The Renault 4, or R4 in short (and 4L, pronounced "Quatrelle", in French), is an economy car built by the French company Renault from 1961 to 1994. Although the Renault 4 was first marketed as a short estate or wagon, its minimal rear overhang, and its top-hinged, single-piece tail-gate made it the world's first mass-produced hatchback car, as well as the first time Renault had used a front-wheel-drive layout in a family car. A bare-bones, entry-level Renault 3, or R3 was also offered in 1961/1962.
The car was launched at a time when several decades of economic stagnation were giving way to growing prosperity and surging car ownership in France. The first million cars were produced by 1 February 1966, less than four and a half years after launch; eventually over eight million were built, making the Renault 4 a commercial success because of the timing of its introduction and the merits of its design. In early 2020, the 33-year production run of the Renault 4 was counted as the seventeenth most long-lived single generation car in history.
