A truly remarkable failure! The Renault Avantime

in this video one of the most remarkable failures of all motoring kind it's the renault avon time uh that is a mixture of french avon before and time english so before time it really was before it was time uh too much time and it's been joining this car park weirdly by renault four van so that's cool heritage nods and everything so uh let's dig in to why this particularly hub nutty car is um such a disaster so if you haven't seen it already i'll cover the history of the relationship between renault and matra in my test of an espace so you might want to go and have a peek at that now but in short chrysler developed the original concept for the espace matra turned it into a production reality then peugeot bought chrysler said no and uh matra went to renault and said well come on someone's going to make it and renault went yeah we can see a future in that and they were not wrong and that led to a happy relationship there were three generations of the espace built by matra using renault running gear the the formula was very successful but renault got greedy renault decided it wanted the fourth generation espace to be steel and it wanted to build the whole thing itself and mattress said well what are we gonna do this apparently was the answer the mpv coupe that no one asked for and no one really wanted uh it's an extraordinary car and uh a fascinating one it's kind of like the citroen sm it's just weird very very french very very enormous seemingly pointless but also absolutely magical so let's take a look i mean the styling is just utterly bizarre very very closely linked to the third generation espace i think more than the fourth there's random air vents all over the place this one's covered in bird muck and tree sap because hub nut is also covered 352 000 kilometers and believe me the gearbox is feeling that as we'll discover later some lovely alloys on it 17-inch alloys uh there's this midsection where you've got some of the largest doors ever fitted to a production car and some rabbits that's actually metal but the rest of this car is fiberglass because that was matra's speciality it kind of made the renault espace almost weatherproof returning to the important business of the doors they are huge and people realize that this would be a problem in car parks but if i open the door to its widest setting it doesn't actually come out too far and that's because of this remarkable double hinge section going on here look at that it cost a terrifying amount of money to develop that and on a car but basically didn't sell because yeah a few people wanted a sleek coupe but isn't particularly sleek it's absolutely enormous it's massive i've currently got it in open air mode where the window goes back and all the windows drops it's a full pillarless coupe but is it a coupe because it's got a magana-esque backside with an actual tailgate there is actually a boot in here but it's not a very practical boot because it's very shallow there is actually room for a full-size spare wheel it's missing in this example down there there's also some random wiring and bulbs because french uh i presume they weren't there from the factory but yeah it's not really a very practical car because the boot is really tiny the little handle here little pull-down handle for with which you can close the boot so um yeah it's it's it's challenging in the styling department but un ashamedly eye-catching the attention this thing gets driving around we went and put petrol in it earlier and that proved a bit of challenge people want to come up and say what on earth is it and they did repeat the trick this side this is also a double hinged door so there's an awful lot of engineering in there we just don't really know why engines you could have a two liter turbo four which this is or a v6 nice creamy v6 and you can have an automatic with that so here we have the two liter turbo four known in renault parlance as the f4 rt which looks particularly bad written down i did forget you could also get in left hand drive mark it's a 2.2 liter turbo diesel which is best avoided because it likes to grenade three liter v6 sounds absolutely beautiful but uh i believe a cam belt change is technically an engine out job so uh not joyous to work on it makes the two liter turbo really the hub nut car we've already driven a vel status some years ago with that engine i don't believe it's particularly bad engine i think it's quite good good torque delivery so it produces 165 brake horsepower which is enough for a top speed of about 120 something and nor to 60 time just under 10 seconds kind of enough really you don't need more than that this isn't a sports car it really really is not a sports car look at it it's blooming enormous it's huge well now we can show off the doors once more i think good access front and rear although you've got to walk up all the way up to here to then get in a lever on this example has seen better days this seat no longer wants to tip it's fine it's just a bit because french but also because 352 000 kilometers let's close the door don't get your fingers trapped in there that is it's quite a quirky layout in here we've got heater controls are mounted here for some reason unless your window switch is a bit more sensible standard renault gauges i've got a six-speed gearbox very tall gear lever the radio comes with a remote control oh no the bit trims falling apart oh no it's all gone a bit french folks it's fine no one saw anything yeah you get a remote control which apparently has led to some drivers getting in trouble because the police think you're holding a phone but this is actually a remote control although you're better off putting that in the back really because there is renaults um somewhere around here there we go uh typical column mounted control so that kind of gives you all you need really the stereo itself hides under here and it's kind of built in there's a gps built in as well which presumably isn't very up-to-date don't touch that leave that alone uh there's hidden storage all over the place so that's a nice big draw