Now that it is out of production, Renault feels free to admit that it got its last attempt at attracting executive buyers badly wrong. Although the Safrane sold reasonably well in France and Belgium, company chairman Louis Schweitzer concedes that it barely registered on the graph elsewhere:"We have to acknowledge that it was a flop in major markets for the top of the range, such as Germany. We learned our lesson and in future we will emphasise our originality, putting forward distinctive designs that stand out from conventional saloons."Distinctive. He's not wrong there. The Vel Satis looks like the creation of beings from another planet compared with its stated German rivals, the Audi A6, the BMW 5-Series and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class.Three decades ago Renault held an exhibition of some of its prototypes, cars which never made it to production but illustrated the way the company was thinking. A bizarre bunch they were, too. One was so radical it was difficult to tell which way it was pointing. The Vel Satis was clearly conceived in the same spirit (even though Renault's adventurous design chief Patrick le Quement obviously wasn't around in those days). You can draw a notional straight line from those strange prototypes to the new executive saloon. It's as if Clios, Meganes and Lagunas had never happened.As well as looking almost unique, the Vel Satis is a very large car indeed. There is an enormous amount of interior space, making this one of the few vehicles in which four large adults can genuinely travel long distances in comfort. There's some aeronautic thinking in the design of the seats, and the front pair have a clever function in that they hinge in the middle, so that you can move the shoulder rests forwards or backwards independently from the angle of your lower back. This works brilliantly, and I'm sure it will be copied by other manufacturers in the not too distant future.There are more design details in the interior than we have space to mention here, but two are particularly notable. One is the ignition card (as opposed to key) which Renault first introduced with the current-generation Laguna. On the test car, this failed the fourth time I tried to use it, and the Vel Satis had to be taken away, leaving me to spend a day and a half cursing over-complicated electronic devices. But I was wrong. It was a mechanical failure, easily fixed. The electronic part worked perfectly.The other notable interior concept is the lack of a conventional handbrake. Rather than heaving on a lever, you can just let a computer decide when to apply or release the brake, though you can also over-ride the decision-making progress using a finger control on the dashboard. No problems there, though I'm not sure I'd want to rely on electrics for something as fundamental as the parking brake. What happens if a fuse blows?For a car of such obvious bulk, the Vel Satis is surprisingly nimble on the roads. It feels just like what it is - a large French saloon - in that it has very soft suspension which gives a superbly smooth ride until you hit a bump. When you do, it's as if the chassis reacts by squeezing itself into the bump, and then springing back up in a slightly uncontrolled manner. On smooth surfaces the ride quality is fantastic, and the Vel Satis is very relaxing to drive, helped by the highly-assisted steering which requires only a flick of the fingers for a sharp change of direction.The test car was fitted with the 2.2-litre dCi diesel engine and six-speed manual gearbox. Renault is doing a fantastic job with its diesels these days, and this 150bhp unit is strong enough to disguise the considerable weight of the Vel Satis. It's not a sports car, of course, but I was able to keep pace with hot hatchbacks on twisty country roads, to the bafflement of the guys driving them.More impressively, it seems impossible to make the engine drink a lot of fuel. A combined economy figure just short of 40mpg is mightily impressive for a car this size. The way it wafts along on long journeys suggests that it would be a most relaxing way of travelling to, say, the south of France, and with fuel economy like that you wouldn't spend a great deal of money doing so.The dCi does not make an attractive noise, but it's well-suppressed and adds to the general feeling that the driver, while being in control of what is happening on the road, is nevertheless remote from it.Since Renault has identified Audi, BMW and Mercedes as its direct rivals in the class (with a nod to the Peugeot 607, though most British buyers won't think of that car in the same terms as the equivalent German models), it's worth making some comparisons. Perhaps the most significant is the fact that the Renault, whose build quality seems perfectly fine, still feels like it is assembled from individual parts, whereas the German cars all give the impression of having been carved from a solid lump.And of course Audi, BMW and Mercedes all have their own distinctive but related styles. Renault is taking a gamble - as it is with the Avantime and the forthcoming Megane replacement - that enough buyers are prepared to reject the idea of a low-slung saloon and switch to a much taller car which gives no clue as to its owner's position in the executive pecking order.Whether or not this works depends partly on whether people who are interested in cars like this are prepared to drive something with a Renault badge. As someone who is more interested in adventurous design, and less in a car as a badge of status, I rather hope they are.Second opinion: I felt a bit Luddite about the Vel Satis before I actually encountered one in the metal. An excess of design philosophy chat (although that's just the Renault way) and a decidedly odd appearance in photographs. But this is a phenomenally roomy car, that's a great turbo diesel engine, and once you get used to the bulk being moved around, what a goer! Apart from the wishy-washy front-end styling, it looks really well, with lots of interesting details. For people who think about a car's "footprint" on the road, this is the equivalent of a size 18 deep-sea diver's boot. Concentration is needed to avoid sweeping pedestrians off the kerb as you whisk round a left-hand turn in town. Renault has to be admired for coming up with a car which manages to be massive, stylistically outrageous and a fine machine to drive, all at the same time. Ross Finlay. Engine 2188cc, 4 cylinders Power 150bhp Transmission 6-speed manual Fuel/CO2 39.8mpg / 192g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 10.9 seconds Top speed 125mph Price From £21788.00 approx Release date 15/03/2002
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