2002 Renault Avantime in my garage

The Renault Avantime first appeared, in concept form, at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show. It's styling was heavily influenced by the Vel Satis concept shown the previous year with the notable features of extra long double hinged pillarless doors, full glass roof and distinctive curved rear screen with protruding boot - later popularised by the Megane. The pillarless doors and lack of central B-pillar gave the car a large uninterrupted glass area on each side, which led to a large open area when the windows were opened. This, along with the full glass roof and light coloured interior gave the inside of the car a very open, airy and spacious feeling.

 

In September 1999 Renault announced the Avantime would go into production and unveiled the production model. Externally the car was almost identical to the concept, the main differences being the addition of side ‘bumper' strips, the exhaust being switched from the concepts bumper-integrated outlets which were built into the rear bumper for a more conventional twin-pipe outlet and the front lights which had been bi-xenon now just had xenon for the dipped beam and the indicator was now in a separate unit.

 

The main features of the double-hinge ‘kinematic' doors, no B-pillar and all glass roof remained. Although the room was still all glass, rather than being made of one large piece of glass it had now been split to provide a ‘twin sunroof' style, with the front one being fully opening - a full 1 sq/m - the largest opening glass sunroof ever fitted to a production car at the time. This also gave more of an open-air driving experience - not far off that of a convertible.

 

HISTORY AVANTIME

- Renault suffered from over-capacity at their factories, and rather than letting people off, they wanted to take over the manufacture of the hugely successful Espace. So, they made the agreement with Matra that if Matra was given the task of developing this new high-spec topmodel, Renault could bring the Espace production in-house. Since Renault don't have the knowhow and expertise to produce cars like Matra do, they had to redesign the Espace, making it the conventional steel car we see marketed as "Espace IV". Matra took on the task and they came up with a series of design-ideas, all based on the "Espace III".

- The Geneva motor show in March 1999 saw the unveiling of a new Renault concept car - where it was called a "Coupéspace" - which leads the way in opening up a long forgotten niche - that of a luxurious Grand Tourer Coupé with space for four adults to relax in comfort.

 

POSTER COUPESPACE 1999

www.flickr.com/photos/m_and_jiji/6920221965/

 

- In the 1920's and '30's Renault's main products were luxurious sports models like the 1929 eight-cylinder Reinastella and 1930 Nervastella, driven by Royalty and Europe's aristocracy. The AVANTIME takes some inspiration from these powerful Grand Tourers, built to cover large distances in great comfort and style, whilst focusing firmly on the future. The AVANTIME, illustrates in a forthright manner Renault's ability to shape the future of the motor car. The manufacturer is convinced that there is room in the market for a new breed of coupe, targeted at a customer group seeking the visual distinction, rarity and driving enjoyment of a coupe with the luxury of space and comfort found in a large car or monospace, all wrapped up in a vehicle which is technologically advanced and forward looking. Styled by Patrick Le Quément, the AVANTIME was intended to combine the space of an MPV with four-place pillarless qualities of a coupé. Regarding the styling, Thierry Metroz, design project manager, said, "We wanted someone walking around the car to be continually astonished."

- You sit high up, with glass all around you. The AVANTIME has no B-pillars - one thing that certainly delayed the project was getting the pillar-less design safety-approved - which adds a roadster feel to it, with windows down. It was named the AVANTIME, which is not pronounced fully in French, but a combination 'AVANT' as in French for "ahead" and 'TIME' pronounced in english. In other words "Ahead of its time". They are quite probably right, and it will not be the first time Matra have been ahead of their time, and have spotted a niche almost before it appeared. It is an avantgarde looking car, the target group were people (former Espace-owners) whose kids have left home, but who still prefer the style and flexibility of the Espace, spiced up with a more luxurious interior and some decent performance. Very similar to the Espace the AVANTIME uses a warm-galvanized chassis in the lower part, but with the upper structure done in aluminium, to get the centre of gravity even lower than the Espace. The bodywork is still polyester, which is bonded in place. The doors are now a (galvanized) steel construction with polyester bodypanels bonded to it, making them much stronger than standard Espace doors, which were all fibreglass, with a metal frame, and in later models (J63 and JE) a side-impact steel bar about halfway up, on the inside. The frontend design is developed from the Espace, with the air-con intake moved to above the headlights, rather than the sidemirrors. The sidemirrors, on the other hand, have moved towards the door-windows again, as on the early Espace models.

