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CAP Blog > CAP Blog > Martin's Blog
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Jan
13
Written by:
Martin Ward
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The original Twingo was driven by the rich and famous, used for taking hens to market and used by the city-slickers and fashion conscious in Paris as the ultimate runabout. It was all things to all men and women in Europe and was regarded as not only a small workhorse, but also as a fashion accessory. Today, even with the introduction of the new model, used ones in France are still highly desirable. However, the previous Twingo was never built in right hand drive form so was never sold in the UK by Renault, but a few did come in as personal imports and these certainly did turn heads.
 The new model is not as stylish and does not receive the same attention as the frog-eyed model, as its design is now more mainstream. For those French customers who were expecting another distinctive looking small hatchback, they must have been disappointed. However, its design is not at all bad and it still has a cute, appealing look. It is all in proportion and looks good from every angle.
 The interior is quite spacious but will only carry four people as it only has four seat belts. Although on the plus side, since the rear seats are individual they easily accommodate two adults, giving them plenty of leg and headroom. The front seats are comfortable and supportive and whether you are in the front or the rear of the Twingo, it doesn’t feel like a small A sector car. It has a large amount of interior space for a car measuring just 3,600mm in length. The boot space, as expected, is not huge and only really accommodates a few bags of supermarket shopping or a single suitcase. A family of four setting out on a holiday or to the airport would struggle to get all of their luggage in.
The instruments are simple yet clear, with a digital speedometer in the centre of the dash which displays miles per hour in bright orange. All of the switchgear is simple to operate and you don’t need to get the owner’s handbook out to see how it all works.
 Our test car was powered by a 1.2 litre 16V petrol engine that develops 75ps, goes from 0-62mph in 12 seconds and has a top speed of 106mph. It has a CO2 emissions output of a relatively high 135g/km; a small car like this really should now be sub 120g/km, but I’m sure Renault will be working towards lower figures. The Twingo didn’t have an on-board computer fitted so getting an accurate mpg figure was difficult, but it did appear to be quite frugal. The official combined fuel consumption figure is 49.6 mpg.
The price of the Twingo Dynamique 1.2 16V with air conditioning is £10,412 on the road, which isn’t cheap but you do have to pay for cute cars these days. Prices for the Twingo start from £7,551 for the special edition Freeway model, going up to £12,762 for the 1.6 VVT Renaultsport 133 model.
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