Renault Avantime

[Sebastian]

till today i didnt know they existed.
one of these pulled next to m at the traffic lights , and got me curious.
apparently there were only 435 sold in UK

[kizersozey]

yep seen one on top gear show once, ugly looking yoke, think it has the v6 engine

[Myfeckin FTO]

I like them - they've a good Nissan powerplant. (Thought I'd put that one to bed right there before the Zed jokes start).

[crayzidane]

Saw one of these in sutton last week same blue aswell, not alot around wonder is it cause they were too dear to buy new

[gfalls]

Not "too dear" just French and crap...

[gfalls]

One for sale here http://www.carzone.ie/search/Renault/Av ... annel=CARS

[colm_mcm]

Where did it all go wrong, I mean you have:

French reliability
3.5 engine
Espace chassis
Awful styling
Awful handling.

I reckon the real reason for the Avantime lies within Renault politics - particularly in it's tie-in with Matra.
Matra are a "Pandora's Box" of a French company that produced everything from jeeps, weapons, planes, sports cars and a lot more besides.
The Marta Rancho is believed to be the inspiration for the original Land Rover Discovery.
The Renault Espace was originally designed to be built by Matra in conjunction with Chrysler. Matra used special manufacturing processes that include the use of steel framed bodies hung with composite body panels - this process is still rare even today. Matra built 3 generations of the Espace up to 2003.
When the current model Espace was being designed, the designers went with a conventional body ,as the composite body idea on the outgoing Espace didn't fit in with the other Renaults the factories were producting. At that time Renault were rethinking their whole strategy with regards models, platform sharing with Nissan, saving money where possible. The new Espace was to be built alongside the Laguna II.
This left Renault with a problem, they had agreements with Matra, plans for a conventional Espace, and available space to build it in their own factory.
Renault did a deal with Matra, that if Matra gave up the Espace production, Renault would let them build a top of the line luxury coupe. The Avantime is the result. Matra used the previous generation Espace as the base and added their own spaceframe with composite panels.
Needless to say, it was a flop, along with the Renault built Vel Satis (which Renault pushed a lot harder than the Aventime) they are consigned to the great junkyard in the sky!

[Myfeckin FTO]

It may have been a flop but that was more because the general public just didn't get it!
There really wasn't a market for a plush MPV/Coupe - certainly not at the new price but a low mileage 2003 for 12.5K - thats fantastic value. I'd have one over an SUV of similar money.

[colm_mcm]

It may have been a flop but that was more because the general public just didn't get it!
There really wasn't a market for a plush MPV/Coupe

Agreed, My previous post was trying to give an insight into how a yoke like that even made it into production.

a low mileage 2003 for 12.5K - thats fantastic value. I'd have one over an SUV of similar money.

It would complement the 350z perfectly! Aren't you in the market for such a machine?

[optical illusion]

Top Gear gave it a rave review, and then destroyed it, didn't know it existed either till I saw the show (actually, I was at that show )

V6 engine, how bad!