AutoRAI 1999 - the concept cars:

Renault & Suzuki

Another car introduced at the Paris car show of 1998: the very futuristic Renault Vel Satis. A design you have to get used to. It somehow looks like a wedge-shaped tank at first, but it isn't half bad.
The car is designed to be a 2+2 coupé in the top range for the near future. It has a   V6 engine producing 210 hp and 290 Nm torque.

Not only the bodywork looks futuristic, the interior is very advanced too. It offers private air-conditioning controls for every seat in the car and it has a Pioneer navigational system based on DVD technology that has a data-capacity up to 8 times more than the current CD based systems.
Clearly a car aimed at testing the opinions of the general public and at showing what Renault is capable of. I don't think a car like this will be taken into production, but we'll certainly see aspects of it in normal production cars in the future.

Not a real concept car at all is this Suzuki Kei. It's already in production in Japan and apparently it's very popular over there, but here in Europe it's presented as a show car to test the general opinion. This car is built to the Japanese minicar standards and it's a bit of a cross between a three door saloon car and an all terrain vehicle. In Japan it's available in two or four wheel drive configuration with a choice of three engines with manual or automatic transmissions. If opinions are positive Suzuki will consider to sell this tiny car over here too.

A real concept car is this Suzuki UW-1, introduced at the Japanese Tokyo car show in 1998. It's a small people carrier kind of a car, something like a Renault Mégane Scenic or a Citroën Xsara Picasso. It has a big flat windscreen that makes it look a bit like a bus and a central steering position, like in a McLaren F1. The looks of it aren't very much out of the ordinary and it won't surprise me if a car like this will be taken into production by Suzuki in the near future.

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