In 1964? This was the year of the Renault 16. Two doors on each side was the norm, but the large rear door was not. Estates and ‘Shooting Brakes’ were not new in Britain, but a regularly styled family car, albeit a French regularly styled family car, with an opening back? That was new.
In standard form it was a bit of an ugly duckling, call it ‘awkward’ styling if you will, but it was roomy inside and very comfortable. The rear folding seats could be set in a variety of positions, more than the driver could remember, so it was always a good idea to have the manual handy. Oh, yes, the spare wheel was under the bonnet, so didn’t get in the way of the seat permutations and load.
Eventually, a TS model was released which finally gave the vehicle decent performance but the best was yet to come. In 1973, Renault released the TX version. It was the most fully loaded family car I had ever seen.
It featured electric windows, centralised door locking, good heating and decent facia vents, a very slick five speed column shift gearbox, the best car seats I had ever sat on, rear seatbelts, incredibly good Cibie headlamps, a very novel map reading light which actually illuminated where you needed illumination, rear window wash/wipe, and a ride not too far off the Citroen DS.
It’s worst feature was heavy steering at parking speeds, and if that is the worst thing said about a car, you know that it is a good one.
TX performance was more than adequate but as with all smallish four cylinder engines, when pushed hard, it was a little raucous. Having said that, if you just want to cruise along the N7 in real comfort, who would have cared?
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