The Renault Avantime is a grand tourer marketed by the French manufacturer Renault, designed and manufactured by Matra, between 2001 and 2003. As a one-box design without B-pillars, styled by Patrick Le Quément, the Avantime combined the design elements of an MPV, estate or shooting brake with the style of a 2+2 coupé and elements of a convertible. The name "Avantime" is a portmanteau of the French word "Avant" (meaning "ahead") and the English word "time" – with the latter using the English /taɪm/ rather than French pronunciation /tiːm/. Conception and design The Avantime was designed and developed in-house by Renault affiliate Matra and was conceived by Philippe Guédon, head of the automotive division at Matra, who "believed that the children of Espace owners remained loyal to the car even after they had grown up and left home. As a result, the renowned estate was gaining a generation of new drivers." Styled by Patrick Le Quément, the Avantime was intended to combine the space of an estate with the four place pillarless qualities of a coupé. Regarding the styling, Thierry Metroz, design project manager, said, "We wanted someone walking around the car to be continually astonished." Anthony Grade, Renault's vice-president of design said, "The exterior and interior had to be coherent. Using the Espace as a base, for instance, meant we had the central instrument display, but that‘s part of the innovative character of the whole vehicle". Car magazine described the interior as architectural and luxurious. The one-box design eliminated B-pillars and featured an aluminium structure, aluminium panels for the greenhouse and a full sunroof of strengthened heat-reflecting glass. The interior featured four seats, each with built in seatbelts, and leather from Bridge of Weir. To facilitate access to the rear seats, two long doors featured a double parallel opening hinge system (marketed as "double kinematic") that maximized access and minimized the door outswing. Front side windows lowered automatically when either of the front seats folded forward to further facilitate entry to the rear two seats. Windows featured power deployable sunshades, and the H-points of the rear two seats were higher than the forward two seats, giving the Avantime "theater seating." The luggage compartment featured a retaining system using retractable straps, and all Avantimes featured a two-tone look created by the exposed aluminium of the greenhouse. The windows and panoramic sunroof could open automatically via a single headliner-mounted control, to