Better than that: the Saxo was from Citroen, who apparently haven't served North America since 1974 ;) The Renault equivalent would probably be the Clio.

(Not a big hot hatch connoisseur though, I must admit - I just remember the Saxo in particular as having a reputation of hitting a bad spot on the tradeoff graph for flimsiness/power/good sense of average member of target demographic.)