down there there's one here as well which sometimes wants to open uh oh that's where your sat nav is okay you see you update your sat nav there and that's where you put your cds in as well that's quite handy uh is that a space maybe that's not i have a feeling somewhere up here is oh yes there we go and it's a privileged spec and it's another deep cubby so that you can fit an entire ice scraper in there so that's quite neat i quite like that got big display up ahead if i put the ignition on you might actually be able to see some things so that's the speedometer up ahead look at that 345 thousand kilometers it's off and okay so don't worry folks so yeah buttons up here for the roof and there's a big blind as well um i've got the roof open mostly because uh the air conditioning doesn't work because hub nut uh down here i think there would be a cubby but it seems to have been screwed shut but i think this is also a cubby yeah you can get a full cup of coffee in there apparently and uh this moves around of its own accord most of the time you keep catching it that's great lovely bit of design uh the mirror control is down there but we've got other switches down here for dash brightness and uh there's a few scattered down here for things like indicators very very electronic um uh yeah i don't speak dutch but um okay does that he say okay maybe that's not you press okay i don't know how to tell it okay what if it no thinks i'm not okay but yeah there's plenty of space up here it's a nice comfortable driving position i've got somewhere to rest my clutch for compared to that mark one espace the wheel arch intrusion is a little less there's still a bit of it going on but it is far better but it's the same commanding driving experience it's why people buy suvs because they want this commanding driving position this car has that at least so that's not too bad let's go and check out the rear so i've come to the other side because i'm told uh this is a better idea so we'll um open the door now we'll fold the seat we just pull that handle and it does indeed tip and slide forward that's convenient and i shall hop in let's go all the way over and i'll hop in behind the driver's seat where the problem is that the seats are so close to the floor i can barely get my sandals underneath them she's saying there's plenty of leg room but uh that makes it rather uncomfortable so you've got all this space all this car and it's not actually very comfortable to sit in the back of it even though i've got an armrest and a glass panel in the roof currently two glass panels because the front panel has slid in over the top this one i don't believe moves i believe this is a fixed panel but i have got a blind here if it all somehow gets a bit too much jeepers old cars are fun folks so getting out is an interesting experience because you can kind of just step out like this i believe originally it was designed so that window would drop automatically when you were getting into the back i don't think this one does that it might be broken or maybe that was just a myth but uh yeah it's certainly a very interesting car aware of my manners i haven't done a windscreen wiper test yet let's um start the engine yep so far so uninspiring by the way there's a rev counter there the bulbs are mostly broken but it's not quite as cool as a gsa rotating drum dial you probably can't even see it i'm struggling to see it myself so there we are but uh windscreen washers they are on the arm look at that so you haven't got water spraying all over the place they do a terrible job but uh i think maybe one of them's clogged but we have got a triangle of doom going on right here and that can cause the dribble of disappointment but i just noticed i can see the wires in that that's a heated windscreen well i don't think ford don't let anyone else use that maybe they didn't tell ford well i think a little disappointingly for you i'm going to have to put you there but you can see how weird the driving position is it feels so massively open although what you can't see is the fact there's an enormous windscreen right in front of me but yeah it feels very much like the mark one renault espace i was driving it still feels like matra's baby and i suppose that is not very surprising it kind of was but i can imagine matra going okay renault but are you sure this is going to be a good idea renault going oh yes yes it'll be a really good idea people buy loads of them people bought less than eight thousand of them so that in the modern car production terms is absolutely hopeless so we've got gonna have a fair bit of wind noise going on with all these windows open because the aircon doesn't work and i don't want to die this is the situation we find ourselves in here comes the speed hump floats over it like you'd expect a french car to float so very very comfortable very very relaxing to drive because that engine has actually got a decent amount of torque it's um fairly low down in the in the rev range so it's not a stressful car to drive the engine suits the character of the car really rather well a lot of people obsess about the v6s but yeah the v6 is on the be all and end-all yes they make nice noises but they're an absolute pain to look after and obviously drink a lot more fuel just really open the rock now i've changed my mind i don't want to open her up it doesn't sound very good there's just absolutely no point giving this card the beans but uh i mean if ever there was a grand tourer this is surely it the good thing about having the windows open is that when i put her into sixth gear you can't hear the horrible gnashing um metal sounds that the gearbox is emitting i don't think it's very healthy and fifth and six are very very loud in fact when i first picked the car up i made the owner pull over and i said i think this is broken and then he took it for a drive and went oh no he's been doing that for years but i think at 352 000 kilometers maybe that's not too bad that's an awful lot of miles that's over 200 thousand miles changed to fourth now for a bit more serenity and uh yeah it's just really really nice sorry you can now hear a moped driving along next to me on a cycle path that's not the car so the avant team was launched in 2001 but by 2003 it was all over and that was the end of matra absolutely tragically i mean it wasn't helped by the car being conceptually flawed into you know did anyone do any market research and see if anyone actually wanted this but also renault launched their own luxury car the ville status another quirky very odd big car so uh and a lot more practical than the avon time so perhaps it's not surprising that people would rather buy one of those instead of course they didn't buy very many of those either because it's a big french car but still it's holding considerably more numbers than the avon time i will say the way this car garner's attention today is mightily impressive it confuses a lot of people um it's just so so ridiculously different and for that i have to admire it now they came became collectible fairly quickly because the production numbers were so low and i know a friend of mine sold his to a frenchman who was just like i don't care it's right-hand drive it's a lot cheaper than they are back home and that collector interest has started growing but uh perhaps this is a lower valued version because it's done a lot of miles and is not in perfect condition some of the trim in particular is distinctly french highly broken well the fact remains and one time makes a very very practical classic probably why danny hopkins of practical classics the editor no less did have a nav on time for a time that's a difficult thing to say so there's your driver's view and yeah the front bumper is lost somewhere up front we've no idea where it is but uh lovely commanding driving position really really just very very nice i will say you know i have a slight issue with leather seats i'm just not a fan of leather seats uh i'm i'm presuming you could get a red rav on time with um velour surely surely the law that'll be the one for me this is the privilege privilege top spec i mean i absolutely love it i think this is uh a great car it's really really pleasant to drive you've got that commanding driving position it's very very comfortable the ride is superb so i i like it a lot and i find it a little troubling to say that because i know miss hubnet wants one as well but uh sadly like i say collector interest has always been there and it has started pushing those values up but this is worth doing because again i got seduced into the idea that the only way to do it was with the v6 engine and it just isn't you don't need the v6 this is engine enough it pulls so well you can just leave it in a tall gear and just oh love it but i have to say for the mileage it's done this car is in um remarkable condition 345 thousand i may have said 352 earlier but it's still quite a lot of kilometers i would definitely rather have one of these than a vel status it may upset the um belsatis folk but that's how i feel on the matter i'm going to do a bit of highway driving which is going to be very noisy but i might use my one press button to pull all the windows and roof shut and we'll see what a difference it makes once we're at cruising speed where the cruising speed in the netherlands at the moment is only 100 kilometers an hour 62 miles an hour it's my first chance to really give her the beans yeah it gets a shift on what i will say the the issue is it does that rev hangi thing that modern engines tend to do uh i i think for emissions reasons uh it's quite irritating yeah it doesn't roll around too much for such a big car handling is kind of what you'd expect really of a modern they're all much of emotions these days aren't they and uh frankly a bit too soon we are at the speed limit so let's shut everything then one press everything closes oh magnifique now it is much quieter yeah that makes a big difference and uh the dynamics in here it's now become quite echoey just because there is so much glass around here so it's a sign of how well done the rest of the sound is but you can't hear very much if you strain your ears you might just hear the sound of a gear box torturing itself yeah this is nice but i'm starting to cook there we go now it's just everyone else's tyre noise that's the problem oh that's unpleasant if you have just the roof open and not the windows it's horrifically noisy lovely car for checking your blind spot though it's lovely and it feels like an experience and that's what you want even if the target audience for this car is somewhat hard to decipher that audience definitely wanted a car that stands out and they've got that here but it doesn't stand out and be completely hopeless i mean there's family transport it's a bit rubbish because the boot is tiny trying to imagine me and my little family going on holiday in it and uh yeah there just would not be enough space we'd be far better off with an actual espace so yeah it's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but it is very very likeable so that was the magnificent white elephant what is the renault avon time it's um undeniably special and i'm very glad it exists even though it must have cost reno an awful lot of money and it costs matra its entire existence yet somehow it feels worth it just because wow i mean mattress time was going to end at some point wasn't it it might as well be with something truly magical it's a rubbish car really it's not anywhere near as practical as it should be for its enormous size but i still love it and uh yeah it definitely stands as one of the finest unnecessary pieces of french engineering out there and they know a thing or two about unnecessary engineering so i hope you've enjoyed that thank you very much for watching and don't forget you can head to the hub.net store and i love the merchandise you wish support options in the description below otherwise we shall see you in a future video farewell that ass [Music] hi private road people private road

Channel: HubNut

Views: 45,925

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Id: mNf4EzEcNLQ

Length: 21min 8sec (1268 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 29 2022