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Winkler: And now let's return to where we are now, right?
Winkler: Let's have a bit of Avantime, Gábor's old car.
Karotta: In movement.
I know it's a bit hard to fathom at once,
but this is the weirdest modern series Renault ever.
I hope by now you've gathered why it's so strange.
This is a Renault Avantime manufactured between 2002 and 2003,
Renault's bus limo, which in fact is a coupé
and a cabrio at the same time.
And, as you can see, it's got no B pillar. A car which is almost
as long as a bus, as tall as a bus,
but in reality is pretty far from the whole concept of being one.
Showing your the problems. Well.. so there's no B-pillar,
but because the car needed to be on the same page with
modern traffic safety regulations, this top arc
had to be done so much strong,
that it could protect the bodywork during impact without turning it into an origami.
This whole arc here on top is aluminium, the bodywork is steel,
but these layers on the bodywork were made out of plastic.
All for the sake of turning it light,
so it weighs a little bit under two tons.
Avantime with this 3-liter V6
is one of the world's most pleasant cars made for travel.
It runs smooth, light and soft,
a bit more than 200 horses inside,
which means that with
these 1.8 tons it runs quite well,
and in the meanwhile it has this silky murmur of a V6
that doesn't say oh I'll rip you I'll kill you
I'll nibble you but I'll just reach under you
like a big magic hand and push you
into another dimension.
And that's damn sure that whoever had the idea
that this vehicle's gotta be called Avantime
was a real prophet.
Avant in French means
before or in front of, time in English is a dead giveaway,
so it all means
that this is a car that comes before its time.
And they had so much truth in this,
that they named it some 13 years ago
and time didn't have the chance
to get to its heels, not even now.
The same amount of not getting it,
the same amount of pointing at it with mouths agape,
the same amount of happy children's wailing when they look at it,
because children feel the happiness
when they see a stupid thing. Everybody should.
And then the world would be a happier place.
This is a longest door that has ever been manufactured on a series car.
A door this long,
if it would just open,
and somebody would park beside us...
Here...
Then you couldn't get out at all.
So they had to invent
that double-jointed hinge
thaht you can see it here, which facilitates
an opening of smaller angles
that makes getting in and out of the car possible.
Now, because of that,
and because of this
launch has been delayed.
Furthermore.. there are certain
disturbances in clarity.
They had to integrate the seats and the safety belts,
because there were no B-pillars,
and that's okay. But.
If we get in at the back,
then you'll see that
they had to elevate a bit
the whole back seat so that
you could see well in front of the car,
and you could have a circular view.
But.
The bottom is also elevated at the back.
which means feet do rise off the ground,
so all in all
you have to be seated like an embryo.
Not too comfy.
And under the first seats
you can't place your feet
because there's no place for them.
So we're sitting here in a bus,
but it's only four people who can
travel normally and those at the back
feel it isn't comfortable at all.
And that's astounding in Renault's bravado
is that they knew it's difficult
and people won't understand it
and it's expensive,
being brand new it cost something like 56,000 USD,
which was a prize you could have gotten a lot for
but Renault still said,
we don't care, we're not interested too much
in textbook solutions
and we don't care about traditional concepts either,
we'll make it revolutional because this is what we want it to be like.
You can't experience the Avantime as long
as you haven't raised your pointing finger
and touched that button RIGHT HERE.
Because in reality
this whole car is about this.
These button-induced disappearing side walls,
and the disappearing top,
and that we don't simply have
a bus-coupé,
but also a bus-coupé-cabrio in which
you can embrace the whole world.
Renault's press release at the time
said Avantime is the choice of
creative and dynamic men
men who are
not afraid of non-textbook and
unorthodox solutions.
Unfortunately with unorthodox
and non-textbook-like solutions
have a tendency to
being discarded by the market.
This is how it could happen that
after two years of Avantime manufacture
the whole thing went *** up
and with it the whole MATRA
plant where it's been manufactured, so
all in all there's only 8557 of them.
A lot less rare than its contemporary,
the Ferrari 360 Modena, the coupé version of which sold this much
and roughly the same amount of the Spider series.
So if you're looking for an investment in cars, leave the damn
Ferraris, that's cliché, and get yourself an Avantime,
and feel that you're taking the headstrong,
courageous and brave way.
Even though it might lead straight to hell.
Winkler: Now that you could re-test this
Winkler: car, don't you have a sudden impulse to re-buy?
Karotta: But, as I still desire it, as I still love it
Karotta: very, very much... but..
Winkler: But that's a bad car!
Winkler: Don't believe him!
Winkler: He praised it relentlessly, but that car is terrible,
Winkler: I drove it, the running gear is terrible, the gearbox
Winkler: had troubles as well, the new owner had it made,
Winkler: the ignition coils have gone to hell, intrinsic failure
Winkler: and it all looks like it's about to fall apart.
Winkler: A bad car.
Karotta: A handiwork of pure art.