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Old 12-08-21, 09:40 AM
  #101  
martl
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Originally Posted by cudak888
My father once told me that he saw one of these where someone had scribbled "...mon dieu!" in the door's road grime, right after "Le Car."

Was it worthy of this criticism? I don't know, but it made for a great story.

-Kurt
The R5 is a magnificent piece of engineering. It can be argued it is the first example of a car that took the genius Mini 2-box, lateral front engine, fwd, design to the modern hatchback we still see today. When it came out in 72, your alternatives on the market were the R4, a Beetle (both platform-based designs 40/20 years old), a 2CV or its luxury sister Diane, an Austin Maxi if you were insane, or a Fiat 127 (which is closest to being somewhat modern but aquired the large rear hatch after the R5sa success). More worldwide successful memebers of the species like the VW Golf/Rabbit arrived years later.
Also one of the erliest uses of the large plastic bumper as a part of the cars body instead of something bolted on after, something *every* car has today.

No nation matches France when it comes to the design of compact, inexpensive, robust, clever, original small cars.

Last edited by martl; 12-08-21 at 09:45 AM.
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