Some dipstick product guru at Renault thought, in 1999, that people would buy this.

They had high, high hopes for the Avantime (yes, it's not just you, it sounds homosexual to me too), hoping it would be the beginning of a new market niche: the luxury and comfort of a coupe with the style and flexibility of an Espace-type MPV. Except it took two years to get it properly into production, because it took ages for it to become safe (blame the pillarless design of Patrick Le Quement). By 2001, the wow-factor of such a drastically "different" car had well and truly worn off, and because Renault had to make it safer, they also had to make it uglier.

People also realised that this car doesn't fulfil its purpose - it's wasn't as cool looking as a normal coupe (as soon as you see the two-tone colour scheme, you tend to back away slowly), and it wasn't as practical as even a normal hatch, because it had only two doors. Even France, whose weird and fugly population usually lap up weird and fugly cars, snubbed the Avantime. And it didn't help that similarly priced premium hatch Renault Vel Satis (below) also entered the market in 2001. Imagine the showroom of a Renault dealer.Customer: "I'd like something from your premium range of cars."
Dealer: "Well, would you like to have a look at our tastefully styled 4-door hatchback,
which will impress your friends, or would you like to have a look at our 2-door
fish on wheels, the Avantime, which will make all your friends die of heart
attacks caused by them laughing at how stupid you look in your car."
Customer: "Hmm... sounds like a tough decision, doesn't it? Well, I don't have any friends, so
I'll take a look at your Avantime."
The Avantime didn't win many friends either. Renault pulled the plug on the Avantime in 2003, only two years after launch, because it was losing so much money on this dog of a car. Only 8,545 were built.
It goes to show that when manufacturers design turds, they sell like turds. Nobody can remember how the Avantime drove, but didn't care, because they didn't want it. I'm the first person to advocate risky and original design, but the Avantime embodied everything that is wrong about "form over function" design - it just wasn't what people wanted, needed, or liked.

WTF?! #1: Ergo to Renault - Don't design turds!