We had one of the „super rare“ Quadra version in the same colour blue. It was the car of my childhood, I loved it. It kept up with my cousins GTI on the twisty‘s.
I agree, my parents had the mk3 Espace in the 90's, we did many trips with it to Spain, Portugal, Greece, that car was so good looking! Even thought it had that strange Renault digital dashboard and dials on the center. I remember the F1 concept and how cool and awesome it was, and I was excited when I found out it was featured in Gran Turismo Only later I began researching the mk1 and mk2 and I fell in love with them too, and the Avantime as well. They basically pioneered the Van that drives like a car thing. I like Renault's cause my family had some and the first car I ever drove was a mk1 Kangoo
That’s my old car. Sold it to a chap in Gainsborough a couple of years ago after replacing the head gasket. Might have a few photos kicking around of it still
@@GrandThriftAuto I most certainly am. I also once owned D260 OBH. An electric blue Renault 5 gt turbo. Sadly I didn’t own both at the same time. If you send me your email address, I’ll send you whatever pictures I can find
@@slammed66 That would be fantastic, thanks! Bear with me a day or so, I’ll get a GrandThriftAuto email set up. Lots of love for 70s and 80s Renaults here - and an amazing coincidence to own cars with consecutive number plates.
I do love an Espace. My Grandad had the last of the Matra Espace in the late 90s for three years. It was a RT 2.0 Auto but It had a certain character to it that isn't found in other MPVs if the same time.
@@GrandThriftAuto It was of course a 4 speed auto but the car was still a very comfortable motorway cruiser and the 2.0 8v engine moved the Espace more willingly than you may imagine. All the Matra cars being Glass Fibre buddied meant they were not as top heavy as a steel bodied MPV would be.
@@markonmotoring absolutely, even with all that glass. Those later ones in particular did well in contemporary crash tests too, I believe (as did my Lotus), so the lightness wasn’t at the expense of strength. Clever stuff.
That was great Martin. Seems on the face of it to be a far more appealing and practical car than its chunkier modern day counterparts, even with all their modern engine technology and gadget wizardry - looks like a very pleasant vehicle to drive...
Thanks! It was a very interesting comparison climbing back into my modern SUV afterwards to drive home - I think a back-to-back test of the experience would be quite an interesting film to make. Hmm.
We had one of these when I was young, early-mid 1990s. 1986 model I think so it was a bit battered but we loved it. Took the family all over Europe and you felt like you were driving a tank. Classic vehicle from a time when people carriers were new and exciting.
It's really funny to see the Brits (well, I'm half-Brit) discovering cars which, to me, were so common and ordinary that I wouldn't give them a second look: Citroëns, Renaults. Having lived in France and Switzerland through the eighties and nineties, I just can't see what attraction CXs, Espaces, Clios and 2CVs can hold. But I suppose the Brits feel the same way about Austins, Triumphs, Rovers, MGs, and Leyland products, which to me, and others on the continent, are rare and exotic cars.
We had a few of these as prestige company cars, all did 100k over 3 hard years.....only common issue was heater matrix, revised design cured that (first Laguna had same issue) .....I think it was a 12 hour job. We called them Johnny Cabs, see Total Recall. Fantastic game changing cars, there is one in a design museum that I've forgotten the name of. Clutch isn't that bad when compared to many later cars. FIAT beat everyone though with original Multipla. Politics got involved once Renault saw how popular these were and that Matra were making a good profit from them. .......I would of thought the survival rate would been better, being as the bodies are composite plastic construction (it's not GRP) like 4th generation F Body Firebird and Camero.
This was such a revolutionary car - and those first examples are so rare now! Good choice! But make no mistake: as a new car, the first Espace generation was very upmarket, too. I remember a traditional large affluent family in a posh Paris suburb having one and being fiercely envied for it - so they attracted the same buyers back then as the current model does.
If I would buy a classic car, it would not be an E-type Jag, a older BMW 3-series or something like that - it would be one of these. Thought it was the coolest thing ever, when I first saw one, way back in 1986 and now it looks even more sci-fi. Just love it!
Definitely. It really is one of the great (unsung) design classic interiors. So light, airy, and spacious and comfortable, as well as amazingly versatile. The tweedy seat cloth is great and that wraparound dashboard...mmmmm.
Hi, sorry but I didn’t find difficult to change clutch in Espace mk1. The most ennoying thing is peeling top coat. It was very nice car, sadly it’s gone. Thank you for video 👍🏻
Great cars, aren’t they? You can see mine has the lacquer peel problem too. That’s interesting about the clutch, various people we tried refused to even attempt it! South London Clutch Centre did a good job in the end.
I’ve never been a fan of Renault but I think that was down to our local dealership whe were very ignorant and looked down at you if you were working class. They were only interested in the business class. A funny incident happened one night when they took on the Citroen franchise, a car that I do like. It was the launch of the Xantia and there was a prize draw of a Monte Blanc pen which my wife won. The MD approached us and said, that will come in handy for writing all your cheques to which my wife replied yes but there won’t be any getting written for you!! Rather shocked he replies, why what’s the matter? To which she replied, we have been here for the last two hours like everyone else from the start and not one of you have even made an attempt to speak to us. Is it because we are still in our working clothes ( both of us had just finished work) and are not business people or your higher end customers? Oh know it’s such a busy night and so hard to get round anyone. Well she said don’t waste any more of your valuable time on us peasants and get back to your better off better dressed clients. By the way we are interested in changing our Citroen for a newer model but we will have great pleasure in using the pen for writing a cheque to another dealer.
Kind of - as I mention in the video at (around 4:18), Giugiaro was working on the Lancia Megagamma around the same time as Matra was designing the Espace and others ended up beating it to market, but it was certainly one of the pioneers and the best combination of practicality and dynamics.
