible. It was black with a black top and tan cloth interior – and a stick. It had the cool alloy wheels that were somewhat rare, too….He loved that car and really DROVE it – I mean hard. It never let him down over the five years that he had it. Ironically, he went downtown one day to pay a court ticket and the car was gone when he came out, never to see it again.
I had driven that car on several occasions and it really was a nice little car that liked to be driven. The driver’s seat and position were great, and I remember the seat itself being very comfortable. The only issues I can recall my friend having with his Alliance were the radiator leaking and some problems with the CV joints, but other than that it was a great little car. It even gave a decent ride for a car with such a small wheelbase. These were economical, decent looking cars and very fairly priced. In fact, there were a LOT of these in my hometown because of the two competing AMC dealers literally across the street from each other! The Encores themselves were everywhere. I remember seeing them often in the same tan/beige color as yours, Joseph!
Tom, your second paragraph reminded me of how comfortable the seats in these cars were! Our Encore had a tan, vinyl interior, and the front buckets didn’t have any adjustment for rake, but the seats themselves felt great and were bolstered just enough.
When I was just sixteen, my best bud from high school and I drove the Encore (which now belonged to my older brother) from Boston through Canada, and all the way back to Flint. I was something like an sixteen hour drive that I did all in one stretch (with loads and loads of caffeine – I could never do it now). That car was amazingly comfortable on that long, long, long drive.
Wow, that was quite the journey, Joseph! When you compare these cars to the competition of the day – Escorts, K-cars, etc. I think they were a little more refined and definitely more driver oriented. The driver’s seat was a great place to be in these cars – very unusual for an “economy” car.
I too have not seen a running Alliance since the late 90s. I tried an Alliance on at the dealer when they first came out and was short of both head and leg room. A coworker had an Encore and was quite enthused about it.
I have forgotten how many hundreds of millions Renault poured into AMC. The way they wedged a new body assembly and paint line into the old Lakefront plant, the new greenfield plant in Brampton, tons of new equipment.
Frustrating because the Alliance soon acquired a reputation for fragility. I like 70s/80s Renaults for their styling, robust body structure and suspension tuning. Friends on FB continually taunt me with ads for Renaults…one ad for a Fuego in Columbus actually had me thinking for a moment “I could drive down there, grab the Fuego and park it in my Aunt’s garage until I hired a transporter to get it home” as she lived in a burb of Columbus at the time. Sanity soon prevailed however. To the people who would insist that a Renault would be reliable if properly maintained, I doted on my R5, lavishing it with maintenance, washing, waxing….it still bit my wallet for something every year, alternator, radiator, brake proportioning valve, master cylinder, then it rotted out when only 5 years old. I still miss that crazy car tho. I keep thinking about a 500 Cabrio because I miss the Renault’s huge sun roof…and, unfortunately, the Fiat has a reputation for Renault scale fragility.
Somewhere along the line, my winter reading list will include “The Last American CEO” about the waning days of AMC and the sale to Chrysler.
Hi Steve, 2 years in on my Fiat 500 and I can tell you that I have not had any problems with it. There was a recall on the clutch diaphragm spring, which has been repaired in 2 hours, along with an oil change, so I don’t count that as an issue. I understand your hesitancy, but I don’t see the issue being nearly as true as “common knowledge” would state. My opinion is that, being “European” (but built in Mexico), they would be more solid and luxurious. They are not. They are, in truth, basic entry level cars, and taken as such, they are fine, but not outstanding. Compared to a Kia Rio hatch, or a Fiesta, or Sonic, they are very comparable, but they get lumped in with Mini, BMW, and more expensive models. A beat to hell car is usually a crap can no matter who screwed it together. The 500 is an exercise in styling, and works as a good retro entry level car. I would not pay for the many upgrades available myself, but if you want a pimped-out version, more power to you. In the end, if you want one, get one. You can often pick up a used 500C cheap, as they do get pounded for depreciation. Just be wary, as you would with any used car.
Hi Steve, 2 years in on my Fiat 500 and I can tell you that I have not had any problems with it. There was a recall on the clutch diaphragm spring,
I heard about that clutch recall. Last time I looked, Carfax was saying the parts were not yet available. FCA has become notorious for dragging it’s feet on executing recalls, as well as incompetent/uncaring dealer service departments.
