{"id":302886,"date":"2026-01-25T12:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T12:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/302886\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T12:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T12:42:09","slug":"review-five-stars-for-this-classic-compact-family-car-which-has-returned-with-a-glow-up-a-battery-and-an-instagram-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/302886\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Five stars for this classic compact family car which has returned with a glow-up, a battery and an Instagram account"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-91174671_secondary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom4 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop4\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\" data-testid=\"title-summary\">\nSometimes it pays to give old model a new look which says it\u2019s ready for adventure &#8211; but does this classic car still have its original soul?\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Geraldine Herbert test drives the new Renault 4 Iconic 52KWH. Photo: Paul Herbert-Kane\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20251216_095830 new.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Geraldine Herbert test drives the new Renault 4 Iconic 52KWH. Photo: Paul Herbert-Kane<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The sixties was the decade of new ideas, new industries and a more outward-looking future for Ireland. The arrival of television, via RT\u00c9 in 1961, didn\u2019t just bring moving pictures into Irish homes; it ushered a world of miniskirts, moon rockets and protest marches directly into our sitting rooms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">But while Irish families were adjusting the rabbit ears and gathering around flickering black-and-white screens, change was also occurring on our roads. Across Europe, car manufacturers were responding to the demand for practicality. When Renault launched the original 4, it wasn\u2019t trying to be glamorous. The car was resolutely ordinary and basic, designed for everyday life, for work, for families and for movement. As Europe modernised, the Renault 4 quietly became part of the landscape, and in Ireland, part of the furniture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes it pays to give old model a new look which says it\u2019s ready for adventure &#8211; but&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,4942,19,17,4746,44701],"class_list":{"0":"post-302886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-geraldine-herbert","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-life-magazine","14":"tag-renault"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115955796767217770","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}