The Renault Dauphine was a big success worldwide, but not so much in the USA. Here’s the sales pitch to American car buyers.
Here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, we’ve always been enchanted with the Renault Dauphine. (Check out our previous item on the Dauphine here.) Maybe it wasn’t the finest car the French automaker ever built, especially for America’s demanding driving conditions. But it was a distinctive, compelling automobile just loaded with Gallic charm. For us, the 1956-67 Dauphine is one of the more memorable cars of the era, imported or domestic.
While the Dauphine was not ultimately successful in America, it was a big hit everywhere else, with more than two million produced in plants around the world. Here in the States, the Dauphine was briefly the second-most popular import, second only to the Volkswagen Beetle, as sales briefly topped 100,000 in 1960. But after that, sales tumbled nearly straight down. Observers count the weak 32-horsepower water-cooled engine, the sparse parts and service network, and severe corrosion among the Dauphine’s shortcomings, and the company lost its toehold in the lucrative U.S. market. But never mind all that for now. Let’s check out the little round French sedan “that makes driving fun again” in this circa-1960 TV spot. Video below.
None of the French cars got more than a toehold here – Renault, Citroen, Peugeot, Panhard, Simca. Hookups with American car makers Chrysler and AMC didn’t help. They must have an approach to automobile making that rubs Americans the wrong way. Renault-Nissan has done the right thing by not trying to re-enter the American market despite dominating in the rest of the world.
For the American market, the Renault-Nissan Alliance can rely on the very popular Nissan and Infiniti brands. There seems to be little point in forcing another try with the Renault brand.
Having had a neighbour with 750s and Dauphines and later friends with R8s and 10s I know these things.
And yes very weak engine, the a 10 was faster than a 40hp Vobble Wagen and they drove better too. though all of these small things were hopeless, head wind you go back to third and rev the thing to keep it moving,,, three speed with overdrive. And a side wind makes you drive sideways!
I did rallycross against several 750, 8 and 10 Renaults, all with either 12 or 16 engines. They do very speccy end for ends! Though were actually quite fast but probably never used top gear
I never noticed any real rust problems in any of the Frogmobiles though our climate is not Detroit either.
Still a few around in classic car runs as well as motorkhanas
A friend had a new Dauphine when we started college in 1960. He drove it from coast to coast from home to campus and back twice a year, and it was a great summer fun driver. He never had any maintenance problems, and da goils loved it, too.
Let me take this opportunity to salute Roger Tarbox, Renault mechanic extraordinaire! Wearing his trademark overalls, and not much else, Roger was responsible for keeping many of Nova Scotias Renaults on the road long after their (mercifully short) “best by” date. If Roger (or son David) couldn’t fix it it wern’t for fixin. active during the 70- 80’s. Vale Roger.