1988 Renault Medallion Test Drive
Spring 1987, AMC’s future, for the first time in a long, long time, was actually looking bright. Its Jeep division was doing well, especially the Cherokee and Wagoneer sport utility vehicles. And AMC was poised to pull the wrapper off the first of two Renaults that would give the company its first complete line of models in years: first, the compact Medallion, then the Premier.
Just a few months later, there was no future for AMC, bright or otherwise: it was swallowed up by Chrysler and incorporated into the Jeep/Eagle division. All that remained was the Medallion, Premier and Jeeps. The Alliance was gone.
The compact Renault Medallion was a handsome little runner available as a 4-door sedan or station wagon. It was based on the Renault 21, which was successful in Europe, and was built in France. But that was there and this was here, and American drivers never clutched a Renault anything to their collective breasts. Renault hoped this time there may be enough of them to give the Medallion a taste of success because this Renault was very mainstream European, a look that sold over there.
The Medallion’s front wheels were driven by a 2.2-liter, overhead cam four that made 103-horsepower, which was certainly on par with its competitors (Nissan Stanza, Toyota Camry, GM J-cars). The engine and transmission were in-line mounted.
Both the sedan and wagon packed a long list of standard features in the basic DL trim. Standard for them, but typically non standard in the class, was a tilt steering column and seat-height adjustment. Power steering and power brakes were also standard features. More money got you the LX trim which included rear head rests, passenger rocker seat, velour seats and so forth.
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