Fleet lady from France - Renault Dauphine in the (historic) test
Summary
The first attempt had gone wrong, but the second Dauphine test was a success. The main reason for this was the Aerostable design, which significantly improved the road holding of the French featherweight. Otherwise, the compact saloon showed its familiar and popular side and impressed with its spaciousness, economy and foolproof handling. This article reproduces an original test report from the summer of 1960 and shows the "heir to the throne" in historical photos and sales material.
This article contains the following chapters
- Of course, the road holding also benefited from Aerostable
- Brave Ventoux
- Improved gearbox
- More filigree than solid
- Driving is fun
Estimated reading time: 12min
Preview (beginning of the article)
A glance at a map of Renault dealers and customer services in Germany - there are probably over 700 in the country - clearly shows how quickly, and especially how much, the Dauphine has become at home here. Of course, a glance at our roads was enough, but this show is not new, we have become so accustomed to it that we take it for granted. Apart from the Dauphine, there is only one other foreign make that appears on the roads with the same naturalness, the Fiat. However, Fiat has been at home here for decades, Renault had not been able to make it before the Dauphine. Is the Dauphine the modern version of a Volkswagen, or even the VW? Yes and no, you could say, yes to the "Volkswagen", no to the VW. What both types have in common is the rear engine, but that's about it, because not even the engines are similar, nor are the wheel suspensions or suspension. They only meet again in terms of driving performance. The Renault people have certainly learned from the VW, in any case the maxim that a car of this type is a bestseller. And that's enough of the comparison.
Continue reading this article for free?
Photos of this article
















































