Renault Aventime

Car: 2001 Renault Aventime V6

Start Date: March 2026

Deadline: June 2026

MISFIT CARS

Call us soft or just plain daft but we at Misfit Mingle garage have a soft spot for the cars that never really made it into the hearts of the car driving mases and thats why with our Misfit Cars projects we will be taking samples of these beautiful flops and restoring them to better than new condition.

Our Renault Aventime is one of the many unloved examples out there that has not only been abandoned but at some time a crazy person fitted a LPG conversion to the cooler than cool V6 so it is our mission to not only bring this beauty back to life but to breathe some modern life into it and to show all those who maligned this French icon just how wrong they were.

Renault Avantime V6 – The Car That Tried to Be Everything

Alright, picture this: it’s the early 2000s, and Renault decides to throw the rulebook out the window. They drop the Avantime — a massive, two-door luxury coupe… that’s also kind of an MPV… with spaceship vibes. And if that’s not weird enough, they slap a silky 3.0L V6 under the bonnet making just over 200 horsepower.

It had no B-pillars, huge glass doors, a panoramic roof, and the inside felt more like a futuristic lounge than a car. Sounds cool, right? Well, yeah — but here’s the thing: nobody bought it.

Only around 8,500 Avantimes were ever sold. Why? Because it was totally confused about what it wanted to be. Too big and odd for coupe lovers. Too expensive and impractical for MPV buyers. Plus, build quality wasn’t great, and the timing was awful. SUVs were taking over, and this artsy French spaceship just didn’t fit in.

BUT — fast forward to today, and the Avantime has become a bit of a legend. It was ahead of its time, no question. And now, people are finally starting to appreciate just how bold and different it really was.

So yeah, the Avantime flopped… but it did it in style.