Renault’s design classic celebrates tenth birthday

The car was, arguably, a flop (even the launch ballpoint fell to bits) but that does not stop Renault promoting the 10th anniversary of its UK debut in May, 2002. I recall the Press debut. We were ferried through Berlin at dusk in a fleet of these unusual coupes. I remember the evening strollers admiring this fleet of futuristic cars.

Avantime was, indeed, avant garde with its curious body – and a rump which was to appear on Renault’s Megane. Then we drove it. The trouble with the Avantime? It was, in effect, a coupe version of the fibre glass Espace Mk3 people carrier, using the same chassis and built by the same team at Matra. Dynamic? Er, not much. There was plenty of space in the back but the seating position once you’d clambered past the front seats was uncomfortable. You sat in a knees-up position. Those back seats could be folded flat but it was a long stretch from the tailgate to release them. The handling was rather wooden and it needed willing round corners. On the straight it was happy enough and today they do look rather special – and are very rare.

Production lasted only a year, with 8,557 produced, of which 447 were sold in the UK. Of these, 330 are licensed and another 39 are on SORN. It was overseen by Renault’s vaunted design chief Patrick le Quément, who also gave us the much more practical but stylistically divisive Vel Satis jumbo hatchback of the same era. Matra was losing its Espace contract, leaving them with too much excess capacity. That’s the official explanation. Renault reflects: it excelled at the fundamentals expected of an executive coupé – comfort, style and performance – wrapped in a distinctive, innovative, attention-grabbing body, with design project manager Thierry Metroz admitting at the time he “wanted someone walking around the car to be continually astonished”. Fair enough, we were. It just was not much fun to use.

The Avantime Owners Club 10th anniversary meeting takes place at the Coventry Motor Museum on Saturday, April 7, from 9am. www.avantime-owners.com