Renault abandoned the United States in 1987, and it won’t return indirectly until later this decade with its Alpine sub-brand. However, the comeback could’ve happened as early as the start of the 2000s. This is the story of the Avantime (French for "ahead of its time"), a beautiful failure America nearly got via the then-new alliance between Renault and Nissan.
Shortly after the two companies joined forces in 1999, there were talks of bringing the radically shaped luxury Renault to North America. The plan was to swap out the diamond logo in favor of Infiniti’s badge and sell it here. Much like in Europe, the Avantime was supposed to lure in US buyers who wanted something different from the usual German executive sedan.
But it never came to be. Accountants from Renault and Nissan crunched the numbers and the math didn’t work out in the Avantime’s favor. At the turn of the century, it was decided not to bring the “one-box coupe” to the US because it would’ve been a costly endeavor. In a report from April 2000, Automotive News cited members of the Renault-Nissan Global Alliance Committee saying an Infiniti-badged version would’ve cost $83.7 million to convert to meet US regulations. The Avantime was supposed to get a Nissan V-6 engine and a different automatic gearbox than the five-speed slushbox installed on the European model.
Patrick Bessy, Renault's spokesman at the time, said it wouldn’t have been worth the hassle given the projected low sales. The company’s estimates put the Infiniti version at only a few thousand sales annually. With America becoming Trucklandia, bringing the Avantime to the States probably wouldn’t have moved the needle. After all, the wonderfully French grand tourer was a complete sales flop in Europe as well.
But what made the Avantime so special? Well, just look at it. Although it was based on the Espace minivan, Renault made it less practical by deleting the rear doors and B-pillars for the sake of style. Those two massive double-hinged doors weighed 123 pounds each, so opening them with the vehicle parked uphill must have been quite a challenge. Legend has it that the car’s launch was pushed back because the engineers couldn’t figure out how to efficiently seal the frameless windows.
Although it borrowed about half of the Espace’s parts, it felt far more special than the mundane family hauler. Penned by Patrick le Quément, the Avantime aspired to be a coupe-styled minivan with an almost cabriolet-like vibe. Mounted next to the rearview mirror was a button to drop all the windows down and open the massive sunroof. The French rightfully called it a "Grand Air" mode.
As to why it failed, there are more than a few reasons. Many people argued that the Avantime’s styling was not its forte. Despite having minivan roots, the back seats were cramped and there was barely any room for the person sitting in the middle. Rear-seat comfort is where the car should’ve excelled, given its premium status and Espace heritage, but that wasn’t the case.
There was also a rival within the brand it had to fight. Around the same time, Renault launched the Vel Satis as another daring competitor for the Germans. Rather than being a traditional four-door sedan, it took the shape of a large five-door hatchback. It was far more popular, with nearly 65,000 units sold between 2001 and 2009. The Avantime, offered from 2001 until 2003, was assembled in just 8,557 examples.
The Avantime was built by French industrial conglomerate Matra, which ultimately accelerated the vehicle’s demise. The company went bankrupt in 2003, and since Renault decided against moving production in-house, the quirky car was axed from the lineup. Had sales been stronger, it might've stuck around for longer; a facelift was planned for 2004/2005. Renault and Matra had hoped to sell 20,000 units each year, but the unusual luxury car failed to reach even half that number in three years.
Previewed by the 1999 Coupespace concept, the Avantime was sold with four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines, plus a beefier gas V-6. The latter was a 3.0-liter unit that sent 204 horsepower to the front wheels via a six-speed manual or a five-speed automatic. During its short life cycle, Renault's polarizing GT also had a 2.2-liter turbodiesel engine offered only in left-hand-drive markets.
The Avantime never came to America, but in about two years from now, you’ll be able to legally import one. Renault’s failed experiment will be turning 25 in 2026. We found a nice example listed on the German car sales platform Mobile.de that costs €25,000 (about $27,000) for a V-6 model with only about 30,000 miles on the clock. The cheapest one we found is €4,000 ($4,300), but it has nearly 140,000 miles.
The Avantime’s future never happened, but we have to give credit where it’s due and applaud Renault for trying something different. It was an eccentric car that wanted to offer something for everyone but failed to lure in enough buyers to remain in production after Matra collapsed. Back in the day, Anthony Grade, Renault's vice president of design, said they "wanted someone walking around the car to be continually astonished."
In 2024, Renault has no fewer than eight SUVs in Europe where it’s no longer selling wagons and it’s down to just one sedan it sells in a handful of markets. The early 2000s were certainly different times, back when Renault went bonkers with a diminutive Clio hot hatch that had a mid-mounted V-6 engine and rear-wheel drive. When Alpine lands here in a couple of years, it'll primarily sell SUVs, all of which will be electric.
Renault Avantime (2001-2003)
