If you ask lovers of beautiful mechanics to name the most mythical car for them, there is a very good chance that names such as the Ferrari 250 GTO and Testarossa, the Porsche 911, the Mercedes 300 SLR, the Ford Gran Torino or the Aston Martin DB 5 are mentioned.
Outre-Quiévrain, chauvinism obliges, it is inevitable that the Citroën DS or 2 CV as well as the Renault 5 and Alpine come out of the mouths of our French neighbors.
And one of the legendary French cars is regarding to come back to life. If the diamond group has already announced the return of the Renault 5, the 4L, a kind of utility before its time, should be back in the relatively near future. Renault has indeed unveiled the concept car which prefigures what will be the design of the new 4L at the Paris Motor Show currently being held in Paris.
And it is surprising: exit the wise design of the old 4L, make way for something heavy. Very heavy. The future 4L will have an impressive rectangular grille, oversized road crossings, capsule lights in homage to its now sixty-year-old ancestor. But the surprise lies above all in the category in which it will be positioned: exit the city car of the 1960s, make way for an electric SUV. “The 4L is a myth and myths never dielaunched the general manager of Renault, Luca de Meo, during the presentation of the future 4L. It’s a car that still speaks to millions of people around the world. For many, it represented access to the automobile.”
The model presented at the Auto Show is still only a concept car which will, unfortunately, have to be calmed down. The “4EVER Trophy” concept indeed offers an all-terrain vision, more aggressive and futuristic than what the factory version provides. Its production is scheduled from the end of 2024 in the Maubeuge plant (Nord department), which manufactures Kangoo utilities. The first model should be delivered in the spring of 2025.
Proof of the mythical side of this model, the original 4L remains the second most represented ancestor in France, with nearly 86,000 copies still registered, just behind the 2 CV, according to the insurer Hicox. During the 1960s and 1970s, the 4L had sold eight million copies and had a reputation for being indestructible, with some models having exceeded the million-kilometre mark.