Home » Cold Start: Is This Le Car Before Le Car?

Cold Start: Is This Le Car Before Le Car?

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In America, the best-known Renault is the Americanized version of the Renault 5, which was sold here, in partnership with perennial lovable losers AMC, as the Le Car. The Le Car name was goofy, sure, but people remembered it. The Le Car name started to be used in America in 1977, with most people forgetting they did attempt to sell the car here as a Renault 5 in 1976, but only briefly. This old 1948 ad for a Renault bus suggests that the “Le Car” name may be older than I thought!

[Editor’s Note: We were off for the holiday weekend, but I wrote a Cold Start for fun on Sunday. Hence the back-to-back cold starts. -DT]

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

Look at that – it clearly says “Le Car” and it’s not really French, since that would be “Le Voiture.”

1976-1983 Renault Le Car: The Right Car For the Wrong Time? | Autopolis

They seem to be using “Le Car” in that bus ad for some specific reason; is “car” in this context in French referring to a large bus? I’m not sure, and trying to Google that proves to be a nightmare.

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Mat M. O’Dowd
Mat M. O’Dowd
2 years ago

Hi, French Autopian here!

In French, a bus or autobus is used for local transportation. Un car or autocar is used for coaches.

Le car 35 place means a 35 seater coach, so the joke kills itself pretty quick there.

As an other commenter mentioned, a car is feminine gender in French, therefore it should be “la” voiture.

Sorry for this typical display of French pedantry, I’ll go back to my corner and shut up.

Take care and have a nice day!

TOSSABL
TOSSABL
2 years ago

No, don’t go back to your corner: pedantry is important. I didn’t know cars were feminine in French, so I learned something today. Thanks!

Grey alien in a beige sedan
Grey alien in a beige sedan
2 years ago

I’m old enough to remember some LeCar’s putzing around my neighborhood as a youth, not so old so as to have driven one though. By the time I was old enough to get my license, AMC had been long absorbed into Chrysler, although their cab forward design hadn’t been revealed yet, and they were a few years away from being acquired by Ze Germans. Although I never drove a K-car, enough of my friends at that time were constantly cursing their parents for giving them their hand-me-down K’s. Iacocca sure hoodwinked the nation with that platform, didn’t he?

SonOfLP500
SonOfLP500
2 years ago

Try DeepL Translator, more reliable than Google about 90% of the time: “le car” translates as “the bus”.

Robert Kirchner
Robert Kirchner
2 years ago
Reply to  SonOfLP500

Has a limited number of languages, though. Not a single African language on their list.

Ultraviolet Thunder
Ultraviolet Thunder
2 years ago

I had a French blue Le Car around 1980. First head gasket I ever changed. My brother had a white one and better luck. Our friend had a black one with the canvas roof and the transmission backed out a bolt inside, requiring a costly repair. They were surprisingly spacious inside and had a very smooth ride. Last vehicle I ever drove on the road that had a manual choke on the dash. Yeah, I’m old.

Andy Individual
Andy Individual
2 years ago

At least Renault had the good sense to know thyself and put tow hooks on the front. *ZING*

Philip Dunlop
Philip Dunlop
2 years ago

I have incredibly strong, positive memories of a metallic turquoise Supercinq three door much like the one in the below link (but with standard seats, and in right hand drive). My brother’s friend (who was as close to being a brother to me) had it as his first car. Would love a go of driving one.

https://www.bnyscar.fr/youngtimers/supercinq-tse/

Fjord
Fjord
2 years ago

Pretty sure the difference is that the earlier ad copy was by the French, for the French, while the R5/LeCar copy was by Americans, for Americans (both with only the tiniest grasp of French).

My LeCar is still going strong with over 160,000 miles on it. It’s excellent in town, and it can do 80 mph on highways as long as you like. It does slow down on steep uphills. Not sure how well it would do in really high temperatures either, but with no A/C the driver wouldn’t do so well either.

Carlos Ferreira (FR)
Carlos Ferreira (FR)
2 years ago

In french “car” is short for “autocar” and “bus” is short for “autobus”. A “bus/autobus” is urban and doesn’t have room to carry luggage, only passengers, some of them standing. It’s your regular city bus. A “car/autocar” is used between cities or for longer travel, are more comfortable and nowadays have cargo space under the floor. They’re coaches.

That’s the theory. Growing up, all buses and coaches were “cars” to me and I only started using “bus” when I went to Paris for university. The confusion was probably caused by the long-running (1964-1993) SAVIEM (Renault after 1977) S 45/S 53/S 105. My city used the urban bus variants while school field trips used the coach version.

Nlpnt
Nlpnt
2 years ago

It was easy for my relatives north of the border in Montreal. A “car” was an MCI MC8/9 and a “bus” was a GMC New Look (they were both “buses” to me). A “char” was what’s called a “car” in English.

