Motorists Guide reported the cost of a brand new 30 TX Automatic as £11,950 in May 1984; by June 1986 a good example was worth about £3,450 within the motoring trade.

Under the bonnet, the R20 had the smaller four-cylinder 1647 cc engine (from the Renault 16 TX) rated at 90 PS (66 kW).

[6] Both the 20 and 30 were advanced in terms of safety, featuring front and rear crumple zones as well as side impact protection.

Aside from the unusual proportions, the 20/30 also received unique, downwards-folding door handles on the first two model years.

Reliability issues, such as niggling mechanical faults (which sometimes proved expensive to fix) plagued both cars throughout their lifetimes.

Coupled with the hatchback bodywork, anaemic engines (to suit the French tax structure), and quality concerns, export sales were always low.

In response to this, the R20TS was introduced, and used a new four-cylinder 1995 cc overhead camshaft engine rated at 109 PS (80 kW) (which was shared with the Citroën CX and later the Peugeot 505).

The following year (October 1978) saw the introduction of the R30 TX, a more luxurious fuel-injected version of the R30 TS, then the R20 Diesel in late 1979.

The Renault 30 TS was assembled in Venezuela as well, with the carburetted PRV V6 engine in combination with either the four-speed manual or the automatic transmission.

A specially prepared Renault 20 Turbo 4x4 driven by Bernard Marreau won the Paris-Alger-Dakar Rally in 1982.