Extinct Or Not? 1987 Renault Alliance GTA Convertible

As of last summer, Hagerty's Insurance rated the 1986-1987 Renault GTA extinct.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your memory of them) some do pop up. In this case, it's a relatively low mileage and clean survivor, making it an extra rare find.

It was actually made by American Motors Company and built in Wisconsin. Since 1979, Renault had an ownership stake in AMC, which resulted in dozens of cars until AMC's eventual sale to Chrysler in 1988.

The Alliance was produced from 1983-1987. It's a rudimentary front-wheel drive compact car to compete with the likes of Chrysler's K-cars. It even looks like a K-car, although that's not necessarily an insult. The shape is simple, clean, well-proportioned and generally inoffensive.

Although hopes were high and the car initially impressed, the complexities of AMC's relationship with Renault seemed to eventually defeat the Alliance. Not a wide enough variety of body styles were offered. The cars were underpowered. And reliability grew poor. It was eventually determined that despite the U.S.-based construction, the cars were really no better than notoriously poorly built French cars. The final slap on the face was in 2009 when Car & Driver retracted their 1983 naming of the Alliance as car of the year. Ouch.

This Alliance is the final-year-only GTA trim. It was a "high performance" edition that came with a 2.0-litre 4-cylinder engine producing 95 horsepower, body skirts, and various other mechanical and cosmetic upgrades.

The seller is a dealer and does their best used-car-salesman writeup, complete with italics and exclamation points. They note the 94k-miles are original and it was owned by a Renault enthusiast.

Cosmetically, it looks immaculate. The color combo is flatters the simple, boxy, compact shape (dare I say reminiscent of the BMW E30).

Mechanically, the seller says the vehicle is "sound".

If Haggerty said there were no more left over a year ago, you can bet there are even fewer now. How many can be left? And in this good shape?

Available here on ebay in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with bidding starting at $3,000 and a buy-it-now of $4,688.