As for used 500s being pounded on resale value, the new ones do not do much better. Last fall, the local dealer still had several new 2015 samples on his lot. I looked at a black Pop with a stick that was marked down to $10,533, but discovered that the length of stroke required for the clutch was not compatible with my short legs. By the time I moved the seat close enough to work the clutch, I was eating the steering wheel.
The dealer in Toledo had a new 2015 Cabrio red with black top and interior and automatic marked down to $13,500, 10 bills off the sticker, but he sold it just as I discovered he had it. The 17s have seen some big price cuts. A dealer well north of my home has a black/black 500C Pop automatic with Beats audio and a sticker just north of $19, 4 grand below the comparably equipped 2015 the guy in Toledo had. Under 20 grand for a Cabrio, new, is getting into 4 year old Beetle convert territory.
I recommend buying. If it makes you happy, go for it. You never truly regret something that you did, only what you never attempted to do. You are correct, a new cabrio for less than 20K is a great entry price. Will you carve corners at breakneck speed or win many drag races? No, but you will have a smile on your face while you tool around in it.
A lot of Fiat dealers aren’t doing very well. Fiat dealer in Traverse City closed their doors last year, and the last attempt to sell the inventory was marking Fiat 500s with thousands dollars down, and it still didn’t work. Those new cars were almost 2yo by then.
Those Fiat dealers with Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-RAM seems to fair better though.
the last attempt to sell the inventory was marking Fiat 500s with thousands dollars down, and it still didn’t work.
I wouldn’t buy one either, if I lived in Traverse and the nearest source of parts and service was Grand Rapids. A year ago, FCA tried to make picking up a Fiat dealership easier for the dealers. Originally, FCA demanded that an existing FCA dealership had to set up a separate building to sell Fiats, which ran the cost to the dealers out of sight. They dropped that requirement, so now a dealer can show Fiats in the same store as he used to sell Darts and 200s in, before they were dropped.
Looking at the recent sales reports, sales of the 500L and 500X are cratering, though 500 sales last month were up, so the multi-thousand price cuts may have helped.
Need to wonder about the future of Fiat in the US, with sales so low and dealers so sparse. FCA is putting a big push on Alfa, which is dualed with Fiat, so the next couple years will be interesting.
I’ve got TWO 1983 Renault 9’s here in rainy Scotland – both still go very well, they’re cheap to insure and you can fix everything yourself.
Reading the article, I was just wondering when I last saw a R9 or R11 here in (strangely warm and sunny) Scotland, and realised I can’t even remember the last time I saw its successor R19.
Remember this one ? The Renault 19 Chamade, the R19 sedan.
An elderly woman I know bought one new in 1990, metallic silver, 27 years later it’s still her daily driver.
French car owners often take “brand loyalty” to the next level. Once a Renault / Peugeot / Citroën owner, always a Renault / Peugeot / Citroën owner. They had one when their working career started, and they still have one when they retire, decades later. No way they ever step into something from Germany (“a plank on wheels”…), Italy or Japan.
French car owners often take “brand loyalty” to the next level.
Apparently Peugeot did not think that applied to Simca, as they dropped the name in favor of Talbot as soon as they bought the company. Then they stuck a fork in Talbot a few years later. They have kept Citroen alive, though they are all built on Peugeot platforms now.
Brand fanaticism is not unique to France. I was witness to plenty of Ford/Chevy arguments at work.
I said “French car owners”. I meant to say (Dutch) owners of French cars…
One of them is an uncle of mine. I mentioned him before, somewhere in the CC comment section(s). He always drove Peugeots. For once he tried something different, a new VW Vento (=Jetta). Quote: “I regretted buying it the minute I drove it off the dealership’s lot”…So back to Peugeot after that “mistake”.
Peugeot has an interesting and popular line of cars: 108, 208, 2008, 308, 3008, 508, 5008, Partner Tepee (the only non-number model).
Here’s the new 3008, Peugeot calls it an SUV. Really neat, isn’t it Steve ?
Here’s the new 3008, Peugeot calls it an SUV. Really neat, isn’t it Steve ?
It even has the “floating roof” thing that Opel has been pushing.
