The Renault 21 is a

large family car The D-segment is the 4th category of the Euro Car Segment, European segments for passenger cars, and is described as "large cars". It is equivalent to the Euro NCAP "large family car" size class, and the present-day definition of the mid-size ...

produced by French automaker

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...

between 1986 and 1994. It was also sold in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

initially through

American Motors American Motors Corporation (AMC; commonly referred to as American Motors) was an American automobile manufacturing company formed by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company on May 1, 1954. At the time, it was the ...

dealers as the Renault Medallion and later through

Jeep-Eagle Jeep-Eagle was the name of the automobile sales division created by the Chrysler, Chrysler Corporation after the United States dollar, US$2 billion takeover of American Motors, American Motors Corporation (AMC) in 1987. The division marketed a va ...

dealers as the

Eagle Medallion The Eagle Medallion, also marketed as the Renault Medallion, is a rebadged and mildly re-engineered North American version of the French Renault 21 marketed by American Motors Corporation under the Renault brand for the 1988 model year, and by ...

. A total of 2,096,000 units were produced. The Renault 21 sedan was launched in the beginning of 1986, as the successor to the successful

Renault 18 The Renault 18 is a large family car produced by French manufacturer Renault between 1978 and 1989, with South American production continuing until 1994. It formed the basis for the closely related Renault Fuego Coupé, with which it shared its ...

, and this was followed a few months later by the seven seater

station wagon A station wagon ( US, also wagon) or estate car ( UK, also estate), is an automotive body-style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door ( ...

, the R21 Nevada, marketed as the Savanna in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. In 1987, ''

What Car? ''What Car?'' is a British monthly automobile magazine and website, currently edited by Steve Huntingford and published by Haymarket Consumer Media. Other team members include deputy editor Darren Moss and test editors Will Nightingale, Neil ...

'' awarded the Renault 21 GTS ''Best Family Saloon''. The Renault 21 Savanna was awarded ''

Car of the Year Car of the Year (COTY) is a common abbreviation for numerous automotive awards. The "Car of the Year" phrase is considered to have been introduced by ''Motor Trend'' magazine in 1949 when the new publication named Cadillac as Motor Trend Car of th ...

'', as well as ''Best Family Estate''.

Design

Unusually, the Renault 21 was offered with disparate engine configurations. The 1.7 litre version featured a

transverse engine A transverse engine is an engine mounted in a vehicle so that the engine's crankshaft axis is perpendicular to the direction of travel. Many modern front-wheel drive vehicles use this engine mounting configuration. Most rear-wheel drive vehicles ...

and transmission, but Renault had no gearbox suitable for a more powerful transverse engine: accordingly, faster versions featured longitudinally mounted 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. The Nevada/Savanna station wagon/estate version was slightly longer than the sedan, and configured with seven seats, two of those a forward-facing foldable bench seat for children (up to about age 10) that used up much of the luggage space. It had roof rack side rails as standard.

History

First unveiled on 20 November 1985 and officially launched in February 1986, the R21 gave Renault a new competitor in this sector after eight years of the R18, which was declining in popularity after a very strong start to its commercial life. It had a razor like design, which was different from contemporary cars of the era, e.g. the

Ford Sierra The Ford Sierra is a mid-size car or large family car manufactured and marketed by Ford Europe from 1982-1993, designed by Uwe Bahnsen, Robert Lutz and Patrick le Quément — and noted for its aerodynamic styling producing a drag coefficien ...

(with its "jelly mould" design) and the

Opel Ascona The Opel Ascona is a large family car (D-segment in Europe) that was produced by the German automaker Opel from 1970 to 1988. It was produced in three separate generations, beginning with rear-wheel-drive and ending up as a front-wheel drive J-ca ...

(with its " J–Car" design). It was sold in

right hand drive Left-hand traffic (LHT) and right-hand traffic (RHT) are the practices, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side or to the right side of the road, respectively. They are fundamental to traffic flow, and are sometimes referred to ...

for the United Kingdom from June 1986. The car was revamped considerably in May 1989, both technically and aesthetically – the new sleeker outward appearance was similar to the also recently revamped

Renault 25 The Renault 25 is an executive car produced by the France, French automotive industry, automaker Renault from 1983 to 1992. The 25 was Renault's Flagship#Automotive, flagship, the most expensive, prestigious, and the largest vehicle in the co ...

