AUTOMOTIVE Engineer magazine has presented its first Car of the Year award to the Renault Avantime. The magazine considered four key factors in coming to its decision: overall engineering, technological innovations, manufacturing techniques and overall design.

Automotive Engineer concluded: "Avantime is an adventurous, futuristic car that only one or two car manufacturers can get away with. Nowadays, you expect such exciting designs to come from Renault.

It will make a welcome addition to the roads." Top Gear awarded Avantime the title of best specialist car, a category for "those round pegs in a square-holed world, the winner being the most original of them all".

The Avantime is available in two versions: the 2-litre turbo petrol engine and comes with the mid-range Dynamique trim and the 3-litre V6 petrol engine comes with the luxury Privilege trim. Guide prices are between £24,000 and £27,000.