Renault Avantime: Wacky 'coupe MPV' had bold looks - and the heaviest doors ever

摘要

My jaw dropped when a slightly modified Renault Avantime slipped past me the other day. It rode a couple of inches closer to the road on wide, black-spoked alloys, and was painted in the vibrant green of a summer cocktail, its silver roof the equivalent of the paper umbrella. The appealingly weird Avantime has as much visual impact today as it did when it was new in 2001. The Avantime is possibly the most magnificent automotive folly so far this century. Its existence was driven by Renault's attempts to invent a new kind of luxury, a counterpoint to the monochromatic, autobahn-honed saloons from Munich and Stuttgart.