So what the hell does Renault expect us to make of the Avantime? A four-seater with underpinnings that started life in a seven-seater people-carrier, the luxurious interior of a big executive saloon, and two-door pillarless styling from the 22nd century. It's a car designed to make motoring writers' brains throb with confusion.

As you might imagine, the most contentious thing about the Avantime is its styling. In a brief opinion poll based around the simple question 'What do you make of this?' the Renault Avantime has split evo staffers' gut reaction neatly down the middle. Half admire it for its breathtakingly bold approach; half dislike it for exactly the same reason. Me? I love it, despite a nagging doubt that the vast majority of the car buying public simply won't 'get' it, just as Fiat has found with the equally convention-busting Multipla. Not that I'm suggesting the Avantime is as stylistically challenged as the Fiat, which, let's face it, looks like Ironside's company car. Nevertheless it's still an awful lot of new lines and shapes to make sense of.
Built alongside the Espace by Renault's specialist manufacturing partner, Matra, the Avantime uses the same basic mechanicals and construction methods as the famous MPV. Stamped steel sections are welded together and galvanised to form the bulk of the chassis. New aluminium sections are then bolted and glued to the steel chassis and left in their natural state to form an unbroken arc from the base of the A-pillar to the top of the tailgate. It's a nice touch. The rest of the Avantime is clothed in composite body panels, just like the Espace.

Under the rakish bonnet lies Renault's familiar 3.0-litre V6, developing 210bhp and 210lb ft of torque. Sounds reasonable but, with 1741kg to shift, the reality is lukewarm acceleration. Renault claims 0-62mph in 8.6secs - not bad for a big four-seater but not what you'd call exciting. Likewise mid-range overtaking power is moderate, despite the help of a six-speed manual 'box. Away from the nip-and-tuck of twisty B-roads, the Avantime hits its stride more confidently, cruising strongly at three-figure speeds in near silence. You might expect all that glass to result in noisy window seals, but Renault seems to have conquered the problem admirably.

At lower speeds you just can't resist opening the vast sunroof and dropping all the windows. With no B-pillar to spoil your view, the Avantime offers driver and passengers a spectacular widescreen view, with minimal buffeting up to 60mph or so. The plush interior, complete with air-conditioning, punchy stereo and four extremely comfortable leather upholstered seats, gives the Avantime an expensive, limousine-like ambience. Add options like sat nav and full video system complete with screens in the back of the front headrests and you've got Club Class levels of comfort.
So it's comfy, but what's it like to drive? All the controls are light, and a bit light on feel. The chassis, though supple, well damped and grippy enough to maintain a tidy pace on entertaining roads, doesn't deliver a driving experience you'll be rushing back to the pub to tell your mates about. Better to pick them up at chucking-out time and wow them with the ultimate Avantime experience. Being a passenger. It's more of a driver's car than the Espace, but despite the lower, tauter chassis, when you're sat loftily at the pointy end with that vast dash and windscreen stretching ahead, Avantime feels more MPV than palatial GT.

It is, though, an event to drive. Nothing turns more heads and, in this stressful age, the pleasures of driving a bit more sedately are worryingly rewarding. More to the point, if your passengers are fed-up with enduring white-knuckle rides while you immerse yourself in steering feel and top-end zing, you might find Avantime proves highly popular with your friends and family.

Downsides? Well, those massive doors take some hefting, and they never sound like they've shut cleanly, so you resort to slamming them home. There's no foot room for rear passengers beneath the front seats. And, erm, that's about it. The Avantime is such a unique experience ΂£27,000 seems a small price to pay. It's not an evo car in the usual sense, but 'The thrill of passengering' is a highly underrated concept. Try an Avantime later this year and tell me I'm not right.