Renault 5 revival to take on DS3?

Renault 5 Turbo - perhaps the only remotely iconic R5

It’s being reported that Renault are planning to revive the Renault 5 / R5 / Le Car to take on the modern wave of chic, small cars.

What have been the big successes in little cars in the past few years? Yep, recreations of bygone icons have wiped the floor with the opposition.

The MINI and the Fiat 500 have ruled the roost for those who seek style and cool to go with small, chic and cheap to run.

The one exception is the brilliant Citroen DS3, which has managed to out-cool and out-chic the MINI and the Fiat 500 without resorting to a style that’s a pastiche of a motoring icon. Mind you, Citroen still had to resort to reviving an iconic moniker to signal its intent.

And with fuel costs rising and eco-mentalists banging the doom-mongering drums, the flight to smaller cars is set to continue, even for those who could afford something bigger and flasher. And all car makers want a piece of that action if they can engineer it, particularly as purchase price is less important in a style-icon (which means bigger profits) than the cool factor.

So it seems that Renault are keen to revive the Renault 5 to do for Renault what the DS3 did for Citroen. Or at least they are according to Autocar, who think the Renault 5 (or R5 or even ‘Le Car’, if you’re American) is going to be dragged kicking and screaming in to the 21st century to give Renault back some cool.

Except we think it’s just a punt by Autocar. We reckon you could lay a similar claim at any manufacturer’s door and have a fair chance of being right. They’d all love to re-invent a car from their history that would give them the same numbers as the MINI and the 500.

But you have to start with something that was cool in the first place. The Mini always was, the Fiat 500 was hugely loved and thought of as cute and the Citroen DS range was almost revered, especially in France.

But the Renault 5 was just…well, just the Renault 5 (except maybe the R5 Turbo). Ubiquitous, undeniable; Renault sold them by the shed-load. But much loved, fondly remembered and even remotely iconic? Not as far as we’re concerned.

Our money’s on a punt of a story on a slow news day.