The Renault 19 is a small family car that was produced by the French car manufacturer Renault

Renault

Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...

 between 1988 and 2000.
The R19 was launched on September 1988 as the replacement for the 9 and 11

Renault 9/11

The Renault 9 and Renault 11 are two small family cars produced by the French manufacturer Renault for model years 1981-1988 in sedan and hatchback configurations — both styled by prominent French automobile designer, Robert Opron.Variants were manufactured by American Motors, as the...

, both of which were ageing and outdated by the late 1980s. The R19 was styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro

Giorgetto Giugiaro

Giorgetto Giugiaro is an Italian automobile designer responsible equally for a stable of supercars and several of the most popular everyday vehicles driven today...

, featuring Renault's new E-type (or "Energy") 1.4 L engine and F-type 1.7 and 1.8 L versions. Base models used the OHV

Overhead valve

An overhead valve engine, also informally called pushrod engine or I-head engine, is a type of piston engine that places the camshaft within the cylinder block , and uses pushrods or rods to actuate rocker arms above the cylinder...

 C-type Cléon

Renault Cléon engine

The Cléon engine was a 5-bearing straight-4 automobile engine from Renault. Introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in 1962 with the Renault Floride S, the engine was a development of the 3-bearing Ventoux engine from the 1950s. It is an overhead valve design and in Renault tradition, features "wet"...

 1.2 and 1.4 L engines, depending on the market.

Intended to be Renault's last numeric-named car, the 19 ushered in a new naming policy, with the saloon versions of the 19 being known as the 19 Chamade to distinguish them from the hatchback

Hatchback

A Hatchback is a car body style incorporating a shared passenger and cargo volume, with rearmost accessibility via a rear third or fifth door, typically a top-hinged liftgate—and features such as fold-down rear seats to enable flexibility within the shared passenger/cargo volume. As a two-box...

s.