Opel will no doubt lose access to the Mokka at some point after the sale, so the 3008 will also get a lightning bolt glued on the hood.
I looked over some of the Peugeot models to get an idea how they will play to German tastes. Looks like the 508 will wear an Insignia badge well: clean simple lines and a straightforward instrument panel. The 308 looks OK outside, but has a bit of French eccentricity in the iP.
When I was looking for my first car in 2000, I fancied a Chamade. Small saloons are grandma cars here so good cheap used buys, and with alloys and a spoiler they resembled Alain Menu’s 1993 BTCC car.
I always noticed the “loyalty to a French brand” thing here in Scotland, but attributed it to Renault/Peugeot being the only dealer for miles around. I certainly had relatives who owned a string of Renaults. Visiting the Mull of Kintyre recently I was pleased to note that Peugeots were unusually common, just like when I was a kid.
I wondered if there ever was a factory “hot saloon” version of grandma’s Chamade. And yes, there was: the 16s (or 16v) with a 135 hp engine and a top speed of 215 km/h.
There is no question they still offer a very different “feel” from the Germans or a sportier Japanese like a Mazda, and on a longer trip I’d take the French car any day, so I can see why anyone who has gotten used to French levels of comfort (ride-wise) would hate driving, say, a VW Golf.
I’ll join the chorus in congratulating you on this find.It’s been a long while since I’ve seen either an Alliance or Encore.
Love that shot of you in that Marador coupe. What a less-than ideal combination of color, roof and wheels.
“What a less-than ideal combination of color, roof and wheels.”
HaHaHa, yes! Where sport, luxury and poverty come together in a single car!
Agree on all fronts. I love those AMC dog dishes but I’ve never seen them on a Matador coupe, let alone one with a vinyl roof! You made the right choice not buying that Matador Joseph, that’s the kind of car only the most devoted of AMC weirdos could love.
Ha! I remember trying to bargain the owner down from $400, but the price was firm. I told him I may be back the next day, and he said he’d be there, and not to worry because “the Matador isn’t exactly a hot selling car”. He said that very dryly, in only a way a Flint resident could have. I still laugh when I think about it. 🙂
Great find! Haven’t seen too many of these in my time.
Wow, two cars from my childhood in one post. And the two favorite my family owned, to boot.
If you search my COALs, which I haven’t indexed yet, you’ll find that my dad owned both a ’74 Matador Oleg Cassini coupe and an ’83 Alliance MT (the Motor Trend Car of the Year Edition, complete with numbered plaque on the dash).
The Matador was a championship ruster. And the all-black interior was brutal in the summer. But it remains the car we look back on most fondly.
The Alliance is second. It was tiny inside, esp. in the back seat for me and my brother, 6′ and 5’10” respectively. But it was so comfortable up front.
Our Renault started to fall apart at 75k miles, when I had it at college. A litany of unreliability ensued. And then some uninsured driver T-boned it while my brother was driving it. Goodbye, Alliance.
At least it was a stick. A girlfriend from those days drove an ’83 Alliance sedan much like the pictured car except with two extra doors. It was an automatic. The stick version was maddeningly slow to get to speed, but the automatic was dangerously slow.
The stick version was maddeningly slow to get to speed, but the automatic was dangerously slow.
iirc, the 1.4 that originally came in the Alliance was an injected version of the old pushrod in my R5. The OHC 1.7 that was introduced in 85 picked up the tempo a bit.
Part of an Alliance convertible build film. I remember an Alliance convert being in the fleet used in “Magnum PI”, along with a silver Fuego.
Great video! The narrator sounds familiar. And that music makes you wonder if the speed is off then you remember how it was back then.
The narrator sounds familiar
His diction is very precise. If I had to guess, I would say it’s Monte Markham.
that music makes you wonder if the speed is off
There is a tremendous amount of speed variation in the audio. Sounds like an old linear audio track VHS recording, which is probably what it was as HiFi VCRs were new on the market in 85, when the convert came out. VHS linear audio also has very poor high frequency response, which accounts for the somewhat muffled sound of the narration.
I saw an alliance drive by in the background of a recent episode of chasing classic cars with Wayne Carini, surprised the hell out of me.
