In 1986, NBC’s Satuday Night Live performed a hilarious send-up of the ’80s cheap car craze with its parody commercial for the $179 Adobe.
From its first episode in November of 1975, the NBC television sketch show Saturday Night Live can be counted upon to lampoon the notable trends of the day, and in the mid-1980s one was the sudden appearance of bare-bones, ultra-low priced cars in the U.S. market. Austeriity-minded buyers of 1986 who found even the Chevy Chevette ($5645) or Ford Escort ($6052) too pricey could instead opt for the new-to-the-USA Hyundai Excel at $4995,or the Yugo GV, which came from Yugoslavia at a rock-bottom $3990. But the writers at SNL trumped them all with the Adobe and its implausible base price of $179. The secret? As the smarmy announcer (perfectly portrayed by Phil Hartman) explains, it’s “made out of clay!”
Of course, car people will instantly recognise that the Adobe is in fact a poorly disguised Renault Le Car slathered with hundreds of pounds of red modeling clay. (That couldn’t have given Renault’s PR crew much pleasure.) Cast members Nora Dunn, Kevin Nealon, and Victoria Jackson demonstrate the many advantages of all-clay construction, including easy collision repair. The parody first aired on November 15, 1986, but thanks to the internet (and SNL’s YouTube channel) we can view it anytime. Please enjoy.
I’m not old enough to remember this but it’s great.
I don’t think Renault PR cared in 1986, the Le Car hadn’t been imported for a few years by then and the original had been replaced by the second-generation “Supercinq” in France.
I suspect then Renault PR didn’t cared a lot for Le Car back then with their focus on the Renault 21 alias Medaillon and Premier while the Alliance was already on its last leg and I think they already begun to talk with Chrysler about AMC/Jeep when that skit aired.