Museum Classic: 1951 Renault Juvaquatre – The Small Workhorse

The Juvaquatre had a long but unusual career. If you were in France anytime in the ‘50s or ‘60s, you would have seen these little wagons in every town and village in the entire country. With Renault being the biggest French carmaker, that makes some sense. But the model, born in the ‘30s, was not at all intended for this purpose originally. France’s postwar workhorse found its calling by accident.

This adorable Juva was captured at the Manoir de l’automobile, a large museum located in Brittany. Common though these were in their day, they have become extremely rare nowadays, as the overwhelming majority were literally worn down by years of hard labour. Finding one in this museum was an unexpected occasion to share with CC the story of this crucial, yet often overlooked, model in Renault’s history.

Unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in October 1937, the Juvaquatre was a return to small cars (a mere 1-litre engine) after having left that market to the likes of Peugeot, Simca, Rosengart or Licorne for the last seven years. But beyond that, it represented a rather big leap forward for Renault: it was their first car with IFS and their first all-steel unit body. Sales only started in earnest in the spring of 1938, initially only with a two-door saloon.

Said two-door saloon (top left) was rather elegant, but it was not what the French clientele was clamouring for. Renault responded fairly quickly with the inevitable four-door (top right), which entered the range in early 1939. At the same time, a découvrable was included (bottom right) – based on either the two- or four-door saloons. In the summer of 1939, a few dozen luxury coupés (bottom left) were assembled, pretty much by hand. The start of the Second World War put a stop to that variant, though production of the two- and four-door saloons carried on through to the arrival of the Wehrmacht in June 1940. By that point, the Juvaquatre had gained hydraulic brakes.

In parallel to its distinguished career as a cheap and cheerful popular car, the little Juva also sprouted a delivery van variant – the first batch were made, in fact, as early as mid-1938. Just like the other Juvaquatres, it sported a live rear axle and was suspended via transverse leaf springs front and back. The 1003cc 4-cyl. was a side-valve unit producing a very modest 25hp (gross) and mated to a three-speed manual.

Louis Renault had pushed for the development of the car after having seen the new Opel Olympia (above) at the 1935 Berlin Motor Show. And it showed, to say the least. Opel were not best pleased and threatened legal action, but ultimately did not push through. After all, the Olympia’s styling was itself quite reminiscent of the ’34 Hupmobiles. But Renault had also copied Budd for the construction – an all-steel bodyshell welded to a platform, i.e. exactly what the Americans had patented as the unit body. Budd immediately and successfully sued; Renault had to pay them a royalty on every Juvaquatre they ever made.

Louis Renault obviously enjoyed visiting the Berlin IAA: he went there again in February 1939, where he presented the Juva to some well-known local decision-makers. Five and a half years later, in October 1944, the old industrialist died while in custody (probably due to the interrogation techniques being employed on him), suspected of collaboration with the Germans. At the same time, the gigantic Renault conglomerate was nationalized. The only car back on the production line by late 1945 was the four-door Juvaquatre and its panel van derivative.

The four-door’s postwar career was brief, ending in 1948: as soon as the new 4CV was ready for prime-time, Renault switched to manufacturing their home-grown Volkswagen. But the 4CV’s rear engine layout made it impractical to use as a small utility car. The Juva van therefore carried on alone, then it was seconded in 1950 by a civilian wagon with side window all around, also known as the Break. Renault had abandoned the Juvaquatre name by this point, officially calling the model “Fourgonnette / Break 300kg,” but the far more appealing old name stuck in the vernacular.

Our museum exhibit here is from the early ‘50s era. Essentially, it would have been identical to a 1940 model – still with the side-valve engine, but with hydraulic brakes. The dash is nigh on identical to the one seen in prewar saloons, as the photograph below can attest.

This is a pre-production model (late 1937) two-door saloon. Note the vent ahead of the door: all Juvas had this until Renault introduced the super-basic Service trim in 1952, which had absolutely no chrome, no hubcaps and no front passenger seat.

Our little Juva not only has a front passenger seat, but also a rear bench – an optional extra for the panel van, but standard on the station wagon. It also has extra windows, which is not a standard body style. Someone took those off a later wagon and adapted them on this van.

In 1953, the old 1-litre engine was replaced by the 4CV’s more modern 747cc OHV 4-cyl. – it only provided 21hp, but was still punchier than the prewar flat head. The semaphores were replaced by 4CV-style turn signals, mounted just under the B-pillar. In 1956 came the Dauphinoise: the engine was now the Dauphine’s 845cc, churning out a blistering 26hp. A big Renault rhombus badge was stuck on the grille to mark the occasion.

Actually, another major innovation ushered by the Dauphinoise was the rear door, whose hinges migrated to the left side. Our older example has the earlier type, which was criticized as suboptimal (for people who drive on the right, anyway) for many, many years. Renault heard, but obviously this was not a major impediment to the model’s sales, which were consistently satisfactory throughout the ‘50s.

Incredibly, this final remnant of the Louis Renault era was kept in production until the end of February 1960. By that point, the R4 was ready to take over as the Régie’s new FWD small van/wagon. A little over 65,000 Juvaquatre white-collar models, i.e. the saloons, drop-top and coupé (80 units made – the unicorn of the species), were produced between 1938 and 1948. The blue-collar wagons and panel vans, on the other hand, totalled over 185k units over a 22-year run.

They were tough little machines, but cheaply made and thoroughly outdated by the ‘70s, when they all seemed to take their retirement. With three of four exceptions, every single one I’ve ever seen, from the ‘80s onward, looked like the ones above.

Given how underpowered it is, driving a Juva anywhere would be something of a chore – except perhaps in a city centre as a local hauler. But even then, the lack of synchronized first gear, basic suspension and that stupidly designed rear door would make it pretty ill-suited compared to its infinitely more capable successor. On the other hand, as an embodiment of the darker years of Renault (and France in general), as well as postwar reconstruction, the Juvaquatre is almost perfect.