It was a huge failure that now has another chance

At the end of August, ‘Gran Turismo 7‘ received a update. The video game of PlayStation 5 He received five sports cars with the peculiarity that one of them was a minivan and, in addition, it was a huge commercial failure 20 years ago. It is about the Renault Avantimea very beloved model in some circles that took over a French company that manufactured sports cars and of which some 8,500 units were manufactured.

Curiously, it is an ideal car for the United States, and now that it turns 25, it will finally reach that market due to a controversial import rule that was born due to… Mercedes.

Minivan coupe. Let’s go with a little story about the Avantime which, as its name suggests, was a car that was born before its time. Presented as the CoupéSpace In 1999, Renault’s idea was to combine the spaciousness of a minivan with the sportiness of a three-door coupe. Manufactured by Matra (a company that was born in the 1940s as a sports car manufacturer), the Avantime began to be sold in 2001 with a single engine: a three-liter V6 with 207 HP. Then other engines came out, such as the 2.0 with 163 HP with turbo and the 2.2-liter, 150 HP diesel.

The door

The car was a boat: 4.64 meters long (a lot for its time, currently compact), 1.63 meters high and a great aerodynamic coefficient if we take into account its size. It weighed a lot, and much of the blame was on the two huge doors, 1.40 meters long and 50 kilos each. To open them without looking like the wings of an airplane, Renault and Matra engineered a double hinge that “folded” the door at another point. Your market? Europe, although it had all the earmarks of being an ideal car for the United States.

Mercedes and the gray market. Renault never officially launched it in the North American country, but you might think that if someone liked it, they just had to buy it, homologate it and that’s it, right? That is, like this It has been made in Europe with some units of another recent commercial fiasco, the Cybertruck. Well no, and it all comes from Mercedes that began to be sold uncontrollably in the 70s.

During that time, the United States experienced a boom in vehicle imports in the gray market. Americans discovered that they could buy European cars directly in Europe at prices significantly lower than those the Europeans themselves officially sold in the country. It is estimated that, in 1985 alone, 60,000 European gray market vehicles entered the US, and a fifth of registered Mercedes they were importing of Europe.

The roof had to weigh a quintal

The 25 year rule. The Germans, with an official presence in the country, were not amused because, furthermore, the cars being sold did not come directly from a European dealership. Mercedes herself did the test buying a model on the gray market, the 500SEL from 1985. It was a model with airbagsbut what they received was the ’84 model without airbags and with parts added later in a non-approved manner.

Citing security reasons, and because the practice was harming the market, the company spent millions trying to push through Congress a law that would stop the private importation of vehicles that were not officially destined for the US market. They won: in 1988 approved the Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act that prohibited these imports.

There was one exception: vehicles over 25 years old would be considered classics and would therefore be exempt from the restrictions. Come on, it was not so much an issue of road safety as of preventing gray market sales from taking away part of the pie. Logical reason, on the other hand.

Ahead of its time. That those stipulated 25 years will be fulfilled in 2026 means that Americans, those who like wide carsyou will be able to enjoy some of the most unique European creations of recent years. And seeing how the market is, in which it seems that if you are not an SUV you are nothing, surely one of the most unique of the times to come. Furthermore, that original version with the V6 gasoline is the most interesting version for that market.

We will have to keep an eye on whether they begin to import some units that, why not say it, are not too expensive considering how scarce the model is due to the morrocotudo failure it was for the French. Specifically8,557 units were produced (taking into account the three engines) of the 80,000 they wanted to manufacture because they had difficulties with the doors and the heavy roof (a lot of glass and no pillar), but it would not have mattered: they sold very little because, in addition, it was an expensive car.

In the United Kingdom it cost 24,000 pounds in 2022 and only 450 units were sold in the three years that it was available. This slap impacted Renault, but it took out a Matra Automotive that depended directly on the production of this car. I have to admit that I never liked it, but my partner Alberto does have his eye on a model that, beyond taste, is unique. So much so that even Renault itself has put him in his place.

Images | Renault, Zvonimir Jurcic, Patrick Charpiat

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