Here we have a Renault Latitude with Tianjin license plates, seen in Beijing in 2018. The Renault was painted white and it was in fine shape, a bit dirty perhaps, and fitted with sporty multispoke wheels.
The Renault Latitude was a compact sedan manufactured by Renault Samsung Motors. This company was founded in 2000 when Renault took over the majority of Samsung Motors of South Korea.
Samsung Motors had a long-running cooperation agreement with Nissan Motors of Japan. Just one year earlier, in 1999, Renault and Nissan had created their complex Renault–Nissan Alliance.
The Renault Latitude was based on the third-generation Samsung SM5, which was based on Nissan’s D-platform, which also underpinned the Nissan Altima and Nissan Teana. The Latitude was manufactured in South Korea and exported to China. At the time, China and South Korea had zero-tariff customs deal for automobiles, which led to a vast increase in Korean-made cars on the Chinese market.
The Latitude was a good-looking car, but the design was very obviously more Nissan than Renault. It has a classy style, with chrome trim around the windows and on the doors. The Latitude was sold in China from 2011 until 2016.
The interior was quite modern for a Renault, with a small screen and a fancy audio system with a CD player. On the center stack was a joystick dial that controlled the infotainment system.
The owner of this car added a set of seat covers to protect the original seats. He also shipped in a pillow, a large velvet red carpet, and an umbrella.
The China-spec Renault Latitude was available with two engines: a 2.0 with 139 hp and 191 Nm and a 3.5 V6 with 177 hp and 233 Nm. The car in the photos is the V6 model, with two big exhaust pipes. The V6 was mated to a 6-speed automatic, sending horses to the front wheels. The top speed was 206 km/h and 0-100 took a slow 10.7 seconds. In 2015, the Renault Latitude V6 model sold for 263.800 yuan, which was quite expensive compared to the competition.
Elf is a motor oil brand, owned by Elf Aquitaine. It has been a long-time ‘official partner’ of Renault, and almost every new Renault had these cool Renault Elf window stickers.
Due to its high price, the Latitude didn’t sell very well in China and these days it is a rare sight on the road. Other Korean-made Renaults, like the Koleos, fared a lot better. However, the geopolitical winds have since shifted and the export of Korean cars ceased to be duty-free in 2016. Renault then tried, and failed, to produce cars in China with Dongfeng. In 2020, Renault pulled back from China completely. It is probably too late now to come back again.