Renault 9 and 11

The Renault 9 and Renault 11 were small family cars that the French manufacturer Renault produced from 1981 to 1989, the 9 as a saloon introduced in October 1981 and the 11 as a three- or five-door hatchback from early 1983. Robert Opron styled both under the code name L42 as a traditional three box design for conventional buyers, and the pair were identical under the skin and intended to jointly replace the Renault 14. They used a transverse front-wheel-drive layout with four wheel independent suspension and Renault's in-house Cléon engine, in place of the Douvrin unit shared with Peugeot-Citroën. The Renault 9 was the 1982 European Car of the Year, and American Motors built a version as the Renault Alliance and Encore, 623,573 of them for model years 1982 to 1987. Production continued in France until 1989 and ended in Turkey in 2000, and the 11 Turbo was used by Renault Sport in the 1987 World Rally Championship.