Renault Avantime V6 | The Brave Pill
Before its time or just out of time?
One of the biggest challenges faced by the car industry has always been that of delivering the right amount of different. In a market where most cars are commodity products, and many buyers treat them as being interchangeable, it can be hard to win attention. The Avantime was both a very French answer to that problem - and a reminder that it was possible to go too far in the cause of standing out, like wearing a clown costume to a funeral. It was a commercial disaster - even by the dismal standards of large French cars - but it has also become a cult classic that has long been on the Brave Pill target list. Which is why a cry of joy rang around the command bunker when this one dropped into the classifieds last week.
The Avantime was a reaction to a very real issue: Renault was getting boring. All of the French brands had struggled throughout the 'nineties as international buyers acquired a marked preference for upmarket German. Renault was good at smaller models, the first-generation Clio was a big hit in the UK and the innovative first-generation Twingo was even more popular where it was sold and the Megane Scenic practically invented the compact MPV. But national pride, and the need to give the French president's chauffeur something to polish, also meant France's native carmakers felt they had to offer larger and grander cars, to the widespread indifference of the non-Gallic world.
These cars existed in a strange, parallel universe. I picked up a copy of one of France's native car magazines in the late 1990s, drawn by a comparison featuring the newly launched C5 Audi A6, against both an E39 BMW 5-Series and a facelifted Renault Safrane, a vehicle so unmemorable I needed to look up its name on Wikipedia. The mag's testing criteria seemed to have been very artfully assembled - rear seat space and cruising refinement carried big marks - but as well as taking these the Safrane outpointed its rivals on ride and handling. The conclusion wasn't even close, the Renault thumping the Germans.
National pride didn't translate into sales success outside France, and for the Safrane's replacement Renault's charismatic design chief, Patrick Le Quémont, opted for something much more radical. The Vel Satis was taller and grander, deliberately styled to lack the classical stance and proportions of an upmarket saloon. (In this it succeeded totally, although critics were still unkind and UK sales were minimal.) But it was just a start - Le Quémont determining to give it a range-topping sister that would make the Vel Satis look almost tame, one that would rival Helen of Troy in the boat-pushing stakes. The Avantime would be, in effect, a coupe version of the Espace people carrier.
The Espace itself is a fascinating rabbit-hole we definitely don't have time to go down. Award yourself bonus points if you knew the original idea came from Chrysler's British design studio in the 1970s, as a putative replacement for the Matra Rancho pseudo-SUV. And extra bonus points if you knew that MG Rover very nearly took did its own version of the third-generation Espace with Matra when Renault opted to take development and production of the fourth-gen in-house. Geekery aside, the Espace was successful and popular; a classy, upmarket alternative to other three-row MPVs.
The Avantime turned that packaging logic on its head, its huge cabin featuring just four seats and two huge doors. Renault went to the trouble of creating an innovative double-folding hinge to slightly improve access, but Avantime owners still needed to be careful when opening the doors in windy conditions. Although the rear windows motored down automatically when the front seats were folded - with no B-pillars to get in the way - climbing into the back was still a scramble. Once mounted the view out was impressive thanks to the combination of low side glass and the expansive view through the huge windscreen and twin sunroofs. Kids absolutely loved it back there.
The driving experience was less special. I didn't attend the original press launch in Monaco, and thus missed out on the brainwashing that Renault attempted semi-successfully to judge from the general warmth of the original reviews. But shortly after the first press cars reached the UK I had to drive one from central London to a photoshoot in the sticks. From the driver's seat the perspective was very Espace-y, with the same central LED instruments, steering wheel and eyeline. But the reaction of onlookers was very different, a fair percentage openly laughing at what looked, from many angles, like an XXL baby stroller.
Driving dynamics failed to match the grandness of the styling. Nobody was buying an Avantime expecting a sportscar - which it definitely wasn't - but nor was it the sort of plush, luxurious cocoon that would suit the stated mission. Suspension was soft yet underdamped, the car prone to uncomfortable heaving motions over lumpy British tarmac, with windows and trim also rattling over bumps. The V6 engine was smooth under gentle use but raucous when extended, which it tended to be fairly often given the car's porky 1,720kg mass. The five-speed autobox was slushy and suited the car, yet amazingly Renault also offered a little-chosen six-speed manual gearbox.