Jonee Eisen
Jonee Eisen
2 years ago

In some ads for the Dauphine, they used the phrase “Le car hot.” I always wondered if that was the origin of the Le Car name. I’ve owned four Le Cars and loved every one of them. Great little voitures.

Donald Petersen
Donald Petersen
2 years ago

I never tried a Le Car, but I learned how to drive in a ’74 Renault 12 wagon with a wishy-washy 4 speed and a puissance en chevaux of sixty-five. Nobody misses that car.

Nlpnt
Nlpnt
2 years ago

I always thought the R12 was designed as a wagon first, and the sedan derived from it by means of a couple of flourishing sword cuts to a quarter-scale clay model.

Consumer Reports was impressed enough with its’ engineering, packaging and comfort to award the wagon first place in an 6-way comparison test in ’72, despite the fact the test car threw a rod(!)

https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-reviews/vintage-review-1972-dodge-colt-and-toyota-corolla-1600-wagons/

Drh3b
Drh3b
2 years ago
Reply to  Nlpnt

That brings back memories. The Datsun 510 was one of the 3 cars I learned to drive on, and by far the best.
My school had a B210(horrible car, but one of the best econoboxes of the time) and 3 510s, and we had a 1973 VW Westfalia.

Civic Boy
Civic Boy
2 years ago

In french, a car is a bus for travelling around the country, a Bus is a city bus where you can stand up. I may be one of the last person differenciating those.

John Frank
John Frank
2 years ago
Reply to  Civic Boy

Il y a pas mal de francophones ici ! In Marseille and the surrounding region, it is still distinguished between the two.

Dar Khorse
Dar Khorse
2 years ago

I think it’s because of the links that I included in my first post, but it’s “in review”. I figured I’d post my comment without the links and see if it appeared.

Ah, Le Car… What you may not know is that the Le Car is responsible for the pen name of the Jack Reacher author, Lee Child (aka – Jim Grant):
He’s also a bit of an auto enthusiast:

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
2 years ago

A friend of mine actually had a Le Car. I was jealous as I had no car.

It was definitely tinny and unsafe-feeling, but the retracting canvas top was pretty spiffy and the whole package had a great go-cart kinda mojo.

I mean as long as you weren’t on the highway. Then it was just scary.

Dave Garland
Dave Garland
2 years ago
Reply to  Jack Trade

Hey, I had a Le Car. Two, if you count the broken down one that was a parts car. It wasn’t a bad car. Not high powered, but after a 38HP Saab, a 36% increase in HP seemed great. New, it cost less than any other car in the US except for the stripped Chevette (“Scooter”). But it had some nice touches, like cupholders. Of course, being French, there were peculiarities,. Since 3 points are all that is necessary to locate a plane, the wheels had only 3 lug nuts. which made things interesting if one of them loosened up. The horn was via the lefthand stalk, and the driving position was hands-in-lap hold the wheel by the bottom. The stalks all had little dust seals made of brushes, like I’ve seen as mudflaps on a few (UPS? FedEx?) trailers.

Dar Khorse
Dar Khorse
2 years ago

Ah, Le Car…
What you may not know is that the Le Car is responsible for the pen name of the Jack Reacher author, Lee Child (aka – Jim Grant): https://penguin.co.in/5-things-you-did-not-know-about-lee-child/
He’s also a bit of an auto enthusiast: https://calibremag.com/lee-child-motoring-journalist/

Gilbert Wham
Gilbert Wham
2 years ago

Man, I love weird old buses soooooo much.
BTW, what’s happening with only the cold start articles? Are you guys okay? Are you all working on secret projects? Or drinking everclear shots out of taillight lenses? Why no shitbox showdown or other articles about weird car shit?

Nlpnt
Nlpnt
2 years ago

Yes, “le car” does mean “the bus” or maybe “coach” would be a more direct translation. As for Le Car by Renault (the R5), it would be “la voiture” (feminine) in French, not “le voiture” (masculine) since that conjugation doesn’t exist.
There’s no neuter conjugation, which at least is slightly less weird than German which *has* a neuter form, but doesn’t use it for all inanimate objects as a hard-and-fast rule.

I'm an Evil Banana
I'm an Evil Banana
2 years ago

From what I know about Renaut LeCars, the one in the ad would have started to disintegrate the second it touched salt water.

Russ McLean
Russ McLean
2 years ago

Am I the only one who noticed that it comes with 2 large tow hooks?

Matthew Binns
Matthew Binns
2 years ago
Reply to  Russ McLean

I think those are tusks.

CSRoad
CSRoad
2 years ago

I live in the salt belt of Ontario, Canada and found the Renault 5 pretty salt resistant with the stock plastic fender liners. I was well familiar with them having owned one and successfully autocrossed two of them.
They were fun cars and as long as you didn’t have an automatic were quite spritely for the time.

Sean O'Brien
Sean O'Brien
2 years ago

“Ceci n’est pas une car.” Magritte would be proud.

05LGT
05LGT
2 years ago

Hoonigan needs to make an electric dragster out of one of these.

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