Motors - Cars That Came Before Their Time

Cars That Came Before Their Time

Ok, this is my last publication for the day. At the moment I’m waiting for the Paris Motor Show to start on October 2^nd and eager to see what new stuff comes along, anticipating a lot of niche coupe models of MPVs, SUVs, saloons and everything else, and with all these niche models it got me thinking about cars that have come before their time because of their futuristic styling or body shapes. Here’s a selection of modern cars that I think are the biggest:

Renault Avantime V6

The Renault Avantime is the very definition of ahead of its time. In fact the name means just that. The word ‘Avan’ in French means ‘Ahead’ and the English word ‘time’ explains it all.

The styling too, was WAY ahead of 2001, that coupe; B-Pillar-less body shell is absolute 2010 design.

Based on the Renault Espace chassis, the panoramic windscreen, huge dual sunroof and uber spacious interior with all the modern toys and gadgets you can name along with the very stylised front, two-tone paint and the signature ‘bum’ of Renault’s at that time screams ‘Modern’ to anyone.

However, the Avantime came nearly ten years too soon. Launch in 2011 rather than 2001, it would sell like crazy, however, from 2001 to 2003, the Avantime sold just over 8,000 units, and inevitably got canned.

This is a seriously cool car that is comfy, good looking, loaded with kit and safety gear with plenty of innovations we now think as standard fare.

Jaguar X-Type 3.0 Estate

The failing of the entire X-Type range boils down to this: it was just a Ford Mondeo wearing a Jaguar badge. Hang on, you what? The Mondeo has long been one of the best cars of its type, able to keep up with Mercedes, BMW and Audi in sales despite being the butt of many ‘poor man’ jokes.

Jaguar needed to sell more cars, so Ford, who owned Jaguar then, giving it a quality car to sell under a quality brand should work a treat.

The interiors were excellent, the ride was fantastic, and the engines were the pick of the range from Ford and Land-Rover, including the 3.0 litre V6 that was put in the Mondeo ST220, one of the best performance saloons around. And no-one got it?

Today, platform sharing is one of the simplest ways to save money, Fiat plans to put its entire range, plus Alfa Romeo and Lancia on TWO platforms!

And then the X-Type estate, which could out-Volvo the Volvo V50, was arguably the pick of the range. The 220 odd bhp V6 from the ST220 plus Four-Wheel-Drive and those rather dashing looks meant this car was serious luxury and practicality, plus a Jaguar badge for less than £30k, and yet no-one got it at all.

This car was an early lesson in how to diversify a brand using quality cars to do it, and I’m certain, today it would lauded as a ingenious way for Jaguar to spread itself and Ford to demonstrate the quality of its stock.

Ford Focus RS Mk I

Everyone today knows all about Civic Type-R’s, Ford Focus ST’s, VW Golf GTi’s as really fast, really fun, really practical hot hatches, but back in 2001, the Mk IV Golf GTi was slower than a diesel Skoda and Civic’s were still a car for your Gran. Ford had LONG since forgotten Hot Hatches when it stopped making Cosworth tuned cars.

Then this popped up, almost out of the blue. It was a concept to show Ford remembered what the old ‘RS’ brand was about, such as the Escort and Sierra RS Cosworth’s from the 80’s & 90’s that were so fast and powerful you couldn’t actually insure one!

It isn’t so much a car ahead of its time, but a car that was akin to the second coming. Of the Hot Hatch anyway. The RS showed us that you could have real performance, great looks and decent practicality instead of the salesman’s Mk IV Golf GTi. It spawned two Focus ST’s and a second Focus RS that has ended up with 350bhp, nearly 150 more than the 212bhp this car had, it lead to the mental Civic Type-R’s and that crazy beast the Astra VXR. However, released at around the same time, even the much celebrated MINI Cooper S only had 163bhp and the RS whooped its backside, and was the first to prove that a Front-Wheel-Drive Hot-Hatch could put more than 200bhp down without under steering into every tree, wall and house in sight.

It wasn’t perfect, in fact it torque steered dangerously, but it reminded us so much of the nut-mobiles that had last worn RS badges and showed what a true Hot Hatch is that it pretty much single handed revived the Hot Hatch.

Dodge Caliber

This next car will probably get me yelled at, but whatever, I’m entitled to my humble opinion.

