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