continental car." In July 2010 Jonathan Burnette, a Texas mechanic, set out to drive his 1959 Dauphine to Alaska and back, saying "I've driven these cars all over the country, many, many times, and I've never had that much trouble at all. A lot of people don't like this car, so it's kind of like the underdog." Sales In 1966 a Renault press statement said Dauphine production passed the million mark in just four years – more quickly than any other car manufactured in Europe. In the United Kingdom, the Dauphine was one of the first imported cars to sell in large numbers, in a market formerly dominated by British manufacturers and local subsidiaries of American manufacturers. A total of 2,150,738 Dauphines were produced in its production run of 10 years. United States A 1958 Time article said: "The car that has come up fastest in the US market in the past year is Renault's Dauphine. A snub-nosed 32-hp Sedan, it is low-priced, economical and small enough to shoehorn into a small parking space." The same article said "The Dauphine is already outselling Volkswagen in eleven U.S. states, including Texas. So brisk is demand that Renault and the French Line have formed a new shipping company CAT (Compagnie d'Affrètement et de Transport). with six freighters that ferry up to 1,060 Dauphines each across the Atlantic. To serve the U.S. buyer, Renault in just 18 months has also built a nationwide network of 16 U.S. distributors and 410 dealers." In 1959 survey, 85.4% of users rated the car as excellent, and only 0.7% as poor, while only 5.4% experienced a breakdown. By that time it was second most popular imported car after Volkswagen, which apart from having only two doors, offered slightly worse economy and manoeuvrability. After initial success in the U.S. market, the Dauphine began to suffer. An internal agent, Bernard Hanon (who would later become chairman of Renault), conducted a thorough market study that signaled trouble, and sent his report to the director of Renault Inc. in New York. The director filed the report away without acting on it; it was found years later by envoys from corporate headquarters in Billancourt. The damage had already been done; thousands of unordered Dauphines sat at ports worldwide, decaying. The damage to Renault was immense; and the company faced the first serious crisis in its history. By October 1960 a slump had