2003 Renault Avantime - Should Be Renamed 'Abizzarretime'

As a connoisseur of everything obscure, my first reaction to learning about this thing only was described by one word, ‘WEIRD’. Upon learning that my close friend recently bought one, I jumped at the chance to see it. In person, it really captures what I once thought was weird, odd lines, odd seating and odd glass window to body ratio.

Though we see the car as a Renault, it used to actually be a collaboration project of Matra, conceived under Philippe Guédon, head of the division, who “believed that the children of Espace owners remained loyal to the car even after they had grown up and left home. As a result, the renowned estate was gaining a generation of new drivers.” 

This oddness was stylized by Patrick Le Quément, ex-Renault chief designer, responsible for cars such as the Twingo, Mégane and Mégane II, Scénic, the 1994-1998 Espace, the 1994 Kangoo and the 1994 Laguna. Alongside the reveal of the Avantime in 2002 was the Vel Satis, also designed by Le Quément. Le Quément also designed the Ford Cargo truck and the Ford Sierra under Ford UK.

Public reaction to the car was quite poor when it was first unveiled at the 1999 Press Conference of the concept model, named ‘Coupéspace’, held at the Louvre, and then a month later at the Geneva Auto Show. It was named that because Le Quément wanted the space of an estate with the 4-pillared look of a coupe. Design project manager said that he wanted “someone walking around the car to be continuously astonished.” On the contrary, instead of astonishment, the car was met with confusion and perplexion. Because of this, sales were also poor when it was finally manufactured in 2001. 

As a result, only 8,557 Avantime's were manufactured, and its reception stopped a major portion of the car buyers from buying it. That didn’t stop me and other niche French autophiles from loving the uniqueness, and dare I say French-ness of the vehicle. 

The Avantime was built on the chassis of the Espace III, the last Espace to be built by Matra. The MPV itself looked like a third party Toyota Previa, and wasn’t all that nice to look at. In my opinion, the Avantime was a huge step up in terms of how it looked, even though it was so out there. True to early 2000’s French cars though, the car invoked a lot of conflicting shapes, with the size and bulbous-ness of the Espace III, but the style of the Megane II, and split the car into 2 main parts.

The lower portion of the car was relatively normal, albeit having weird vents on top of the headlights, perhaps to help with cooling, and a big bum, following suit with the Megane II’s rear design. The car also featured a pair of elongated doors, so large, they had to be double jointed in order to not cause too much difficulty when opening them.

The top portion was clearly separated, featuring an all-aluminium roof in silver, with glass everywhere. Because the car featured no B-pillar, the cockpit felt very open, even though it was only a 4 seater. The roof was separated into 2 sections from inside the car, the front being a sunroof that could open, and the back which was just a panoramic roof. Both skylights could be covered by blinds. However, the 2 sections look to be one big glass panel, due to the exterior featuring one continuous panel of strengthened heat-reflecting glass, even though the middle portion of glass didn’t really have any functional purpose.

Enough of the exterior, let’s talk about the interior. As mentioned before, the minivan only featured 4 seats. All were done up in organic leather made from Bridge of Weir (in Sahara Beige or Eclipse Black), were large sized, and made you feel like you were sitting on a sofa. And because the car was 10cm longer than the standard Espace III, but only having 2 rows, all passengers had ample legroom and a very spacious interior. The dashboard was not all that different to the Espace too, with the same inset speedometer, albeit being a bit narrower; it had a lot of storage compartments; as well as the same ‘paw-print’ shaped climate control switch panels. Unlike the Espace, the Avantime had a conventional gear shifter instead of a column shifter. 

The minivan came in 2 trim levels: differentiated by what engine they had. The ‘Dynamique’ model came with a 2.0L F4Rt T I4 (which also came in other Renault models of the same era), and was only paired with a 6-speed manual transmission. A mere 165hp/250Nm was all that the little 4-banger put out. The higher trim level was named ‘Privilege’ and was equipped with a 3.0L L7X ESL V6 (the replacement of the PRV V6 found in the elusive Clio II V6), which produced 210hp/280Nm and came in both a 5-speed automatic and a 6-speed manual. So even though the van weighed 1714kg, it didn’t feel all that heavy, though it was a bit of a wafter.

There were many factory options which were factored into each car. I won’t go into them here, but here’s a link to a forum detailing what the Avantime had.

Colour Time: The Renault Avantime came in 10 exterior colours

Reds:         Mars Red (Mars Rouge)

Greens:         Java Green (Java Vert), Scarab Green (Scarabée Vert)

Blues:         Iliad Blue (Iliade Bleu), Tibetan Blue (Tibétain Bleu), Monaco Blue (Monaco Bleu)

Purples:         Nocturne

Blacks:         Pearl Black (Perle Noir)

Greys:         Steel Grey (Acier Gris)

Silvers:         Sand (Sable)

In summary, this car is so 'ahead of its time', which explains its nomenclature, but it should really have been named 'Abizzarretime.' I mean, just look at it! I have reviewed many weird and ‘out-there’ cars, but I’ve never thought that I’d top the likes of the Renault Sport Spider or the Ferrari 400i GT! This has certainly got to be the wackiest of the bunch and I'm pretty stoked I got to even see one of these! I wonder what I’ll get to write about next!