Renault 9 and Renault 11 – The modestly elegant French bestsellers of the Eighties

Today we are talking about some of the most popular French cars of the eighties – Renault 9 and Renault 11.
Right from the start, let’s be clear, it is actually the same car in different body styles. Renault 9 is the sedan, usually with 4 doors, but there was a 2-door version, too. Renault 11 is a similar car with a hatchback body, 3-door or 5-door.

The overall appearance of the car was designed by Robert Opron, who previously worked for Citroen and also designed Citroen CX and many French cars of the 70-s and 80-s.
The look of the car was simple and conservative with modest elegance but without extremely futuristic features.
Why? Because a very modern, interesting, and rather futuristic Renault 14 failed several years before. French customers didn’t want to drive a spaceship, they wanted just simple classic elegance.
And Renault decided to use moderate and classic solutions, declining the more futuristic and advanced design of famous Marcello Gandini who, as we all know, designed the Lamborghini Miura and many other great cars. But some small details developed by Gandini, like a dashboard, survived to the production model.
And this worked. Renault 9 received the 1982 European Car of the Year award and became the third best-selling French car ever.
It’s interesting, however, that a special version of Renault 11 called TSE Electronic of 1983 received a lot of advanced features. It was the first car in its class to have a trip computer with a synthetic voice. And it was one of the first French cars with a fully electronic dashboard. It was bizarre but surprisingly well-received by the customers.

Renault 9 was manufactured in France from 1981 to 1989. Renault 11 – from 83 to 89. But both cars were produced after that in Turkey until 2000. By the way, they also were manufactured in Taiwan, Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico. And even in the United States – by AMC as Renault Alliance and Renault Encore.

Renault 9 and 11 were developed as small family cars and initially got very modest 1.1-liter and 1.4-liter engines. The smallest engine produced only 47 HP and 1.4-liter – from 59 to 71 HP depending on the trim level and the year. Also, the 1.7 engine appeared later, first with a carburetor, and then – with fuel injection. But its performance also wasn’t impressive, although it was enough for a small family car – from 74 to 94 HP.
There also was a 2-liter engine for the United States but I’ll tell you about this later.

But the most (and only) interesting versions of these cars are turbo-charged Renault 9 and Renault 11 with a 1.4-liter turbo engine from the Renault 5. Although 9 and 11 are heavier than Renault 5, they still are very fun to drive with this engine and its 113 HP. Remember that it was a very small car and it was really good for the 80-s.

The choice of transmission options was simple – either 4 or 5-speed manual or 3-speed automatic transmission. Most owners preferred manual transmission. The automatic one was slow. And manual gearboxes, in general, are more popular in Europe even these days.
The suspension was very basic but surprisingly well-handling. The rally versions built on this platform were impressively fast producing up to 217 HP and were great to drive on curved mountain roads. No surprise that they were used by Renault Sport in the World Rally Championship and competed there on a very decent level.
Many independent racing pilots also used these cars with turbo engines because it was a relatively cheap ticket in the world of serious racing.

On the other side of the pond, in the United States, AMC, who was partly owned by Renault at that time, produced over 600K cars in 1983-1987 under the Alliance and Encore names.
There were also interesting models available for the US market only like “Alliance L convertible” or higher-performance naturally aspirated 2.0-liter GTA version with 95 HP. But the American market has never seen the turbo versions of these cars.

Although a lot of these cars, over 6 million in total, were produced, the turbo models, the only really interesting ones, were used extensively by their owners. And now, they are becoming rare in good condition. So, if you’d like to buy one, and it’s actually a wise move, you have to hurry up. They inevitably are going to increase their value because of a rapidly decreasing offering.
Good news – they are still available in Europe and you can legally import them to the US now because they all are older than 25 years. And the prices are still relatively reasonable.

For turbo versions in very good condition in Europe the asking prices are 10-13K euro. But they are gaining value rather quickly. Just some years ago you could find one for 5-6 thousand. And I am expecting them to double in price again very soon, so, really, don’t wait, guys.
Non-turbo cars you can buy literally for a couple of thousand euros and maybe even less. But honestly, the turbo version is the one you should look for.

Renault 5 turbo may be more interesting but it’s very difficult to buy one now for reasonable money in decent condition. At the same time, Renault 9 and 11 turbo are still some kind of a hidden gem but they are revealing now and they are gaining their well-deserved glory and market value very quickly.