pulled out of the U.S. market. Reception The Renault 9 was voted the 1982 European Car of the Year. It became France's most popular car and Renault's best selling model ever. The Alliance was listed as number one on Car and Driver's list of Ten Best cars for 1983. The magazine's editors wrote that it "represents a blending of compact dimensions, surprising creature comfort, excellent fuel economy, good looks and very pleasing over-the-road behavior." They noted, "if we were some other magazine, this would be our car of the year." The American-built, French-designed, Renault Alliance had a U.S. content of 72%. The engine, gearbox, and some axle parts come from France, thus qualifying it as a domestic vehicle, and making it the first car (in 1983) with a foreign nameplate to win the Motor Trend Car of the Year award. Motor Trend subsequently dropped the distinction between domestic and imported vehicles for the award in 2000. A long-term test of a four-door Alliance by Popular Mechanics described the car as "economical, well-built and has superb ride quality" summarizing that "it's nearly perfect." The engine was smooth, refined, and built tight, but difficult to "keep on cam" with the automatic transmission. The suspension system was praised for its ability to cope with "suspension-destruction" roads at higher than normal speeds while providing good road feel with excellent handling and cornering – achieving .71 g-force on the skid pad with the small standard 175/70xR13 tires. A 1983 Popular Mechanics survey of 1,000 owners said "60% of our respondents rated the Alliance's workmanship excellent. That's a high figure for any car and considerably above the norm for U.S. built cars." The magazine's editor-in-chief, John Linkletter, addressed the findings that, "the old canard about shoddy American craftsmanship suffers" and that "an American manufacturer and a foreign manufacturer can, in a combined effort, produce a very good car." In 1983, Popular Science described that, "Renault will find its reputation dramatically brightened when word of the AMC Alliance gets around." The report expanded, "The new Alliance is a miracle for AMC. Not only does it show a general excellence in construction and appointments, it's also a state-of-the-art front-wheel-drive that AMC could not have produced on its own. Combine those three elements and you have tough competition for the Escort, Chevette and Horizon and the imports, and a product that comes close to being the best in its