RENAULT 4

Utility appeal refashioned for a new age taps EV tech from a class leader

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Renault's daring decision to reinvent the famous 5 and bust one of car design's fundamental rules - 'never regurgitate your history' - appears to have been a masterstroke. The new, all-electric 5 oozes character inside and out, it handles smartly and it is ultra-competitive on cost. It's now the clear leader in a congested class.

The strategists at Renault's HQ in Boulogne-Billancourt will be doubly delighted because they've had the chance to repeat the trick with another back-catalogue icon: the 4.

You'll know the source material. More than eight million 4s were sold between 1961 and 1994, with production in places ranging from Wexford in Ireland to Antananarivo in Madagascar where, brilliantly, the little French station wagon remains the taxi du jour.

Where the original 5 was more about fun, the 4 was about practicality. It offered surprisingly good ride comfort on France's war-torn country roads, as well as total utility. The need to maximise interior space is why the original 4 has a different wheelbase on each side; one of the semi-trailing arms on the rear suspension is mounted just ahead of the other, to prevent the mechanicals encroaching on cabin space. For the same reason, the gearbox is mounted directly ahead of the engine: no awkward transmission tunnel. The big boot opening also extends to the very base of the bumper.