V.I.S.I.T. – 1996 Renault Mégane Coupé

Chiquita, the banana company, advertise their products as “The Bright Spot in Every Day”. The same can be said of this very yellow Renault Mégane Coupé, that is one of the cars using yellow as a signature colour. When the Mégane lineup was launched in the mid-1990s, a handsome amount of the cars were eye-searingly yellow. The colour suits the car nicely, and it is one of my ’90s design favourites.

All front overhang and the rear wheels in the rear corners, it’s a funny-looking car. Take a look.

This fruit is a little past its sell-by date, as the corners have browned a bit. You shouldn’t salt fruit, you know. The fat wheels have corroded badly, too, and lost their lacquer.

The B-pillar-incorporating door design is a design centrepiece just as much as the pert rear is.

Even if it’s obscured by snow, an interesting thing about the rear is that the car’s not a hatchback. The rear screen doesn’t lift with the trunklid, but the trunk is instead accessed via the tiniest openings after the original Mini.

The Mégane’s platform was little more than a direct continuation of the preceding R19, and the line-up matched the R19 with the availability of a convertible, a four-door saloon and a 5-door hatch as well, confusingly also called the “Coupé”. The 19 never got a wagon, though, unlike the Mégane.

The 99-horsepower 1.6-litre Mégane never set anyone’s pants on fire, but it’s a nice little trinket amongst non-yellow cars. Since they generally have kept their value just like all the other mid-to-late 1990s French cars, they are affordable beaters.

[Images: Copyright 2013 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen]