Renault Rodéo (1982) – Into the Wild

The French have come up with a lot of creative cars over the years and Citroën has certainly made a name for itself in that area. At Renault they will have thought a few times about their competitor ‘if only we had come up with that idea’. After all, with the Renault 4 they responded to the Citroën 2CV and in the 1970s Renault in a sense followed Citroën’s example again by coming up with the Rodéo. Citroën had already released the adventurous Méhari based on the 2CV in 1968, and Renault did something similar on the R4 basis with the Rodéo in 1970.

By the way, we are talking about the Rodéo 4, because in 1972 there was also a larger Rodéo 6, which, as its name implies, was based on the R6. In that respect, Renault took a more extensive approach than Citroën, although the Rodéo would always remain a bit in the shadow of the Méhari. Nevertheless, it was a relatively popular leisure car and Renault decided on the threshold of the 1980s that there should be a sequel. In 1981 the Rodéo 5 took over from the primal Rodéos. The number did not indicate from which it was derived. After all, the Rodéo 5 also shared its base with the R4, the R4 GTL to be precise. The Rodéo 4 was based on the R4 Fourgonnette.

As with the Rodéo’s 4 and 6, Renault did not build the Rodéo 5 itself, but outsourced it to ACL, which was later named after CEO Raoul Teilhol. From 1978 the company was known as Teilhol and that is why the later Rodéo’s 4 and 6, but also the Rodéo 5 are sometimes officially known as Teilhol and not as Renault or ACL. That also applies to the copy we have here in front of us, spotted by colleague Joost Boers.

The body of the Rodéo 5 was clearly more modern than its predecessors. Where they, like the Citroën Méhari, had an extremely minimal body, the admittedly smaller Rodéo 5 was really a bit more car. For example, the Rodéo 5 had fuller doors and a more robustly decorated body all around. Furthermore, with the Rodéo 5 you could still zip away the roof and partially open the carriage all around, but the frame always remained in place. What was the same again, was the 1.1 that was in the nose. That was again the 45 hp strong 1,108 cc Cléon-Fonte engine that the Rodéo 6 had taken over from the R6 and which was also available in the R4 and R5.

The Renault Rodéo 5 was not really a success and in 1986 it was over for this last Rodéo. Only much later did this copy from 1982 find its way to the Netherlands. In fact, he’s only been here a few weeks! At the beginning of this month he got his Dutch license plate, just in time to experience his first Dutch summer. Looks like he’s ready for it.