I’m Pretty Sure This Renault Is The Only Time A Carmaker Put A Whole Other Bumper Onto A Bumper

I’m pro-big ass bumpers. There, I said it. I don’t even mind that they can look clunky or inelegant, because I appreciate what they do, and what they do is make driving more forgiving, taking abuse selflessly, and protecting the tender painted bodywork of the car. That’s why I think they can be beautiful even if they look like chrome-and-black-rubber diving boards. Back in the 1970s, when America’s car ends were protected by stout, brave 5 mph bumpers, many European and Asian automakers had to come up with special US market-compliant bumpers that dwarfed the original designs. One company, though, took a bold, novel approach to meeting American bumper standards. One that didn’t lose the beauty of their original bumper design, because they never replaced the original bumper design. It was still there, on the back of the car, like always! It’s just that now it had an entire other bumper on top of it. That company was Renault, and the cars they did this on were the Renault 15 and 17.

I’m fairly certain this is the only time I can think of that a mass-market automaker has literally solved the 5mph bumper problem by slapping an entire bumper onto a bumper. Sure, plenty of cars had massive bumper supplements added, often in the form of huge, dense, black rubber bricks, and with those in mind, I can’t even say that Renault’s approach was so much worse, aesthetically. Here, let’s take a look at what the car looked like as originally designed, for non-US markets. First, the front:

As you can see, the front bumper is formed by the chrome surround of the grille, quite similar to what Chrysler was doing in the early 1970s. The lower half of the surround has additional rubber and some rubber bumper guards, but it’s pretty minimal, bumper-wise. There’s more going on at the rear:

That’s a good-sized bumper! Sure, it forms the whole lower section of the rear bodywork, but it has those corrugated rubber panels and doesn’t appear to be especially flimsy. However, it is inset very close to the rest of the bodywork, and clearly wouldn’t meet America’s stringent 5 mph bumper specs. So, here’s what the American versions looked like, starting with the front, again:

See? That’s a whole bumper on there. A whole, new chrome bumper, complete with new turn indicators and rubber end caps. If we can call the minimal setup of the original a bumper, this is definitely a bumper over that bumper. The back is even more dramatic:

That bumper has a bumper on it. The original chrome bumper is still very much in place, though the rubber seems to have lost its grooves, but we still have it all there, providing a warm and welcoming home to a pair of reflectors and the license plate. And, in front of the lower part, we have an entire bumper, all chrome and rubber capped, ready to protect the safety of the bumper behind it, which, in turn, protects the rear of the car.

It’s like instead of designing a new bumper for the Renault 15 and 17, they just decided to hire the bumpers assistants. I can almost picture a team of Renault designers and engineers, smoking like chimneys and brandishing baguettes, resplendent in their striped shirts and berets, calculating the costs of new 5 mph bumper designs for the 15 and 17.

At some point, amid all of the gripings and lamenting about costs, through the smoke a lone voice piping up and saying “Et si nous collions juste un autre pare-chocs sur les pare-chocs?” and then everyone one is all oui, oui, let’s just slap on a couple of other bumpers! They look pretty close to the ones they were putting on the Renault 12, perhaps they wrenched a set off some office worker’s car in the parking lot and tried them out, realizing, hey, this may just be good enough!

I’m pretty sure these were right off the Renault 12; they sure look close:

And, the truth is, I think they were right! Those bumpers-on=bumpers don’t really look all that bad! I mean, if you weren’t familiar with the original European market car, would you have even thought this was that weird if you saw it on the street? (or in this case, on a foggy beach or large reading-field):

I don’t think you’d find it strange at all. I mean, even when they were selling these in America, they were never common, so the odds of you seeing one and thinking about this were likely pretty low, but still, you see what I mean. For a car that essentially has four bumpers, it just doesn’t look that confusing. I think Renault pulled it off.

You know what else was cool about these cars? In keeping with longstanding Renault traditions, you could get the Renault 17 (in TL or sporty Gordini variants) with a canvas sunroof. The difference here was that unlike a car like the Renault 5/Le Car’s canvas roof, the R17 came with a fiberglass cover that could cover the whole thing:

Look how clever that is! It’s like all the benefits of a Targa-type removable roof but with the ability to quickly close the roof when needed, like a canvas sunroof! You get easy, on-the-fly opening and closing and the option of better sealing for winter or to stave off the inevitable leaks that come with a canvas sunroof. It’s clever as hell!

So, there you go. Now you know the only car that ever was built and sold with bumpers on its bumpers. I’ll leave it to you to make your own Xzibit meme about it.

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