French companies built the world’s finest cars before WWII. Bugatti, Delage. The giants thrived abroad. At home.
Then came the war.
The luxury sedan market collapsed. Petrol rationing. A sluggish economy. The government slapped a stiff tax on non-essential goods, essentially taxing wealth itself. The wealthy waited. Until the 1960s they just drove smaller.
This is a look at French luxury between 1960 and 2020. It goes from the brilliant to the bizarre.
The Renault Rambler (1960-1962)
The Fregate ruled Renault’s lineup through the 50s. It looked modern thanks to its ponton design, far ahead of the Citroën Traction Avant. But the tide turned instantly.
The DS launched at the 1956 Paris Salon. The world went quiet. Renault needed to retaliate. They couldn’t build a flagship fast enough so they made a deal with American Motors.
Enter the Rambler.
Renault received kits in Belgium, assembled them in Haren. The European model got a 3.2-liter straight-six making 129 bhp. A reasonable engine for a failing strategy. The Rambler flopped. Too expensive to buy, harder to tax. It smelled distinctly of America. Even President de Gaulle rejected an armored Rambler as an official state car.
Rejection on the highest level.
The Renault 16 (1952)
Renault executives saw the Rambler sinking and cut the line. They brought in Gaston Juchet, a designer who knew exactly what Europeans wanted. He killed the three-box sedan silhouette. Instead he built a two-box hatch.
Practical. Unusual for the class.
The front-wheel drive layout was nothing new—seen on the Estafette, the 3 and the 4. But applied to a luxury sedan? Revolutionary.
Juchet tried coupe versions in the early sixties but they never saw the light of day. The 16 that launched had luxury features befitting a top-tier model. Fuel injection. Automatic transmission. Power door locks. Power windows. When the Rambler quietly disappeared in 1967, the 16 inherited its crown.
Renault planned a hierarchy: The 16 replaced by the 20 in 1975. The 30 would sit above both. A noble plan. But the 16 kept selling until 1980 because buyers liked it. Over 1.8 units sold, in the US, dozens of other nations.
The Monica 560 (13-71)
Jean Tastevin wanted more. A French industrialist. A fan of performance. In the late 60s, years after Facel-Vega collapsed, Tastevin set out to build a saloon to beat Maserati. To beat Mercedes-Benz. To humiliate Jaguar.
He recruited Chris Lawrence. Former Formula 1 driver. Tastevin named the car “Monica” for his wife Monique, “560” for the engine size.
The public saw a prototype at the 1979 Paris Salon. Early designs resembled a Panhard CD, powered by a V8 from Ted Martin. The final car launched the following year looked sharper. A wedge-shaped body. Modern.
Underneath the sheet metal was a Chrysler V8. A massive 5.6-liter displacement.
A bold American heart beating inside a French face.
