Renault Alliance

The Renault Alliance is a subcompact automobile manufactured and marketed in North America by American Motors Corporation , with 623,573 examples manufactured for model years 1983-1987, and with a three- and five-door hatchback variant, the Renault Encore marketed beginning in 1984. The two models derived from AMC's partnership since 1979 with Renault, which held controlling stake in the smallest U.S. automaker. The Alliance and Encore were essentially the Renault 9 & 11 slightly re-engineered for North American manufacture—featuring exterior styling by Robert Opron, director of... Renault Styling, and the interior design by AMC's Richard Teague. The Alliance two-door sedan and the convertible were designed by AMC for the North American market. Competition from the "Big Three," new safety regulations and two energy crises in 1973-74 and again in 1979, left American Motors in a weak position in the U.S. marketplace. The company had three product lines: a profitable line of government vehicles, Jeeps, and passenger cars. However, when sales dropped suddenly in 1979 and all of the U.S. automakers saw their sales plummet, AMC faltered.
more