A contender for the rarest longroof of the 1980s is a tremendously rare sight today.
If you thought spotting a Peugeot 505 or a Mitsubishi Diamante station wagon was a tall order, the Renault Medallion exists in a different category entirely. The model was one of the last Renault-designed vehicles to go on sale stateside, just as the AMC-Renault alliance was coming apart, with Chrysler picking up the pieces, and it was sold under a Renault badge for a very brief period of time before being rebadged as an Eagle.
The Medallion was very distinct from the Kenosha-built Renaults you may remember from this time period, and was definitely not built in the US. While the Alliance lineup was composed of small and inexpensive cars that tried to seem vaguely premium, the Medallion sedan and station wagon were positioned higher, and were intended to compete with much pricier midsize models from Europe and Japan. At least that was the intent.
The Medallion itself was known as the Renault 21 in Europe, and on both sides of the Atlantic it was meant to replace the Renault 18i station wagon, which was sold as the Sportwagon here, promising quite a lot with that name. In AMC-Renault’s lineup, the Medallion wagon was meant to occupy the middle spot below the Premier, arriving a few years after the 18i left the US, so there was a bit of a gap that had been filled by AMC models of the day and the Alliance lineup.
Powered by a 2.2-liter inline-four good for 103 hp, paired with a choice of a three-speed automatic or a five-speed manual, the Medallion served up a vaguely Audi-style exterior with a reasonably comfortable interior that would seem quite small today, and was certainly among the smaller station wagons offered stateside at the time. Despite nominally being a compact car, the Medallion offered an optional forward-facing third-row seat for a total of seven passengers—admittedly difficult to picture today.
“It has more combined passenger and cargo room than any car BMW makes,” ad copy of the time boasted. “It has more standard horsepower than the Nissan 200 SX. It has more rear seat legroom than Mercedes-Benz 560 SEL. It has a longer wheelbase than Audi 4000. It has more trunk room than Buick Somerset. The wagon has more cargo room than Volkswagen Quantum wagon. It’s about the same size outside as a Honda Accord, and it’s priced at least $1,000 less than the Accord, Mazda 626 or Toyota Camry.”
Despite the boasts, the Medallion went on to have a very short shelf life. The model arrived just as Chrysler was in the process of absorbing Jeep and AMC, and created the Eagle brand as a catchall for all the various AMC-Renault leftovers as well as its captive imports. So the Medallion was sold as Renault for a short period of time, before receiving an Eagle badge and soldiering on until 1989.
A forward-facing third row of seats promised seven-passenger capacity, at least on paper, as this was still considered a compact wagon.
Autoweek
For a seemingly endless list of reasons, sales seemed doomed from the start, with the Medallion getting caught up in Renault’s sudden departure, as Chrysler-Jeep-Eagle dealers struggled to handle the transition while working the Eagle Premier and Medallion into their lineup. Despite obliterating the Mercedes-Benz 560 SEL in the legroom department, the Medallion was seemingly lost amid an extensive cast of Japanese and domestic competitors that were far easier to sell customers into if they were in the market for a sedan or station wagon of this size. Neither Renault nor Eagle seemed particularly compelling at that hectic time in the industry, despite the clean and trendy styling of the Medallion, with just a few thousand sedans and station wagons finding buyers through three model years.
Just how many of these are left? We’ve met a few owners of Medallion sedans and wagons in the past few years, believe it or not, and they’ve told us there are about a dozen or so running examples of the Renault Medallion station wagon left in the US. By comparison, there are a couple hundred Renault Alliances in working condition—a model range that saw over half a million sales—so the Medallion is a rarity even in the classic Renault community.
There are far more running Tatras in the US today—that’s about how likely you are to encounter a Medallion sedan or wagon.
Was this the rarest station wagon of the time period? Under the Renault badge it certainly seems like it, though the Peugeot 405 station wagon posted about a thousand sales overall. So taken together the Eagle and Renault Medallion station wagons had edged out the 405 longroof by some margin, but both seemed to fade equally fast by the early 1990s. Peugeot 405 wagon owners also estimate about a dozen running examples left stateside.
Having actually spent some time in a Renault Medallion wagon a few years ago, we can attest to the surprising amount of legroom for second-row passengers, with a long wheelbase being one of the wagon’s secret weapons to win the war of interior dimensions. We wouldn’t vouch for third-row passengers, but the Medallion seemed roomy enough for the time, even if going up against the Toyota Camry wagon was probably a losing battle.
The rest of the Eagle range, on the other hand, actually saw some mild success. The Canadian-built Eagle Premier spent a longer time on sale stateside, also making a guest appearance as the Dodge Monaco, until Chrysler’s big sedans arrived by the middle of the 1990s. Other Eagles can still be readily encountered on US roads, and will surely be making appearances at Radwood events for years to come.
Keyword: Street-Spotted: Renault Medallion Station Wagon