France and Wisconsin have two things in common- a love of cheese, and today's contender, which also may be kind of cheesy.

Yesterday, 77% of you deemed FREE to be a Nice Price for the poor little , and we're eagerly awaiting the first report on when you go to pick up your prize. Today, we're pleased to present another AMC product- this time a foreign exchange student who liked America so much it moved here permanently.

The old adage espouses when life gives you lemons, go forth and make lemonade. Today, Nice Price or

By the late 1970s AMC was running out of ways to annually refresh the centuries-old Gremlin and Hornet, and their innovative all-wheel-drive Eagles wouldn't be on the market soon enough to keep the Kenosha car maker in hookers and blow a financially sound position. In a historic reversal of fortunes, the French came to the aid of the struggling Americans, but in this case financially rather than militarily. Renault, salivating over the Jeep brand, and seeking a more robust presence in the still lucrative U.S. market bought a controlling interest in the little Wisconsin manufacturer. In addition to pumping fundage into the company, Renault also provided the basis for some new baubles to adorn AMC Dealerships, and new frustrations for those dealer's service departments. First among those was the mawkishly-named Alliance, based on the Renault 9 sold to the surrender monkeys back home. The Alliance was quickly anointed by Motor Trend as the Car of the Year for 1983, ensuring its place in history, as well as heavy volume of Renault advertising in Crain publications for the next twelve months. Car & Driver, not to be one-upped by a rival, named it to their Top 10 list the same year. Both are deeds for which neither magazine has yet to officially apologize.

But time wounds all heels, and summer is upon us offering warm weather, longer days, and the chance to enjoy some quality time behind the wheel of a breezy convertible. Now, along with all that, summer has also brought gas prices that have been creeping up like a cheap pair of underwear. That means that your summer driving fun should be in something that doesn't drink with the rapaciousness of an , hence today's $4,500 question mark; a Renault Alliance convertible from the halcyon year of 1985. Not only was that year that the film was recognized with the Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival, but it was also the year that Renault recognized the resemblance of the Alliance to Marie Antoinette, and decided to lop its head off too.

This white over metallic bleu Alliance is ready for your summer lovin' and that 37MPG means you'll be spending less time at the pump, and more time next to the hump, rowing your own with the five-speed manual, the linkage for which likely feels as though it was made from rubber bands. And since this one has the 1.7 litre OHC motor, rather than the precambrian 1.4 pushrodder, you'll have fewer instances of being humiliated at stoplight drags by octogenarians on riding mowers.

Described as like new (which may not be a positive considering the dog-crap quality these cars seemed to have been cursed with upon leaving their Kenosha birthplace), and with a color-matching interior, this little brie-baker could enliven your summer motoring for not much more than two months lease payment on an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, and without all the attitudinal baggage associated with that 12MPG beast.

So, does $4,500 sound like an amount that could let you form an alliance with this tidy little Renault? Or, is that a price, and a car, that you more closely associate with the axis of evil?

You decide!

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or go if the ad disappears. Hat tip to tempesjo!

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