The Dauphine was a small family sedan built by Renault in France. For a dozen years through 1967, they built two million of these gas sippers, and some of them found their way to U.S. shores. Perhaps its buyers liked the small, rear-engined VW Beetle but wanted more doors and room for the family. This 1959 edition is in great survivor condition but needs some weekend work in order to resume being roadworthy. Located in Scottsboro, Alabama, this rarity has no rust and is available here on craigslist for $4,950. A nod goes to “Zappenduster” for this nifty tip!
These cars were built and sold years before Renault would hook up with American Motors to gain a stronger foothold in the U.S. That didn’t pan out all that well, and Renault stopped selling automobiles in the U.S. once Chrysler took over control of AMC in 1987. But in its heyday, the Dauphine’s competitors, besides the Bug, were the Morris Minor and Fiat 600. The Minor still has a U.S. following among collectors. Though its engine was rear-mounted, the Dauphine’s 850-cc engine was water-cooled, not air-cooled like the VW.
I had one of these cars for a brief time back in high school when I worked part-time at a gas station. I bought one painted black like this one for $10 that wasn’t running and had no title. Why I bought it is beyond me now, but I dragged it home, and it sat for a while until someone came along and offered me $15 for it. I thought I was quite the wheeler-dealer, making a 50% profit. I assume it had the same 30 hp engine and the quasi-automatic/manual transmission that’s in the seller’s car.
Amazingly, this Renault has no rust or evidence of any having been there after 67 years. The interior is okay sans the covers on the driver’s bucket seat, and the indicated 38,000 miles could be real or not. But the little machine runs, makes no noise, and emits no smoke, and only the brakes hinder it from being more than a yard driver. Oh, and the carburetor could stand cleaning from the car mostly sitting.
If you’re looking for a vehicle that likely no one else has, how about this survivor-grade Renault? It comes with 1959 license plates from Tennessee that are supposedly transferable. Since the manufacturer hasn’t sold a car in the U.S. for nearly 40 years, I wonder what the parts supply looks like for a French econobox like this?
In 2012, I bought a Renault Caravelle, which, for all intents and purposes, is the same basic car as this Dauphine. I paid $2000, the car was pretty nice.
The brakes were inop on the little Caravelle, and there was but one guy in the country who could rebuilt the calipers, a nice Cuban chap down in Miami. That wasn’t cheap.
As for all the other parts, there was but one guy in the country that sells them, a nice chap in El Cajon dba Jacques’ Rear Engine Renault. I bought a lot of parts from Jacques. That wasn’t cheap.
I ran and used the car for a couple of years, then decided it was far too cheap and tinny to be safe, so I sold it on ebay for $6000. It ended up out in California, or so I thought. 10 years after I sold it I happened to see it in a classic car dealer in Sarasota with a $25K asking price. Putain!
When I was a toddler in the mid ‘60s, my dad had one that he drove back and forth to work at Electric Boat in Groton, CT. I still remember it had red plaid seats and its red exterior paint had faded to a shade of pink. At some point, the magnetic clutch started acting up, so he replaced it with a VW bug. The Dauphine sat in the driveway for a year or so before my dad sold it to a coworker for a princely $15.00. He took me out and bought me a new jacket with the proceeds. From what I’ve read in the ensuing 60 years, Renault sold zillions of the things worldwide. Apparently, they just weren’t built to handle American climate conditions and highway speeds, so it became a race to see whether they’d disintegrate from body rust or papier mache mechanicals first.