Today’s Rare Ride is one of those that’s always been on the to-do list, but never floated to top of mind. That changed the other day, when this very tidy example was posted on Twitter.
Let’s talk about Privilege.
The Avantime was without predecessor at Renault, or really anywhere across the entire automotive landscape. This all-new type of car was part shooting brake, part van, part hardtop coupe, and part luxury greenhouse. The idea came not from Renault, but from the director of Matra, Philippe Guédon. He thought the descendants of Renault Espace owners (another Matra build) still felt a kinship to the modern, minivan incarnation of the family wagon. And as a result, younger buyers wanted and deserved a grand touring van-coupe. Given Matra was a longtime business partner with Renault, Mr. Guédon took his idea over there. Renault brass said “Let’s do it!” and Avantime was underway.
The project manager at Renault wanted the Avantime’s design to astound from every angle and pulled Patrick Le Quément to pen its shape. Innovative angles formed into an overall one-box design that lacked a b-pillar. For strength and lightness, Avantime’s structure and panels were made of aluminum. Special strengthened glass reflected heat and protected all four passengers inside the sumptuous luxury car interior filled with Bridge of Weir leather. In pleasant conditions, the glass roof and side windows retracted and allowed the desired open-air hardtop coupe van experience. Renault created a unique door hinge system for the Avantime: A double parallel setup which they called double kinematic. The hinges meant the large coupe doors opened wider for passengers to enter the car, but made a smaller horizontal motion. Useful in crowded parking lots.
Avantime shared components and a platform with the more down-to-earth Espace van, a suitable basis for the exciting new car. Power plants were borrowed from Espace as well and included 2.0- and 3.0-liter gasoline engines, and a 2.2-liter diesel. Transmissions were of five speeds if automatic, or six speeds if manual.
Project complete, Renault debuted Avantime at the Louvre in February 1999, where it had its own press conference. The Avantime (called Coupéspace at auto shows) went into production two years later and was built with pride by Matra. Renault introduced another luxury car at the same time in the more traditional Vel Satis, which unfortunately competed with the Avantime for sales. Time proved that customers chose neither Avantime nor Vel Satis, and went to other brands for their luxury coupe and sedan needs. As a result, in its debut year in 2001, Renault shifted just 772 Avantimes. Slow sales continued in 2002 and 2003, at which point Matra went bankrupt after hemorrhaging far too many Avantime-related Euros. Rather than move production to a Renault facility, Renault decided it was easiest to drop the Avantime. Just 8,083 examples were produced before the very unique van slipped from consumer memory, taking with it Matra’s 40-year car building legacy.
Today’s Avantime is in top-spec Privilege trim. It has a V6 engine, manual transmission, and a black leather interior with seats that look fairly Volvo-esque. Yours for $12,000, but it’s only importable by a Canadian at the moment.
[Images: seller; Renault]
That Renault Megane bubble butt! Most polarising car design feature this side of
an original Ssangyong Stavic (Rodius)
Remember seeing this in “Children of Men,” and it was so bizarre that I figured it had to be something that the production company ginned up on its’ own.
That was a pretty good movie as I recall.
It was one of those movies where you go, “That was amazing. Let’s never do it again.”
Bingo, Perisoft. Great movie, brilliantly made…but REALLY depressing.
This, its contemporary Espace sibling, and the Citroen C6 are my weird French luxury car triumvirate. So deeply wish any had ever been sold here, even though they’d have sold even worse than in Europe.
Honda Element, with the suicide doors replaced with a giant sliding door.
That was the Peugeot 1007. This is the hardtop variant of the Nissan Murano Crosscabriolet, about 15 years before that was birthed into questionable existence (and arguably done better).
This falls into the same category for me as the Nissan Juke did. It’s so strange looking that I would drive it. Also, the Fiat Multipla with its Geordie LeForge row of lights between the hood and cabin.
It would be fun to have such an automotive unicorn. Probably get more looks than a lot of very expensive supercar or luxury rides.
This post has awakened a yearning for a grand touring van coupe to call my own.
Man, I must be getting old. Does no one else remember UK Top Gear hot rodding a Renault Avantime and then trying to get it to lap faster than a Mitsubishi Evo?
Just Google Top Gear Renault Avantime…
I remember that episode as well as the one where they turned an older version Espace into a convertible which set a car wash on fire (at least according to the staged shenanigans).
First 16 seconds of this video is the best demonstration of the doors I have found:
https://youtu.be/KSE9xpLwwCs
And a diagram of the hinge mechanism:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/comment-image/349058.jpg
There are a ton of really cool Euro 2005 and older cars that can be brought into Canada.
Just go to AutoScout24 and start searching.
Alfa 159s have just aged into the exemption.
The problem with the Avantime was that the business case required Matra to have another product line alongside it. Renault had just started production of the 4th gen Espace in their own factory, leaving a lot of capacity at Matra’s factory that had produced the first 3 generations of Espace. The Avantime was intended to take up some of this capacity, but was never going to take it all. Matra planned their M72 quadricycle to also take up some of the capacity. But the Avantime was delayed (reports at the time suggested problems with the complex door hinges), and they M72 never reached production. That the Avantime never sold in the planned volumes didn’t help, but the lack of another product doomed Matra, and therefore the Avantime.
I don’t believe this car is “a long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of a legendary or historical hero”.
And I don’t believe everyone understands the difference between nouns and adjectives.
I would drive it.
Even though the color of the one in the last picture is my favorite, that “bubble but” aided by the center mounted gauge pod kills this for me. Otherwise, I would have loved to have had one w/ the six speed! :-)
Holy crap it’s an extended-length Nissan Leaf with coupe doors!
I just tripped over the YouTube vids from legendary designer Frank Stephenson; the Renault Avantime is covered in this episode, starting about 4 minutes in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCzDed7XoNY
A modern-day version of the Renault Le Car (a.k.a. Le Box).