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Not enough cache in Renault Avantime, Vel Satis? Try Facel Vega.
Vel Satis could be best taxi ever
Monte Carlo, Monaco – Renault is determined to break into the luxury sector with its new Avantime and Vel Satis models but its strategy looks doomed unless it introduces its own upmarket brand, or buys an existing one.
The Vel Satis is a big, bulky, leather-and-wood enhanced hatchback; the Avantime is harder to describe because it doesn’t fit into any ready-made category. It’s a coupe version of the Renault Espace which prompts the immediate question, “who’d want one of those?”
The 774 million euro projects look like a hubris-driven venture unlikely to meet its ambitious targets – namely – match and the beat luxury leaders like BMW, Mercedes.
But to be fair to Renault, it does have an impressive record introducing new ideas, including the big Espace MPV, the Twingo city car, the Scenic compact MPV and the Kangoo van. Unfortunately, its record in the upper echelons isn’t impressive.
Renault, and some other mass car manufacturers like Volkswagen, are eyeing covetously the high profit margin money making machines represented by BMW and Mercedes.
Mercedes and BMW products have the brand power to command high profits because their cars are perceived to be of higher quality than run-of-the-mill vehicles from the likes of Peugeot, Fiat, Renault and VW.
Ford gave up on luxury
Ford’s working class badge on the high-end luxury Scorpio executive saloon was a dismal failure and it decided the only route was to buy existing upmarket brands. Many billions of euros later, Ford has Jaguar, Volvo, and Land Rover to fight it out with BMW and Mercedes.
Japanese car makers like Toyota, Honda and Nissan were never convinced that their products, however great the quality, would ever make it in the stratosphere, so they decided to set up entirely separate luxury brands – Lexus, Acura, and Infiniti.
These three luxury brands produce cars which are often identical under the skin with the more prosaic sounding siblings, but Lexus, Acura and Infiniti are sold completely separately in the U.S.
Even General Motors’ Opel, which has struggled to sell its Omega big car, has bought Saab. Fiat hopes that its Lancia brand can do a “Lexus” and recently unveiled its executive candidate, the Thesis, more in hope than confidence.
Renault in its luxury project hoped that combination of cutting-edge styling and marketing verve would be enough for success, but it seems to have lost its nerve. Compare the toned-down Vel Satis, now in the showroom to the dare-to-be-different concept designs shown at car shows in the late 90s.
The Avantime, which Renault says is pronounced with the English "time" ending and not the French "teem", certainly stands out in the crowd but unfortunately, some experts say, for the wrong reasons.
Folly, hideous
"It is certainly a folly, and secondly a hideous creature," said Charles Moss, an independent industry analyst.
Renault sees it rather differently.
"A modern and daring model in the coupe class. Avantime plays on opposites, between the animal, almost feline front end and the stronger, squat and propulsive rear," said a Renault statement.
The Avantime is a cross between a coupe and a MPV. It has the height and overall dimensions of an MPV, but with just two massive doors and sporty pretensions.
The Avantime, which cost 224 million euros to develop, is powered by a 3.0 litre 210 brake horse power (bhp) engine, or a 2.0 litre 165 bhp motor. Renault has engineered a special "twin-stage parallel" mechanism to open the huge doors with minimum effort. There are no centre pillars and the aluminium roof structure sports a large, retracting roof.
Inconsistent styling
The car's styling is intriguing, but inconsistent. Some angles look good, others downright ugly.
Renault couldn't answer questions about the likely buyers of the car with any great conviction. Would-be buyers include "Non-conformist customers, at ease in society yet breaking free of social codes by claiming the right to own a top-range car which offers them real space for freedom," Renault said.
The Avantime would capture sales from owners of Peugeot 406 coupes, Volvo C70s, sport utility vehicles like the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Mercedes ML, BMW X5, and the BMW 3 series and Saab 9-3 cabriolets, according to Renault.
The Vel Satis concept car also wowed crowds at motor shows with its futuristic styling. But the actual road-ready Vel Satis is bland in comparison. Renault said it wanted to offer drivers something radically different, a daring alternative to the conservative Germans, with a vehicle able to take four adults in “total comfort”.
Lust or disgust
But what it has finally produced is an ungainly, chubby, even overweight-looking vehicle. It turned Parisian heads during its launch, but were their jaws dropping and eyes rolling in lust or disgust? Only the sales figures will tell, and so far they are inconclusive. In the first four months of 2002 Renault sold 3,649 Vel Satis and 972 Avantimes in France.
