1950 Renault Colorale pickup

from msn.com

Before the war, Frenchmen who thought a Citroën Traction Avant too clever by half – and a Peugeot 402 too flashy – kept Renault nicely in business by buying rugged Primaquatres and Vivaquatres.

Once the 4CV was in production, the recently nationalised Régie Renault pitched for this market with a new workhorse aimed at ‘coloniale and rurale’ buyers – hence Colorale.

Launched in 1950, it was thirsty, slow and ugly (its dreary estate, van and pick-up bodies built by Chausson), nobody wanted the thing and even changing the engine didn’t help.

Renault made a howling loss and pulled the plug in 1956, leaving Colorales to end their days in country garages, chopped into breakdown trucks.