, and a

liftback A liftback is a variation of hatchback with a sloping roofline between 45 and 5 degrees. Traditional hatchback designs usually have a 90 to 46 degree slope on the tailgate or rear door. As such the liftback is essentially a hatchback with a more ...

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 In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pro ...

version. Of the sedans, the TXi 2.0 12v and 2.0 turbo was also available with the

four-wheel-drive Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...

Quadra transmission. The Nevada wagons received four-wheel-drive in the eight-valve 2.0 and in the naturally aspirated 2.1 Diesel, as the 12-valve and the turbo were not available with this bodywork. The front-wheel-drive 21 Turbo was capable of . ''Tutte le Auto del Mondo 1990'', p. 840 At the 1989 Frankfurt Motor Show the fuel injected 2.2i model was introduced, originally reserved for the German market (being a different model than the earlier 2.2s built for the US) where insurance and tax regulations suited larger engines with less peak power. Injected engines were equipped by

Renix Renix (Renix Electronique) was a joint venture by Renault and Bendix that designed and manufactured automobile electronic ignitions, fuel injection systems, electronic automatic transmission controls, and various engine sensors. Major applications ...

engine control unit An engine control unit (ECU), also commonly called an engine control module (ECM), is a type of electronic control unit that controls a series of actuators on an internal combustion engine to ensure optimal engine performance. It does this by re ...

, developed by a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

and Bendix. This car was also available with four-wheel-drive, exclusively as a Nevada. The Renault 21 liftback and sedan petrol fueled models ceased production in the beginning of 1994, following the launch of the all new

Laguna Laguna (Italian and Spanish for lagoon) may refer to: People * Abe Laguna (born 1992), American DJ known as Ookay * Andrés Laguna (1499–1559), Spanish physician, pharmacologist, and botanist * Ana Laguna (born 1955), Spanish-Swedish ballet d ...

liftback, but the diesels and the Nevada/Savanna remained on the market, until their replacement

variants were launched (end of 1994 for the diesels, and end of 1995 for the Nevada/Savanna). A Renault 21 TSE, donated as a personal gift to

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then as ...

by the president of Portugal

Mário Soares Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares, GColTE, GCC, GColL (; 7 December 1924 – 7 January 2017) was a Portuguese politician, who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the 17th presid ...

just before the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution ( cs, Sametová revoluce) or Gentle Revolution ( sk, Nežná revolúcia) was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations agains ...

, served for a while as the

official state car An official state car is a vehicle used by a government to transport its head of state or head of government in an official capacity, which may also be used occasionally to transport other members of the government or visiting dignitaries from ot ...

of the President of Czechoslovakia in 1989.

Other markets

Argentina

The R21 was built in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

at the Renault facility in Santa Isabel ( Córdoba Province) from late 1988 until early 1996. Production continued in Argentina for some years after its demise in European markets. Two body styles were built: sedan and Nevada (

). It has been equipped with both petrol and diesel engines, (

carburetor A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meteri ...

for the early production,

fuel injection Fuel injection is the introduction of fuel in an internal combustion engine, most commonly automotive engines, by the means of an injector. This article focuses on fuel injection in reciprocating piston and Wankel rotary engines. All comp ...

for the later engines). The available engines ranged from 1.8 liters (92CV carbureted/95CV injection), 2.0 liters (110CV without catalytic converter/105CV with catalytic converter), up to 2.2 liters (120CV without catalytic converter/110CV with catalytic converter), as well as the 2.1-liter diesel version (72CV) 1990 Renault 21 GTS (post-facelift)

The liftback was imported from France and called by the trim "Alizé". It was replaced for the Laguna.

Turkey

The R21 was manufactured in Turkey in the beginning of 1990s under the name Optima (entry model), Manager (1.7L 90 hp), and at the top-of-the-line the 2.0-liter fuel injected "Concorde." Later on, the "Manager 2000" with a 2 L 122 PS engine was introduced. The Oyak-built Renault 21 was produced and sold up to the end of 1996 in Turkey.

