November 26, 2010

Today's car of the day is Guisval's 1987 Renault 21 Nevada (aka Renault and later Eagle Medallion).

The Renault 21 is a large family car produced by French automaker Renault between 1986 and 1994. It was also sold in North America through American Motors (AMC) dealers as the Renault Medallion and the Eagle Medallion.

The Renault 21 sedan was launched in early 1986 as the successor to the extremely successful Renault 18, and this was followed a few months later by the seven-seater station wagon 21 Nevada (known as the Savanna in the United Kingdom), a rival for the Peugeot 505 Family Estate.

Unusually, the Renault 21 was offered with disparate engine configurations. The 1.7 litre version featured an 'east-west' (transversely) mounted engine, but Renault had no gearbox suitable for a more powerful transverse engine: accordingly, faster versions featured longitudinally mounted (north south) engines. The two versions featured (barely perceptibly) different wheel bases: the engines were all relatively compact four cylinder units and the engine bay was large enough to accept either configuration without reducing passenger space. However, at a time when production technologies were relatively inflexible, the need to assemble differently configured engine bays on a single production line, along with the supplementary inventory requirements imposed both on Renault and on the dealership network, did compromise the Renault 21's profitability.

For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Renault 21 Nevada

Another geographic hodgepodge car (like last week's Siku/Germany Alfa Romeo/Italy Montreal/Canada) this time we're treated to Guisval (Spain)'s replica of a Renault (France) 21 Nevada (USA).  It's a fairly nice casting and features opening doors.  The paint is very nice for a Guisval- no silly tampos on this one!  I know the door-gap crowd will be up in arms over it though, but for a Guisval this is very nice.

In 1986, the R21 was launched. It had a razor-like design, which was different from contemporary cars of the era, e.g. the Ford Sierra (with its "jelly mould" design) and the Opel Ascona (with its J-Car design).

The car was revamped considerably in 1989, both technically and aesthetically - the new sleeker outward appearance was similar to the also recently revamped Renault 25, and a liftback body style was also added to the range (which soon became more popular than the sedan in France) along with a sporty 2.0 L Turbo version. The turbo was also available with the four wheel drive Quadra transmission, and was capable of 227 km/h.

The Renault 21 liftback and sedan petrol-fueled models ceased production in early 1994 on the launch of the all-new Laguna liftback, but the diesels and the Nevada (Savanna in the UK) remained on the market until their replacement Laguna variants were launched (late 1994 for the diesels and late 1995 for the Nevada (Savanna)).

The 21 also continued production in Argentina for some years after its European demise. The 21 was crafted in Argentina, at the Santa Isabel (Cordoba) Renault facility since late 1988 until early 1996.

All three body styles have been built there: liftback, sedan and Nevada (station wagon). It has been equipped with both petrol and diesel engines. The only petrol engine available was the 2.2 litre 8-valve (carburettor for the starting production, injection for the later models), and the only diesel engine available was the 2.1 litre. Both engines were available for the three body versions.

R21's were manufactured in Turkey in early 90's under the name Optima (entry model), Manager (later Manager 2000 with 2-litre engine), and (top of the line) Concorde.

The R21 was also sold in North America for a brief period as the Medallion, with the 2.2-litre engine being the only powerplant. However, the car was only on sale for a few months in 1987 before Renault sold its investment in American Motors (AMC) to Chrysler.

AMC dealers were now under a newly formed Jeep-Eagle Division of Chrysler, and continued to sell the car under the name Eagle Medallion until 1989.

The 21 was launched in Colombia in late 1987 with 2.0L longitudinal engine. Unfortunately warranty problems with cooling system, front suspension, and power steering compromise the 21's brand. Problems were difficult to solve for Renault and SOFASA (Colombia's assembly plan for Renault). The 21's reputation for Colombian customers was destroyed from since, even making Phase II being sold as the Renault Etoile in Colombia between 1990 and 1995.