Images are from the brochure collection of Hemmings Motor News
There may have been a whiff of pocket protector about the Kenosha, Wisconsin,-built Renault Alliance in the mid-1980s, but that car was initially quite a strong seller and received numerous awards, including Motor Trend's 1983 Car of the Year prize. It was cleanly styled, lauded for its interior room and ride comfort, and available in two- and four-door sedan forms; a convertible joined the lineup in 1985.
Renault saw the then-popular market for small, inexpensive, sporty cars, and chose to offer its own in the form of 1987's GTA. This model was based on the two-door sedan and convertible, and it featured attractive body-color bumpers and ground effects, a trunklid lip spoiler, lightweight 15 x 6-inch Ronal alloy wheels fitted with 50-series Michelin Sport XGT radials, plus special bucket seats and a leather-wrapped three-spoke steering wheel. Its 2.0-liter, 95-hp OHC four-cylinder engine was a step up from the lesser model's 1.7-liters and 77 hp, and depending on the source, the five-speed-only car could do the 0-60 MPH run on either side of the 10-second mark.
The GTA retained the practicality of the Alliance, and added a dash of sport and genuine handling ability. It was quite competitive, as this Motorweek video shows.
You can watch more videos of this American Renault in action on the Renault Alliance Club Passion YouTube page.
GTA options included air conditioning, a stereo cassette with graphic equalizer, and even remote keyless entry... in 1987! Unfortunately, its cost -- $9,000 for a GTA sedan and $14,537 for a convertible, the rough equivalent of $18,880 and $30,496 today -- and the fact that AMC/Renault didn't have a youthful performance reputation to draw people into dealerships -- kept buyers away. A mere 5,515 GTA two-door sedans and 1,029 GTA convertibles were sold, and the model did not return for 1988.
This brochure has an unusual vertical/horizontal page layout, so forgive the size limitations of our scanner, and click the images below to enlarge.
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