The Medallion was meant to replace the underachieving Renault 18i and the antiquated AMC Concord in the Renault / AMC lineup.
The Medallion never sold well. By the time Renault introduced it in the US their sales were free falling. Chrysler took over AMC within a few months of the Medallion's introduction. They had little interest in selling it. It was re-badged as an Eagle Medallion, but within 2 years it was dropped from the lineup.
Based on the European Renault 21, it featured a 2.2 liter 4 cylinder engine. For all around drivability, this was the best 4 cylinder engine Renault ever sent to the US.
Like most of the Renaults we received in the US, it was very well designed and engineered, but not very well put together. It would most likely never leave you stranded, but you'd be forever replacing small items.
As most of you have figured out, I'm a fan of Renaults. I test drove one of these shortly after they were introduced. I remember it being quicker than any other Renault sedan I had driven or owned and extremely comfortable. All-in-all, I'd describe it as "pleasant". And that's the problem...A company like Renault needed something better than "pleasant" in the US. It needed something exciting, it needed something quirky, it needed something, anything, to make it stand out from the crowd. The Medallion didn't possess any of those qualities. It was just one of a great number of pleasant sedans being offered in the US. It, rightly, got lost in the crowd.
This car is pretty amazing. It is a 1 owner car. That one owner was a 91 year old woman who put just 52,000 miles on it. (Normally, I would be skeptical of the 91-year-old-woman-owner story, but that's the type of person who often wound up with these cars. They'd go into the dealership where the bought their Hornet 10 years before and their Rambler 10 years before that, looking for a new, comfortable, car. "Joe", the salesperson they'd been dealing with since the 1960s, would put them in a Medallion. He didn't have much else to sell them.) It needs some minor work (of course), but is being offered for the absurdly reasonable price of $650.00.
Located in Raritan Township, NJ, click here to see the Craigslist ad.A big thanks to JaCG reader, Blair, for sending me the link to this car.