The Dodge Caliber in fact arrived three to four years too early. I hear you all ask why, well to answer that, look at the picture and tell me what you see.

 Let me guess, a big, five door, five to seven seat American SUV, yes? WRONG! It is in fact a hatch back, about the size of a BMW 3-Series or Ford Focus. Yes, without realising it, Dodge produced one of the first true cross-over cars that are filling up every single showroom of every single manufacturer in the world, especially BMW, who now sell two different crossover SUV-Coupe things.

It was a well thought out car, with a Diesel option for Europe, sourced from VW, who make some cracking engines, the chassis has that raised up stance that all markets have a thing for in 2010, and could be purchased as a Front or Four-Wheel-Drive car, just like the ‘new’ MINI Countryman, mini SUV/hatchback...

Personally I think it looks great too, no over the top bulges or bumps, just a good looking face that gives ‘big car’ presence, some lovely, subtle wheel arch flaring and a sloping rear and big rear bumper to boost its appearance as an SUV.

This is a car that came WAY too early to be liked and, like many American offerings, lacked the interior quality that was required to make it a success, struggling to make decent UK sales, but it can be genuinely described as a cross-over/soft-roader hatchback, the very thing that BMW claims it ‘invented’ with its X1, X6 and MINI Countryman models.

Mercedes Benz CLS Coupe

Time for a car that came well before its time AND has actually been a success, the Mercedes Benz CLS Coupe.

You may think 2010 is the year of the coupe-saloon/hatchback/SUV/MPV models, but this in fact an idea that comes from way back in 2004. Six years ago Mercedes wanted to stand out from the crowd in the large executive four-door saloon market and create an indirect rival for the BMW 6-Series.

It used an extended C-Class chassis and had access to a wide range of Mercedes petrol and Diesel engines, with the bottom versions featuring a 224bhp, 3.0l Turbo Diesel V6 and a 272bhp, 3.5l petrol V6 going up to two AMG versions, one featuring a Super-charged, 469bhp, 5.5l V8 and the top model had a 6.2l, 507bhp V8.

Despite its rather niche market and appearance, the CLS Coupe has sold fantastically, with worldwide sales of 170,000 plus in its 6 year life and Mercedes is fully intended to continue making the car that lead the way for saloon coupes, despite the fact its rear accommodation was rather cramped and boot space being at a premium. In fact as a four-door saloon, this is a car that was not as practical as it appeared, it was more a 2+2 coupe that just happened to have four doors instead of two.

This really was a car that came along early and has caught on in spectacular fashion, leading Audi to develop coupe versions of its entire saloon range, and BMW to create its SUV coupes. Don’t ever be fooled be either company; Mercedes did that trick first, and by some margin.

Fiat Multipla

Yes, obviously this list would include probably the greatest odd-ball car of all time: the Fiat Multipla, a car which could arguably be described as the best designed car of all time.

Based on the Brava, the Multipla was at least a big challenge on looks, but it belied what is actually an incredibly well designed car. It was a very early example of the compact MPV, think Honda Jazz, Vauxhall Meriva and you get what it’s about. Yet the Multipla was a seriously well packaged car.

Despite being shorter than the car on which it was based, the Multipla could carry six people in comfort and their luggage as well, where the three door Brava could fit five at a crush, or on the case of many seven seat MPV’s which sacrifice luggage space for the two extra seats, the Multipla showed itself as an amazingly practical car whose looks were a product of its very 2010 packaging, despite the fact it was released in 1998!

Even its engine were good, particularly the 1.9 Diesel which was the star of the Fiat stable at the time, but also had access to most of the four cylinder ‘JTD’ Diesel engines which have, rightly, received a huge amount of praise.

It has since been face-lifted, with a less challenging look that followed the styling language of the current Fiat Panda, but the design of the car, with its huge 430 litre carrying and six seat capacity, or three front seats and a massive 1,900 litre boot load, more than many big estate cars, demonstrate the quality of the cars design despite celebrating its 12^th birthday.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about these wonderful failures, and next time you’re told by the salesman that the cross-over SUV, coupe body shape or compact MPV you’re looking at is the first car of its kind, just remember these rare beasts that ACTUALLY did things first.

MD