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| Renault Avantime 'Privilege' 2002 |
Renault wowed the crowds and the motoring press with their 2+2 Coupe GT MPV concept when they revealed their Matra inspired styling exercise at the Paris Motor Show in 1998. The concept by Patrick Le Quement was boldly taken into production largely unchanged. Featuring design ahead of its time the Avantime (French word "Avant" meaning "ahead" with English word "time") was packed full of luxuries, safety features and advanced engineering. Highlights included unique double-hinged 'kinematic' pillarless doors allowing easy access to the front and rear seats (even when tightly parked), the worlds largest opening glass sunroof at the time (a full 1m/sq of opening roof) featuring strengthened heat-reflecting glass, theatre seating (rear positioned higher than the front), galvanised steel chassis with aluminium upper structure, cavernous 530 litre boot, xenon headlights, a 'grand air' button which simultaneously opened all pillarless windows and sunroof, and finally a choice of powerful engines (3.0 V6 or 2.0 turbo) giving a grand tourer driving style and claimed lowest 0-62mph of 8.6 seconds.
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| Renault Avantime 'Privilege' 2002 |
Delays in the launch prompted sudden competition from within when Renault themselves elected to put their concept Vel Satis model into production. Just ten months after Avantime production started in 2001, Matra announced that they would cease all vehicle manufacturing, with much of the facilities going on to be sold to Pininfarina in 2003. Renault elected not to continue the Avantime themselves. Across 18 months only 4,557 vehicles were built, half of those sold in France.
BBC's Top Gear positioned the Renault Avantime at 'Sub Zero' on the 'Cool Wall' stating it was cooler even than the Aston Martin Vanquish and "the coolest car money can buy". Despite this just 450 cars sold in the UK, of which nearly half were optioned as 3.0 Privilege models.
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