Renault Gave the Avantime Enormous Doors, Then Had to Rethink How They Opened

The Renault Avantime’s long doors used double-kinematic hinges to reduce the space they needed when opening. The mechanism helped provide access to the rear seats without swinging such a large door as far toward the neighboring car. 

A long coupé door is lovely until someone parks beside it. Then getting out involves holding the edge with one hand, drawing in your stomach, and trying to retrieve a bag without touching the neighboring paintwork.

The Avantime presented Renault with a particularly ambitious version of that problem. Here was a tall, roomy car with the long side doors of a coupé. People sitting in the back needed to pass through those same openings, so making the doors conveniently small would have defeated the arrangement.

Renault gave them a more complicated way to move.

The double-kinematic hinge system changes the door’s path as it opens. Rather than relying on a straightforward swing around a fixed hinge line, the articulated mechanism helps move the long panel clear of the body while limiting how far it projects sideways. Lane Motor Museum specifically identifies the system as Renault’s answer to the doors’ length. 

It is worth watching a demonstration before trying to understand it from a photograph. The interesting part happens near the front edge, where the hinge arrangement guides the door through its movement. Once open, the size of the panel makes the reason for all that effort fairly obvious.

The doors belonged to a car whose proportions were unusual throughout. Renault’s museum account describes an expansive glass roof, contrasting roof colour and large coupé-style doors. Designed at Renault and built by Matra, the Avantime carried much of its concept-car appearance into production. 

Today, those hinges deserve attention during a viewing. Ask the seller to open and close both doors, then try them yourself. Watch for scraping or a door that needs lifting to meet its latch. An unfamiliar movement is part of the design; obvious resistance or poor alignment needs investigating.

Check the windows and seals while you are there. A short drive can reveal wind noise that is easy to miss while admiring the car in a quiet garage.

The mechanism also has limits. You still need to judge the gap beside the car before opening the door, particularly with passengers who have never used one before. Clever hinges cannot create space where another vehicle has left none.

For an Avantime owner, though, even an ordinary stop at the shops offers something unusual to show a curious onlooker. Open the door slowly and let them watch the hinge.