Thursday Trivia

Thirsday Trivia Welcome to Thursday Trivia where we offer up a historical automotive trivia question and you try and solve it before seeing the answer after the jump. It’s like a history test, with cars! This week’s question: What was the first mass-production car to offer factory remote keyless entry? If you think you know it, make the jump and unlock the answer. renault_fuego_gtx_pink_1983The level of technological advancement over the course of the auto industry’s century and a quarter lifetime is phenomenal. We’ve long gone past the work to simply keep cars on the road and today are faced with an industry embattled for the claim of the most advanced cup holder, or greatest innovation in door latching. Actually, that last one isn’t all that crazy, and is one of the areas when modern cars diverge significantly form their predecessors. At one time, getting in a car simply required stepping up and into its buggy seat as no form of door, and hence locking mechanism, was offered. Once the off-shoot industry of car theft got into full swing, manufacturers discovered the benefit of both doors and locks. For the longest time, securing and opening your car required a key which would unlock a single door. That was great, except that you had to remember to lock or unlock all the others. Central locking took care of that, and was the next major milestone in automotive door lock technology. Of course if you’re going to offer auto locks the next logical step is to connect them to a remote control, as had already been done for the opening and closing of garage doors. Today, the key fob remote is as ubiquitous a part of the auto ownership experience as is an insurance payment or the aforementioned cup holder. That wasn’t always the case however, and as you would expect, there had to be a first factory offering for so cool a technology, which surprisingly was offered on a car named for fire. From eKeylessremotes.com

Remote keyless systems first began appearing on the French made Renault Fuego in 1982,and as an option on several American Motors vehicles in 1983, including the Renault Alliance. The feature gained its first widespread availability in the U.S. on several General Motors vehicles in 1989.

The Renault Fuego will not be remembered as a great car, and the Alliance will be remembered as a terrible one. Still, Renault’s ’80s coupe does hold the honor of offering the first remote lock operation of any mass-produced car. In fact, you could say it has that accomplishment locked up. Image: Productioncars

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