The two cars shared a broadly similar chassis design, although the Vivaquatre featured, even in its "normal" configuration, a wheelbase lengthened by 26 cm (10.2 in).

The predecessor model was in both cases known at the time as the Renault 10CV, but is identified in retrospect by the more distinctive project code as the "KZ".

There was, however, a choice of two wheelbase lengths, the longer of which supported a "six-light" body (with three windows on each side) and underpinned the Vivaquatre's long running popularity with the trade of the taxi version.

[1] The car's no-nonsense image was further enhanced by a choice, at the time of the motor show in October 1935, between just two colours on the "Luxe" version, these being black and dark blue.

The listed power output increased, but the engine size remained constant through the subsequent "KZ17" (1934) and "KZ23" (1935) versions of the car.

The situation is complicated, in retrospect, by the tendency of the Renault catalogues to offer for sale more than one generation of the model at a time.

[3] Both the "normal" and "long" bodied cars retained the conventional square-backed style of the early 1930s, but the corners were a little more rounded and, most obviously, the previously vertical front grill was now raked at an angle.

[4] The sloping rear made it possible to include an extra bulge for a boot//trunk accessible from outside, although the entry-level cars came without any opening at the back apart from the flap that covered the now horizontally stowed spare wheel.

More steeply sloping tails and more intricately styled fronts also correlated with longer overhangs, and by 1939, when the Vivaquatre was pensioned off,[5] the body of the "long" wheelbase version had reached 4,700 mm (185.0 in) in length.