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Carsales Staff27 May 2015
NEWS

Renault 16 celebrates half century

Innovative pioneer of the modern hatchback first came to prominence in 1965

The Geneva motor show in 1965 was the venue for the unveiling of a radical new design from French manufacturer Renault.

Even by the standards of the day the Renault 16 looked unconventional, and the iconoclastic shape was just the starting point for the new car. Its short rear overhang and liftback tailgate marked it as the progenitor for what we now know as the modern hatchback. There was a parcel tray suspended from the tailgate so that the user had easy access to the rear load compartment – did they even call it a boot in the Renault 16?

Following on from the Renault R8 and 10, the 16 was a truly futuristic car, setting aside the rear-engined, Volkswagen-style packaging for good. The 16 paved the way for subsequent design innovation at Renault, which is frequently credited with being the company that invented the modern people mover with the Espace.

Not only did the Renault 16 introduce a new type of body style for passenger cars, over time it also rolled out new comfort and convenience features like central locking, inertia-reel seatbelts and rear-window demister.

Since the Renault 16's triumphant arrival at the Swiss show all those years back, the company has built and sold over 1.8 million of them, including over 13,000 in Australia, where the front-wheel drive car with its advanced all-alloy engine was a stand-out performer in rallying. Renault remains at the forefront of motor sport competition to this day.

Back in the 1970s Renault built the 16 here, at an assembly plant in Heidelberg, Victoria, to get around protectionist trade restrictions that favoured local manufacturers. Australian production ended in 1981.

"We have to take a different approach," said Renault CEO, Pierre Dreyfus, back in 1965. "Cars can't just be four seats and a boot any longer. They must be viewed as a volume."

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