A Road Test of My 1956 Renault 4CV

I am the owner of the 1956 Renault 4CV being tested here. Because the vehicle was built in France from 1946 to 1961, the description may not be accurate for all these cars. Over a million were built. However, most differences between earliest and the latest cars would not be very great.

The Renault (pronounced ray-no) is a small car with a 750 cc engine. The model is 4CV. In French, this stands for quatre cheveaux (four horse power, pronounced kah-truh shev-oh). Its dimensions are similar to the German Volkswagen that invaded this country like a tsunami in the forties and fifties. Its appearance is about the same as the German car and when I first saw these cars in real life in the fifties, I could not tell a Renault 4CV from a VW. The engine of the car is at the back like that of the VW but it's an in-line engine and water cooled. In American terms, I believe the car has about forty or fifty horsepower.

The front doors are called "suicide doors." This means that they are hinged at the back unlike the front doors in most other cars of the world. The idea of suicide is that if a door is accidentally opened while the car in motion, it might be blown open wide by the wind and possibly cause a passenger to fall out. I don't think this is likely to happen.

Stepping into the car feels very French-like. It's different! The driver's door opens differently and one sits behind a dash that does not look like other dashes. The horn blows by tapping the end of a lever that extends from the steering wheel at the left. Lights light by moving a stalk at the left up and down. The car's accelerator is a round button on the floor instead of a pedal. It's a lot further to the left than where you would expect it to be and this takes some getting used to. The shift lever is on the floor. The car has three speeds forward and one backup speed. The backup position on the shift lever is located where four-speed cars have first gear.

My car does not have a radio, air conditioning, or clock, and is not automatic shift. One has to be an enthusiast to drive a car without all these accouterments if one is used to the standard features of a modern car. Because the car has the engine at the back, the front floor is very flat. Two passengers have plenty of leg room. In the back, two average sized person can be accommodated rather well but if they are larger than average, they might be uncomfortable on a long trip. I don't use this car for taking long trips. A round trip to my work place now and then is sufficient to satisfy my yearning to drive such a novel automobile.

The car starts easily and runs well. It has a reassuring subdued roar of power when in motion. One shifts into first, then second, then third and these are all the gears the car needs to be off at a reasonable pace. That pace is not very great, however. It takes about half a minute to get to top speed and that speed is only about sixty miles per hour. This is more than sufficient for in-town driving. The engine sound is relatively loud but not intrusive to passenger comfort. I've estimated the average gas mileage per gallon to be about twenty-five for all-around driving.

My wife an I are classic car fans. We found this one in Greenwich, New York in 2033. According the then-owner, the car had been purchased by a nurse who used it only to go to work. She retired and put it in the barn where it languished in sadness for thirty years. We found it, restored it to its former glory and made it happy again.