The Coupéspace Is The Car Which Became the Renault Avantime  It
was 13 years ago, at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show, that Renault
unveiled its Coupéspace concept, the didactic branding hinting
at its origins: an Espace minivan turned into a coupé. This is
the car which became the Renault Avantime, which was so avant of
its time that the market demanded a total of 8,557 cars before
production was killed off in 2003.  The Avantime died a decade
ago and there’s still nothing like it on the market. It’s not
easy to make sense of the car’s opiate appeal. The Avantime is,
after all, a minivan. Except it isn’t. It’s a completely
decadent grand tourer.  Is it so appealing because Matra, the
company which designed and built the car for Renault, also
happens to manufacture wing-mounted air-to-ground rocket
launchers? Or that Matra happened to build the racing car Jackie
Stewart won his first Formula One world title with? Or that
Matra also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times?  All I know
is that the Coupéspace was a co