Every now and then, car brands sometimes jump out of the band and come up with a model that contrasts a bit with the rest of the model range. There are countless examples of this, but which ‘special trips’ can be found in the used car range? We have listed five of them.
1. Renault Avantime – € 8,950
The Renault Avantime was built from 2001 to 2003. Its appearance was certainly quite futuristic for that time, with large windows and sharp lines. You certainly do not want to park it too tightly, although Renault has designed an ingenious hinge system for the enormous doors. By the way, ‘Avantime’ is a contraction of ‘avant’ (before) and ‘time’ and in fact means: ‘ahead of its time’. That also suggests that the English pronunciation of ‘Taim’ is correct. The Avantime was built by Matra in Romorantin, France. The public did not like the appearance of the Avantime. The freak MPV coupé was hardly sold, which contributed to the short production period. This one is bright blue, has run just over 100,000 km and has a 3.0-liter V6 with 210 hp, the strongest engine for the Avantime. In 8.6 seconds the speedometer reads 100 km / h and the idiosyncratic Fransoos thunders through to 220 km / h. Whether you want that with the relatively soft chassis is another story.
2. Opel Speedster – € 24,880
Opel is certainly no stranger to producing sportier models, but they were never like that hardcore as the Speedster. The sports car is the only Opel with a mid-engine. Opel developed the Speedster together with Lotus, which means that the Speedster and the Elise have some similarities. However, where Lotus went for a Toyota power source, Opel put its own engines in the back of the Speedster. It was available with a naturally aspirated 2.2 four-cylinder with 147 hp or a 2.0-liter turbo engine with a whopping 200 hp. This one has the first power source under the hood, but don’t make the mistake of thinking this is a slow wretch. Thanks to the low weight of 845 kilograms, the counter reaches 100 km / h in 5.9 seconds and it runs 217 km / h. That top speed doesn’t really matter at all: the Speedster is meant for the better B-roads!
3. Smart Roadster – € 5,250
We’ll stick with the compact roadsters for a while. Smart, which of course has gained fame with the roguish ForTwo, wanted to go more sporty and came to the Paris Motor Show in 2000 with the concept version of the Roadster Coupé. The production version followed two years later. Smart’s goal was to build a sports car that was as small and economical as possible and indeed, the Roadster is a lot smaller than cars like the Toyota MR2 and Mazda MX-5. In the back is a 0.7-liter three-cylinder petrol engine that produced 61 or 81 hp. For those who were not enough, tuner Brabus offered solace with a 101 hp variant. This copy does have the Brabus wheels, but it has to do with 61 hp. This means that it looks faster than it is, because you only drive 100 km / h from standstill after 15.5 seconds. Incidentally, the Roadster was far from a success for Smart: in 2005 production was stopped after 43,901 copies. The Roadster was not free from problems, especially the robotised manual transmission was a lot of criticism and the reliability was poor.
4. Volkswagen Phaeton – € 13,950
If you say ‘strange trip’, you say Volkswagen Phaeton. The flagship was a prestige project by the late Ferdinand Piëch to show the world that Volkswagen could compete with Mercedes-Benz and BMW in the top segment. Mercedes-Benz in particular was reportedly a target, because Piëch would have been angry that the brand with the star in the shape of the A-class suddenly entered Volkswagen’s territory. In any case, Volkswagen took a thorough approach with the Phaeton: the car is packed with innovative technology and is certainly quite impressive with the ridiculous V10 diesel or the 421 hp W12 under the hood. It is well known that the Phaeton was not a success. This copy has the twelve-cylinder under the hood and can be taken along for a fraction of what it cost new. Keep in mind the colossal maintenance costs that will undoubtedly follow.
5. Aston Martin Cygnet – € 45,250
The most expensive car in this list is an Aston Martin, but not as you often see them. The Cygnet is a Toyota iQ under the skin and saw the light of day in 2010 to enable Aston Martin to comply with the EU’s emission requirements. For Aston Martin standards, the 1.3-liter four-cylinder with 98 hp under the hood is of course by no means spectacular. The Cygnet differed from the iQ only in cosmetic terms. Of course there is the characteristic Aston Martin grille, but the rear lights also have a different design than the Japanese. In addition, the interior of the Cygnet is completely covered with leather and Alcantara, which gives you the feeling of luxury of an Aston Martin. In any case, the bright red interior of this car is difficult to overlook. Although well-intentioned, the Cygnet turned out to be a big miss. Aston Martin had planned 4,000 copies, eventually only 150 were sold. That makes it very exclusive!