United States and Canada

The R21 was also sold in the United States and Canada from 1987 to 1988 as the Renault Medallion and later in 1988 until the end of the line in 1989 as the

with the 2.2 L engine as the only powerplant. However, the car was only on sale for a few months in 1987 before Renault sold its investment in

American Motors Corporation American Motors Corporation (AMC; commonly referred to as American Motors) was an American automobile manufacturing company formed by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company on May 1, 1954. At the time, it was the ...

(AMC) to

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

. AMC dealers were now under the newly formed

Division of Chrysler, and now as Jeep-Eagle dealers, they continued to sell the car as the

Eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

Medallion until 1989. The North American version had somewhat different styling to comply with front and rear impact regulations and different lighting standards.

Colombia

The 21 was launched in Colombia in 1987. Initially, it was available in four door body, with 2.0 L longitudinal engine. In October of the same year, the Renault 21 Nevada was launched, with the same engine as the saloon. in 1989 Sociedad de Fabricación de Automotores S.A. (SOFASA) launched a version called RS with the 1.6-liter C2L engine, also used in the TXE version of the Renault 9. In 1990, the name was replaced by the Étoile. The three available versions available were: * TS Saloon, Break, Penta (hatchback body) Engine 1.6 L , manufactured until 1994 * Tx with engine 2.0 L * Txi after called Bravo: engine 2.2 L .

Engines

*1.4 L (1397 cc) petrol OHV 8 valve I4; ; top speed: (Turkish development from C series block, called C2J, also available in Portugal and Yugoslavia) *1.4 L (1397 cc) petrol OHV 8 valve I4; ; top speed: *1.6 L (1565 cc) petrol OHV 8 valve I4; ; top speed: ; 0–100 km/h: 12.0 s (Argentinian development from C-series block, called C2L, available in Argentina and Colombia) *1.7 L (1721 cc) petrol SOHC 8 valve I4 carb.; ; top speed: ; 0–100 km/h: 12.0 s (Available in TL and TLE models) *1.7 L (1721 cc) petrol SOHC 8 valve I4 SPI; ; top speed: ; 0–100 km/h: 12.5 s *1.7 L (1721 cc) petrol SOHC 8 valve I4 carb.; ; top speed: ; 0–100 km/h: 10.7 s (Available in TS, RS, GTS and TSE models) *1.7 L (1721 cc) petrol SOHC 8 valve I4 carb.; ; top speed: *1.7 L (1721 cc) petrol SOHC 8 valve I4 MPI; ; top speed: ; 0–100 km/h: 10.7 s *2.0 L (1995 cc) petrol SOHC 8 valve I4 MPI; ; top speed: ; 0–100 km/h: 10.9 s (Available in GTX and TXE models) *2.0 L (1995 cc) petrol SOHC 12 valve I4; ; top speed: ; 0–100 km/h: 9.2 s (available in the TXi and TXi Quadra models) *2.0 L (1995 cc) petrol SOHC 8 valve I4 MPI turbo; ; top speed: ; 0–100 km/h: 7.4 s (available in Turbo and Turbo Quadra models). *2.0 L (1995 cc) petrol SOHC 8 valve I4 MPI turbo; ; top speed: ; 0–100 km/h: 7.8 s *2.2 L (2165 cc) petrol SOHC 8 valve I4 MPI; ; top speed: ; 0–100 km/h: 9.9 s *1.9 L (1870 cc) diesel SOHC 8 valve I4; ; top speed: ; 0–100 km/h: 16.0 s (available in SD and GSD models) *2.1 L (2068 cc) diesel SOHC 8 valve I4; ; top speed: ; 0–100 km/h: 15.6 s (available in TD and GTD models) *2.1 L (2068 cc) diesel SOHC 8 valve I4; ; top speed: ; 0–100 km/h: 15.1 s *2.1 L (2068 cc) diesel SOHC 8 valve I4 turbo; ; top speed: ; 0–100 km/h: 11.8 s

References

External links

{{Authority control 21 Mid-size cars Cars introduced in 1986 1980s cars 1990s cars Front-wheel-drive vehicles All-wheel-drive vehicles Sedans Station wagons Hatchbacks Cars of Turkey Touring cars