Originally Posted by Mark DiSilvestro

Back in the day, I recall one auto writer slammed the Renault Fuego for it's "snail-like styling and acceleration"!

In 1980, I briefly owned a faded red, grey-market 1973 Renault R6-TL - a tiny, tinny 4-door hatchback, using mostly the same mechanicals as the version we got here later as the Le Car. This Renault had been given to a neighbor for his son, who had little mechanical ability, and even less interest in a funny-looking little French car. So the neighbor signed it over to me just to get it out of his driveway.
The major coolant leak turned out to be a heater hose - not the bad head-gasket the PO's mechanic had claimed. New brake pads and a CV axle were standard Le Car items so they were readily availible here at the time. Trips to local salvage-yards yielded a replacement Renault R12 rear tag light and a pair of Dodge Dart 7" headlights with mounts, so I could replace the broken original amber French 5" quartz-iodine headlamps and get through inspection. I wound up driving it for a few weeks, while my regular car was out of commission.
Front-drive, with a 1.1 liter pushrod engine behind the transaxle, four-wheel torsion-bar suspension, very comfortable ride & seats, leaned like a sailboat in corners, and a weird 4-speed shifter in the dash. It looked kind-of like an umbrella handle, but worked way better than the horrible, rubbery floorshift used in the later American-market Le Cars.
I had about $150 in it, then sold it to a co-worker's friend for $350. He got drunk and totaled it 6 months later!

Happy Motoring, Mark