Avantime marks 10th anniversary

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The expensive Avantime - French for 'ahead of time' - was shown at the 1999 Geneva motor show as a concept.
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Neil Dowling

Contributing Journalist

2 min read

No surprises that it's French and no longer in production. Renault's chiselled Avantime grand tourer - one of the few concept cars to go within six months from the motor show stand to production with barely any changes - only lasted about a year in production but in its 10th anniversary of sale in the UK, remains as eye-catching as its designer intended.

The guy who penned the Avantime, Patrick le Quement, said at the time that he wanted someone walking around the car to be continually astonished. Ten years later, we're still astonished. 

The expensive Avantime - French for 'ahead of time' - was shown at the 1999 Geneva motor show as a concept and then as a production car at the 1999 Frankfurt and London shows.

It was lauded for its combination of performance and the luxury of interior space and comfort aided by the panoramic glass roof.

The drivetrain was initially a six-speed manual gearbox linked to a 155kW 3.0-litre V6. Renault aimed it at buyers who wanted to travel quickly over long distances and claimed a top speed of 225km/h. A 2-litre, four-cylinder turbo-diesel and an automatic transmission for the V6 were later offered.

Production only lasted 12 months because coach builder Matra was unable to find a replacement model for Espace III production that was coming to a close leaving them with too much excess capacity.

In the UK and fancy seeing the Avantime? The UK Avantime Owner's Club 10th anniversary meeting takes place at the Coventry Motor Museum on Saturday, April 7.

More details on www.avantime-owners.com

Photo of Neil Dowling
Neil Dowling

Contributing Journalist

GoAutoMedia Cars have been the corner stone to Neil’s passion, beginning at pre-school age, through school but then pushed sideways while he studied accounting. It was rekindled when he started contributing to magazines including Bushdriver and then when he started a motoring section in Perth’s The Western Mail. He was then appointed as a finance writer for the evening Daily News, supplemented by writing its motoring column. He moved to The Sunday Times as finance editor and after a nine-year term, finally drove back into motoring when in 1998 he was asked to rebrand and restyle the newspaper’s motoring section, expanding it over 12 years from a two-page section to a 36-page lift-out. In 2010 he was selected to join News Ltd’s national motoring group Carsguide and covered national and international events, launches, news conferences and Car of the Year awards until November 2014 when he moved into freelancing, working for GoAuto, The West Australian, Western 4WDriver magazine, Bauer Media and as an online content writer for one of Australia’s biggest car groups. He has involved himself in all aspects including motorsport where he has competed in everything from motocross to motorkhanas and rallies including Targa West and the ARC Forest Rally. He loves all facets of the car industry, from design, manufacture, testing, marketing and even business structures and believes cars are one of the few high-volume consumables to combine a very high degree of engineering enlivened with an even higher degree of emotion from its consumers.
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