RENAULT R6

The Renault 6 is a piece of France on four wheels.

Imagine it in the late 1960s. The roads are still filled with simple economy cars, and people are looking for a car that can take the family to the seaside, carry the luggage, the groceries, and perhaps a couple of quarrelling children in the back seat. And Renault comes up with this: the R6.

It has that boxy, almost naïve bodywork, with its small front end and large rear tailgate. It doesn’t try to look sporty. It doesn’t try to impress anyone. It doesn’t need to.

The R6 is the car that starts early in the morning, with an engine that coughs a little before coming to life. It is the metallic sound of the doors closing, the large steering wheel in your hands, the gear lever that requires a firm movement. It is the smell of petrol, fabric and plastic inside the cabin. It is a car made to be driven, dirtied, loaded, repaired and put back on the road.

The Renault 6 belongs to a world in which the automobile was not yet an object filled with electronics and driver assistance systems. Just you, the car and the road. If something stopped working, often all you had to do was open the bonnet and figure out what was going on.

And perhaps that is precisely what makes it so charming today: it doesn’t try to be beautiful according to modern standards. It is beautiful because it tells a story about an era.

An era of holidays with luggage packed all the way to the roof, country roads travelled without hurry, children falling asleep in the back seat, and windows rolled down because air conditioning was a luxury for the wealthy.

The R6 is not a car that gets you there faster.

It is a car that makes you remember the journey.

This 1970 car was imported from France in 2015 and underwent a sympathetic, preservation-focused restoration. It is in perfect working order and incredibly fun to drive, while also being comfortable, economical and reliable.