But the Vel Satis is an impressive vehicle, if you can get past the looks. From the front the appearance is almost comical, with a sardonic smile from the grille, and big headlight clusters giving it a mad-professor look. Renault says the car will be instantly recognisable by its distinctive appearance and calls its face “memorable”. The rest of the car reflects the possibility that the original sleek looking design couldn’t produce the promise of spaciousness and comfort. The body seems to reflect the needs of the passengers, rather than a designer’s urge to impress onlookers, no bad thing for those riding in the car.
Top hats with room to spare
And the interior is very impressive, with big, comfortable seats, with acres of leg-room in the back. The roof is so high, all the occupants could wear top hats with room to spare. In the top-of-the-range 3.5 litre V6 petrol, and 3.0 litre diesels - there is leather everywhere. Subtle wood strip appears on the facia and the doors. Quality was positively Germanic on the launch cars.
The front-seats are hinged at just below shoulder blade level and with a power function can be closely aligned to the body for maximum comfort. Renault is very proud of the seats.
“The front seats of Vel Satis are one of the car’s major innovations. Combining “first class” comfort with maximum passive safety, they bring together two concepts – a seat-mounted safety belt and a double-hinged backrest. With the backrest split into two parts across the middle the front occupants can alter the angle of the backrest whilst still having their shoulders supported,” according to Renault.
Not only are the seats safe and comfortable, the height of the car allows people to enter “in a dignified manner”.
Great taxi
If the car doesn’t have powerful upmarket appeal, with all that room in the back it will certainly make a great taxi.
The engines, particularly the petrol motor, performed superbly, with quiet, effortless power delivery. Both were magnificent motorway cruisers, although real world fuel consumption of the 3.5 litre 24-valve 245 bhp V6 petrol version with – provided by its Japanese affiliate Nissan - isn’t likely to impress Greenpeace. Renault claims a combined cycle consumption of 24.6 mpg with emissions of 275 grammes per kilometre of CO2, with 0 to 62 mph in 8.3 seconds.
The 3.0 litre 180 bhp V6 diesel, also from Japan this time courtesy of Isuzu, propels the car from rest to 62 mph in 10.5 seconds. Combined cycle consumption is 32.5 mpg with 232 g/km of CO2.
Renault will also offer two other motors, a 2.0 litre petrol turbo and a 2.2 litre common-rail diesel.
Steering was precise without being as quick as a BMW. The suspension provided an immaculate ride. The automatic gearbox, with the now ubiquitous clutchless manual function, performed well during acceleration. The computer intervened to select lower gears to induce an element of braking during cornering and slowing down.
Renault said it had spent 550 million euros developing the Vel Satis. It reckons on building nearly 300,000 between 2002 and 2008, with a maximum annual rate of 50,000.
Do you need automatic lights?
The Vel Satis has some technological innovations which most people could do without, although driving on the test in the tunnels on the motorway behind Monte Carlo, the automatic lighting was actually a boon. The wipers come on automatically when it rains. There is no ignition key. The driver pushes a credit card-like device into the facia and pushes a starter button, as pioneered by Renault’s Laguna II. There is an automatic parking brake, a filler cap which shuts itself (you just push in the fuel nozzle and it clicks back shut when the tank is full). There is a radar cruise control with distance limiter to keep you from getting too close to the vehicle in front. There is a speed limiter, and a radar reversing warning. The windscreen wipers, because they “operate in opposing directions increase the wiping area from 85% to 95%”. The computer tells the tire pressures.
Renault seems to have thought of everything, but will the Vel Satis succeed?
The company is confident.
“Vel Satis is a bold and daring move by Renault to extend the accepted excellence of French luxury products into the automotive arena. Supported by Avantime and the new Espace, this three-pronged attack on the Executive sector provides a new choice for non-conformist customers,” said Renault.
Facel Vega
But will buyers in the price range from 33,000 to 50,000 euros decide that the uniqueness and excitement of the vehicle being offered by Renault is enough to wean then away from BMWs, Mercedes and Lexus with their bullet-proof residual values and proven brand quality?
Avantime prices start at 39,100 euros for the 2.0 litre version, and 44,000 euros for the 3.0 litre.
The Vel Satis and Avantime may be Renault’s last attempt to make a success of a premium product. Maybe the company, in which the French state still owns close to 25%, will eventually have to buy a luxury brand, or develop a new one.
Is Facel Vega still available?
Neil Winton, May 7, 2002
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