Renault Df104 !new! Review

Driving a Peugeot 104 today, you feel the ghost of Renault’s failure: a flat floor, a whining gearbox, and a bonnet that seems absurdly long for such a tiny car. That is the DF104—the prototype that lost the battle but defined the architecture of the modern small car.

In the pantheon of lost prototypes, the DF104 is unique: It was not a flight of fancy. It was a sound, logical, brilliant solution to a problem—simply born ten years too early and into the wrong company. renault df104

Renault, still reeling from the 1968 civil unrest and facing aging rear-engined models like the Renault 8 and 10, needed a modern voiture à vivre (a car for living). The directive from the Régie Nationale des Usines Renault was brutal: Create a car smaller than the R4, cheaper than the R6, but as spacious as a R16 inside. Driving a Peugeot 104 today, you feel the