I think you mean Columbia College (which is near the Harrison Station), rather than Columbia University (which is in New York City), correct? Or possibly UIC?
You’re right – I did mean Columbia College. Whoops!
That title was so Premier it deserved a Medallion. Is it me or that car is taking a lot of Espace?
Kidding. I still see a few of them in Portugal.
PS- Paul, did the American Peugeot 505 come with quad round headlights? Today I was walking and saw a 505 with quad rounds and large bumpers. It was definitely a 505 sedan, not a 504. I would have shot it but didn’t have my iPhone at the time
did the American Peugeot 505 come with quad round headlights?
I only glimpsed a US spec 505 once, in the showroom of the local Subaru dealer who also carried Pugs, and do not recall. The Wiki entry says quad round headlights, along with a lot of other changes.
gas tank moved inwards (now behind rear bench), with filling neck on rightside, different style quad headlamps, taillights (pre-1986 sedans), distinctive whip antenna moved from roof to rear fender (and changed to telescopic), larger bumpers, tailpipe moved from right to left.
That’s a lot of work for a car that sold in microscopic quantity.
Here’s the pic from their article about the US spec version.
Thank you, Steve.
That means today I saw a US-spec 505 in Portugal. (Or a modified Euro one)
What an idiot I was to leave my iPhone home…
The early US versions had quad round lights, but later ones (after 1986) had dual rectangular sealed beams, as in the pic below.
Thanks, Paul. Or should i say Dr. Peugeot?
That’s why I asked. I remember vividly reading the article on the wagon and when I saw the parked sedan it immediately popped to mind and I asked myself why there were quad rounds on that one instead of the dual squares. Now by the last two comments I realize I saw an early US spec car.
One joke I made with CC was that maybe the fact that you haven’t found your holy grail yet might be the reason for the “Not Found” error on the internet to be called “Error 404” ??
There’s a beautiful 505 sedan in red with ground effects, rear spoiler and alloy wheels that started appearing in my old neighbourhood just before I moved. I’ll have to go back and take photos of it. The only other 505 I’ve seen is a white wagon and I don’t think I can do it justice writing about it, not when there’s a much bigger Peugeot fan here on CC! I took a few photographs of it though.
I personally find the 505 so much more attractive than the 504.
So do I. The 505 looks very elegant in both sedan and wagon
Just when you think a car is truly extinct, you find one in the wild in Chicago! I wonder where the owner gets parts for that car…
Thanks, everyone. I think I literally gasped when I saw this Alliance that day.
I’ve been missing from CC over the weekend as I just got back to Chicago from the Motor City! Hope everyone had a great weekend. Not to gloat, but it was nice to have Monday off. 🙂
Well, for it’s worth, I have not seen one of these (9 or 11) in ages here in Austria and I think most of them are gone in Israel too (other than as collectors items). I remember them new back in 1970s-1980s Israel – they did sell reasonably well as a cheap entry-level car and were not notorious for any unusual reliability issues.
Stop press: CC Effect strikes again. Went to the Austrian equivalent of Craigslist and found the below with 30,000 authentic miles and a mighty 54 hp engine in a village next to me, as well as another one further away. So they are still around if you look.
Joseph, if you’re traveling from Edgewater to Hyde Park, I’m shocked you only found that Alliance. I would have thought maybe you’d see a few Tuckers or maybe a Studebaker Hawk or something. 🙂
“How do they get parts?” Well, Chicago is pretty close to Kenosha, I bet there’s still a couple people hoarding parts for these…
I grew up pretty close to Kenosha and these (along with lots of other AMC’s) were seemingly everywhere, until one day when they all vanished (probably when they all got to 75k or so).
These were popular for a couple years in Chicago area, but by summer ’85 they started the rebates and low for the time 9.9% financing. The party was over by mid ’87.
By summer ’89, many 83-85 Alliances were in ‘cheap’ lots for $999. First 80’s cars to be called “beaters”, even before same year Chevettes.
Just found these from my collection. Dated February 1993. At a car lot in Longview TX. Somebody saved a few.
Another
And another
And another
Last one I took.
I had a Renault Encore which got about 40 mpg, as I recall. That car got the best mileage of any car that I’ve ever owned. I did have to replace the engine with one from a Renault Alliance, before I sold it.