Actually, all were little chosen. The niche appeal and a marked lack of enthusiasm from the Renault dealers given the thankless task of shifting them meant the Avantime missed its sales projections by a tragicomic margin, neither the basic 2.0-litre turbo or V6 catching on. Renault had originally told journalists it anticipated selling 1,500 cars a year in the UK, a figure that seemed unlikely even when the car was launched. It actually managed just under 450 across the three years the car was on sale. Demand elsewhere was little stronger; the anticipated 20,000-a-year that would make the project viable for Matra wasn't realised across the entire production run, with just over 8,000 built before the plug was pulled in 2003. Matra folded shortly afterwards.
The Avantime's lack of success when new has become its neo-classic superpower with its scarcity and utter differentness to anything else having given it something of a cult following in the years since. Values were in the doldrums for ages, something that encouraged whim-driven purchasing but not attentive care and maintenance. Yet survival rates seem to have been impressive; Howmanyleft reckons more than 300 are still extant with that number split almost equally between taxed and SORN. Most mechanical bits are both easily found and easily fixed, but the Avantime-unique parts are predictably rare - both windscreen and lights are reportedly expensive and hard to find. Yet the fact values have been steadily rising in recent years suggest interest levels are still increasing.
At £8,995 our Pill is both the cheapest and most expensive Avantime in the classifieds - they really don't crop up very often. The black-looking paint is actually very dark purple, with the selling dealer promising both a full service history and a recent air con system refresh. The MOT history reports a highish consumption of tyres and braking components, plus a couple of lighting faults, but notes nothing scary.
The bravest thing about Avantime ownership will always be the risk of ridicule. Yet that's definitely part of the appeal as well. They don't make them like this any more. Truth be told, they hardly did when it was on sale.
Given the demand for SUVs with elevated driving positions can’t help thinking that the 2 door one box design is still valid as opposed to 4 door hatch’s or coupe offerings.
Would like to see a modern day take on this ethos irrespective of whether it can lap a race track, I think it would be an interesting design exercise given that we’re not constrained to conventional design where EV is concerned
https://youtu.be/9gmv30QShgE
Doesn’t win beauty contests but the Avantime DOES. What a thing and even today it looks striking and fabulous. I’d add one to the Collecting Modern Classic Cars stable in a heartbeat. They are also on the cusp of classic insurance - result!
I do worry about the electrics etc though…
As an enthusiast for all things Matra I really wanted to like it, but it's only redeeming feature was the 6 speed gearbox that let loose all the power that my auto lost in its torque converter.
All that space was just wasted and it wasn't even attractive.
But like the Espace, the Avantime was built on a galvanised steel platform with lightweight plastic body panels so the weight is low and they don't roll and pitch and in extremis fall over like every other SUV.
They either try to make something "more" German like the Citroen C5 or 607, or they make something totally oddball whose only "raisin d'etre" is that it is totally non-german such as the c6, the current Peugeot dashboards and this.
They're always commercial failures but you have to admire the " if we're going to go down, we'll go down being idiosyncratic... " spirit of it all.
Then again, from personal experience, working with French engineers can have it's challenges when they all take this attitude...
I remember on one of my first days, one was handed over, in the purple, it was back within minutes with all the coolant spewing out.
Anyway great cars and nothing will get you noticed more, I used to love taking our Illiad Blue (best colour IMO) demo home on my day off, just wafting about, it was fantastic, but as it was based on the last of the Espace's that Matra built, the underpinnings were dated and it did feel it but as a wafter it was brilliant in V6 auto form. It was actually a Matra product with a Renault badge, when Renault took the Espace in house, Matra had nothing else to build so they came up with the Avantime.
Towards the end of their life many Renault head office employees had them as their company cars, this was because they didn't sell so they just registered them to head office, they were generally changed every 3 months and then ended up as used approved, with stonking finance offers, large margins for dealers and large deposit contributions just to get them all gone, we as a group did very well financially out of them as used approved, this was also similar with Vel-Satis.
I remember selling a Mars red one that my sales director bought, he was very pleased with the £4k margin in it, it went through the workshop and came out with a £4k bill, changing the plugs on a V6 is an engine out job.
The cost of a window regulator 5 or 6 years ago always sticks in my head; £1k, I should imagine the bespoke bits (if still available) are eye wateringly expensive, they also suffer with paint bubbling on the silver roof.
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