Going into the new Millennium Renault’s chief of design Patrick Le Quement attempted to redefine the prestige car in French terms and target a less conformist customer base by presenting the flagship velSatis concept at the Paris Motor show in 1998 and 2 door Avantime concept in 1999.

Named after the compound concept of Velocity and Satisfaction, despite it’s minivan proportions and size, the production velSatis was launched at the Geneva Motor Show in 2001.

Sharing a platform with the Laguna and Espace IV Minivan the velSatis was awarded the highest 5 star EuroNCAP safety rating.

The 3 litre / 183 cui 24 valve V6 dCi diesel engine was generally regarded as best suited to the cars “lounge lizard pretensions”.

The cars handling was not so highly rated and it is not recorded if there were any handling improvements for the velSatis that was specially prepared for the French Presidential fleet up until 2009.

In 2005 the velSatis was face lifted but there was no right hand drive example of the upgraded model built the model was discontinued in August 2009.

It is believed around 1000 examples of the velSatis were imported into the UK, the 3.5 litre / 213 cui V6 powered example seen in these photographs taken at Silverstone a few years ago was registered on the 18th of November 2003.

Thanks for joining me on this “Velocity and Satisfaction” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again for Wagon Wednesday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !