Industry watchers will long remember the Avantime as the moment Renault, buoyed by a swelling wave of innovation, innovated perhaps a little too far. The idea of merging a Renault Espace chassis with an angular three-door coupe-style body came from way out of left field and left many potential buyers scratching their heads. As a used buy it's an intriguing proposition. Rarity is more or less guaranteed and it may well hold its value reasonably well due to curiosity value but there aren't too many about. Renault aimed to sell 1,500 Avantimes per year in the UK. Divide that by ten and you'd be nearer the mark.

About the Renault Avantime

If the Avantime proved a prize turkey first time round, what's to stop it being an equal dud on the used market? A few things weigh in its favour. With the edge taken off its ridiculous pricing no longer looks quite such an anomaly. Secondly, history may well look upon it a little more sympathetically than European new car buyers ever did, making the Avantime a charmingly idiosyncratic purchase. It would be interesting to see the market research Renault undertook when Avantime project was in its earliest days because there must be figures somewhere indicating a huge untapped market of customers just waiting for a big coupe based on an MPV with styling that causes pedestrians to walk into lamp posts. The joke was on someone. Was it us or was it Renault?

Representative finance example

If your borrow amount is £7,000 with a deposit of £1,000, a selected term of 48 months, at a representative APR of 17.9% (fixed) and an annual fixed interest rate of 15.9%, you would pay ££171.83 per month. Total charge for credit would be £2,247.84 and total amount repayable is £8,247.84.

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