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Article: Chic devil in disguise ; The Renault Dauphine looked elegant, but its idiosyncratic handling was not for the faint-hearted, says Andrew Roberts
- Article from:
- Belfast Telegraph
- Article date:
- October 9, 2007
CopyrightCopyright 2007 Belfast Telegraph. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The Renault Dauphine certainly possessed an undeniable sense of
elegance, apart from that distinctive smell of baked rubber familiar
to nearly every rear-engined Renault, Fiat and VW of this era.
Unlike the solidly respectably Wolseley 1500, all Bakelite and
leather upholstery, the Dauphine was a small car in which a
housewife could dream of being the Audrey Hepburn of the suburbs.
From a 2007 perspective Dauphine motoring is not a prospect to be
undertaken lightly - the doors tend to close with a not-terribly
reassuring clang that causes the metal dash to reverberate, and its
dimensions are so compact that it is incredible to think that it was
often used as both a Parisian police car and a ...