This North American nameplate was used by AMC dealers for the fuel-injected version of Renault’s compact family car. It arrived for the 1981 model year as an imported sedan and station wagon derived from the broader Renault 18 range, giving AMC showrooms a more conventional midsize import alternative alongside smaller economy cars. The car shared the same basic front-wheel-drive architecture and practical, European-family-car character that defined the Renault 18 line, but was adapted for U.S. and Canadian buyers with local badging and market-specific equipment.
The sedan version was the first to wear the 18i badge and was sold only for a short run before being dropped after the 1983 model year. The wagon body continued longer, but the naming was simplified over time: the early wagon was marketed as the Sportwagon, and later examples kept the same basic role even as the sedan disappeared. By the mid-1980s, the wagon remained the visible survivor of the line until the nameplate left the market after 1986, when AMC/Renault dealers moved on to a replacement import sedan.
Although it never became a major sales success, the car is significant as one of the most visible Renault-badged products sold through AMC in the United States. It also represents the American chapter of a model family that had already been established in Europe, where the Renault 18 debuted in 1978 and later expanded into sportier and more specialized variants. For collectors and enthusiasts, the 18i is remembered less as a standalone performance model and more as an uncommon, transitional import that brought a French-designed family car into AMC’s dealer network during the early 1980s.