Is the Renault Avantime ahead of its time?
Nobody would ask this question today, but in 2002, when the Renault Avantime was still new, Automobil Revue asked itself whether it was a car of the future when it tested the innovative French car. After all, the Avantime had a look and a door mechanism that would otherwise only have been expected in a prototype. The fact that normal mass-produced technology from the Renault Espace was at work under the special shell was, so to speak, of secondary importance.
In the test in No. 4/2002 of Automobil Revue , of course, there was more: "Is this a van? Or a coupé? There is no clear answer to this question".
The Renault was tested at 220 km/h and accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h in 8.7 seconds with the six-speed gearbox. The car of the future consumed 11.2 liters of fuel, but the Renault was not one hundred percent convincing: "It's hard to predict where its journey will end, let's hope it's not too soon".
As my colleague Paul said: "A wrong track, consistently thought through to the end". Perhaps that is the case. In any case, we granted the coupé van the status of a "classic pearl of the future" back in 2014. But so far, and eight years later, we are still waiting for one of the just over 8,500 examples built to change hands at an auction for a high five-figure sum ...
Anyone interested in the test of the Renault Avantime should refer to the article in AR 4/2002 . Like the entire 2002 issue of Automobil Revue , it can be found in full on Zwischengas as of yesterday.
There is, of course, much more to discover that we may have forgotten after 20 years. And all the cars described in it are now or will soon be youngtimers ...
