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Yet another great Renault hatch, the 5 was the second member of the front-drive supermini club inaugurated by the Fiat 127. The 5, however, was a hatchback from the start. Its neat styling seemed fashionable for years and it was offered with a huge range of engines, from 782 cc (France only) through to a relatively large-for-its-class 1400.
Thrifty and refined, the 5 had a superb ride for a small car and was a happier motorway cruiser than many of its tiddler contemporaries. Versions from the '70s had austere interior fittings with large areas of painted metal and rubber mats but, for the Renault purist, such urban chic was what the car was all about. It certainly didn't put buyers off: 5.5 million were produced and in Britain at the height of its popularity in the late '70s, 14,000 were sold.
The five-speed, 93 bhp 5 Gordini - badged Alpine in France - is widely held to be the ultimate Mk 1 Renault 5, but our money is on an early dash-shift car. Renault bowed to customer demand with the later floor-mounted shift but, ironically, it wasn't as slick.
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