The Renault Avantime is a grand tourer marketed by the French manufacturer Renault, designed and manufactured by Matra, between 2001 and 2003. As a one-box design without B-pillars, styled by Patrick Le Quément, the Avantime combined the design elements of an MPV, estate or shooting brake with the style of a 2+2 coupé and elements of a convertible.

The name is a portmanteau of the French word “Avant” (meaning “ahead”) and the English word “time” — with the latter using the English /taɪm/ rather than French pronunciation /tiːm/.

The Avantime was designed and developed in house by Renault affiliate Matra and was conceived by Philippe Guédon, head of the automotive division at Matra, who “believed that the children of Espace owners remained loyal to the car even after they had grown up and left home. As a result, the renowned estate was gaining a generation of new drivers.”

Styled by Patrick Le Quément, the Avantime was intended to combine the space of an estate 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. “Anthony Grade, Renault´s vice president of design said “The exterior and interior had to be coherent. Using the Espace as a base, for instance, meant we had the central instrument display, but that´s part of the innovative character of the whole vehicle”. Carmagazine described the interior as architectural and luxurious.

The one-box design eliminated B-pillars and featured an aluminium structure, aluminium panels for the greenhouse and a full sunroof of strengthened heat reflecting glass. The interior featured four seats each with built in seatbelts, and leather from Bridge of Weir.To facilitate access to the rear seats, two long doors featured a double parallel opening hinge system (marketed as “double kinematic”) that maximized access with minimal outswing of the doors.

Front side windows lowered automatically, when either of the front seats folded forward to further facilitate entry to the rear two seats. Windows featured power deployable sunshades, and the
H-points of the rear two seats were higher than the forward two seats, giving the Avantime “theater seating.”

The luggage compartment featured a retaining system using retractable straps, and all Avantimes featured a two tone look created by the exposed aluminium of the greenhouse. The windows and panoramic sunroof could open automatically via a single, headliner mounted control, to give the Avantime an ‘open air’ mode.

The design borrowed the automotive space frame of the first generation Renault Espace (load bearing galvanized structure with non load bearing composite panels) utilizing Renault’s 24 valve, 207 hp (152 kW) 3.0L V6 engine, which was coupled to a six speed manual transmission or five speed automatic transmission.

This ILiade Blue Metallic (549) with a Black leather interior, Renault Avantime 3.0L V6 24v Privilège , which was coupled to a six speed manual transmission was originally dispatched to the Netherlands on the 5th April 2002 to its first owner.

This in top condition Renault Avantime 3.0L V6 24v Privilège has always been dealer maintained.