- Matra's engineers have avoided the top-heaviness of a minivan or SUV by fitting a lightweight aluminum superstructure to the Espace chassis. The track has been widened, the suspension lowered, and the wheels and brakes enlarged. Careful development has produced a car that feels stable at high speed on the autobahn, steers accurately, rolls only a little when cornered hard, yet smoothes all but the roughest roads. This is an impressive achievement and makes the AVANTIME fun for the driver and calm and secure for the passengers.

- Renault has enlisted the services of French fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier to front its first-ever cross-brand advertising campaign "Créateur d'automobiles" (a one-minute spot with music by Etienne de Crécy). The pan-European ad aims to position the French motor brand as being creative and innovative, paving the way for forthcoming launches such as the new AVANTIME GT Coupe in 2001. TV advertising, by incumbent agency Publicis, breaks on October 17 (2000) and shows Gaultier designing and producing a new dress, from sketches to the finished product on the catwalk. After the fashion show, the model sees a Renault AVANTIME and is captivated by it. The ad then shows the process by which the car was created, in reverse from the completed car back to the production line. The designer's sketch is reduced to a blank piece of paper, mirroring Gaultier's process. Eric Bernard, Renault's worldwide advertising director, said: 'We're going to cause a stir with this campaign, and we hope to surprise and interest those who only think of Renault as a brand for small and medium-sized cars. 'It will trigger awareness and help us develop the new message in preparation for the launch of our new large cars.' The TV campaign's launch is being timed to coincide with the Birmingham International Motor Show, where Renault is unveiling its production version of the AVANTIME. It is being supported by press and poster activity.

 

TV SPOT AVANTIME COMMERCIAL (2001)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FS3V-akz-c

 

- In the meantime - there was a considerable delay in launching the AVANTIME - Renault had tested their design studio VEL SATIS with the public at car-shows and put the VEL SATIS into production, and hit the marked about the same time as the Avantime was finally ready. This means that Renault had two different approaches to the high-end luxury car, one being almost entirely Renault, the other a Matra. The Renault VEL SATIS has 4 doors, which should appeal to less adventurous (or more conservative) people. The AVANTIME was a two-doors only car (well, Matra did have a prototype 4-door version, but it never made it to production), but the doors are "huge" to allow for easy access, and are novel in the way they open, as they are internally hinged, making them sort of fold when you open them. Hereby even these huge doors will only require the same parkingspace as any other car, but at the same time offering excellent access. Having the AVANTIME compete with its Renault sibling obviously was not a good thing for Matra, who must have felt that Renault had not kept their part of the deal. To add insult to injury, its no secret that Renault urged their sales-organisation to push the VEL SATIS before the AVANTIME (by offering higher bonuses to the sales-people). This caused the AVANTIME to sell suficciently poor, to drain Matra for funds, and since there were no hopes for Renault helping them out, Matra decided in december 2002 that enough was enough and in April 2003 they shut down Matra Automobile and closed the factory in Romorantin. The last AVANTIME left the Matra assembly lines 18th of April 2003.

 

OFFICIAL VIDEO 10 YEARS AVANTIME, the "Coupéspace"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCXHroaxg8w&feature=feedu

 

INTERVIEW PATRICK LE QUEMENT (2009)

What about the Renault Avantime? "It was a very modern piece of design, but it was not liked by many people. It was not supposed to be built in the hundreds of cars every day. It was two years late to market and it was launched at the wrong time. There was also the issue with Matra [which assembled the Avantime and its business folded mid-cycle]. I felt very awkward about this. If we had done a highly conservative design, would it have sold better? If pigs had wings! We will never know. It was a real blow when Matra went bust. If a model is not selling well you feel for the people at the factory. You feel involved when they cut a shift or something like that. When a design works well and it’s a big seller it’s very satisfying. But when it does not work, it’s so often design that’s held to be responsible."

- Patrick le Quément

 

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