 The original Twingo was a classic example
that innovative designs sell themselves. Born in 1993, the Twingo was
famous for a trend-setting monospace design, which looked funky and
provided a roomy cabin, and a sliding rear seat, which allowed flexible
distribution between passenger room and luggage room. Both features
were widely copied from other car makers. The Twingo offered only one
body style and limited choices of engines and trims, but it still sold
2.4 million copies in the following 14 years, which was quite a
miracle. Not many cars could survive for more than 10 years, even fewer
could match the Twingo. Renault did want to replace it earlier, but
unfortunately it found the modern requirements for crash protection and
clean emission could eat heavily into the already slim profit of the
little car. To make sure the new car earn money for Renault, group CEO
Carlos Ghosn turned down an earlier proposal and ordered the engineers
to develop a cheaper one, which is this one. Sadly, in this case cheaper means more conventional. Renault plays safe this time, sacrificing the trademark monospace design for a conventional two-box shape. Admittedly, a longer nose copes better with crash test. Although Patrick le Quement's design team gave it a pretty elegant and upmarket front end design, the new Twingo has lost the magic of the original car and looks hardly outstanding in the sea of sub-minis. As before, 3-door is the only body style on offer in order to save costs. Other cost saving measures include sharing most underpinnings (suspensions, most engines and gearboxes) with the old Clio II and build together with Clio II in the Slovenia factory to take advantage of lower labor costs.  The new Twingo is slightly larger than Fiat Panda and more
so than Toyota Aygo / Peugeot 107 / Citroen C1, all are its key rivals
in Europe. Fortunately, it also offers more interior room than them.
The front seats offer good head and knee room. The rear are two
individual seats which can slide fore and aft for a range of 22 cm. In
the rearmost position, they offer ample legroom for 6-foot-plus
passengers, although the headroom is not so generous. Slide the seats
forward and the boot increases to a remarkable 285 liters. If that's
not enough, flip the rear seats and it can swallow 959 liters of
luggage. Long items can be accommodated once the front passenger seat
back folds down. Twingo still shines in packaging and cabin
flexibility. The cabin has plenty of storage cubbies and some upmarket optional kits, such as i-Pod and Bluetooth connectivity, a panoramic glass roof and even a cruise control. However, it has none of the upmarket feel that other Renault models delivered. The hard plastic dashboard is uninspiring. The centrally mounted instrument is hard to like. The conventionally located gearstick is not as convenient to use as the dash-mounted one found in Fiat Panda. Sometimes style and colors may compensate the lack of quality, but Twingo has none of them.  Like most other mini cars, Twingo rides on strut and
torsion-beam suspensions, steer through a rack-and-pinion system with
electric assistance and find power from a transversely mounted
4-cylinder engine driving the front wheels. Most engines are cheap and
well proven in the old Clio, such as the 60hp 1.2-liter 8V, 75hp
1.2-liter 16V and 65hp 1.5dCi turbo diesel. The only new engine, also
the most interesting, is the 1.2 TCE (Turbo Control Efficiency) engine.
It is based on the 1.2-litre 16V but added with a light-pressure
turbocharger to produce 100 horsepower and 107 lbft of torque. A small
overboost can take the output to 105hp and 111 lbft in case of need. On the road, the Twingo feels surprisingly refined for a small car. Its suspensions are especially absorbent, like traditional French cars. The cabin is well insulated from tire and wind noise. Its steering is precise and well weighted, if short of feel. It corners competently but you can't call it an entertaining drive. The normally aspirated engines aren't as refined as Fiat's and they struggles to cope with the heavier weight of Twingo – some 65kg heavier than Panda and 135kg more hefty than Aygo. Therefore performance is modest.  In contrast, the 1.2 TCE's turbo engine is torquey and
flexible. It pulls like a 1.6-liter engine but returns lower fuel
consumption. The problem is, Renault sells it as a hot hatch and
targets against Fiat Panda 100HP. Drive it in enthusiastic mode, its
engine feels uninspiring. Once you wind it above 5000 rpm, it sounds
coarse and becomes reluctant to rev. This engine performs best in
motorway cruising. The suspensions, tires and steering of TCE also
lacks the sharp tuning of Panda 100HP. Renault seems reserving the
potential for a Renault Sport model in the future…That said, if you don't mind the weaker base engines, the lack of rear doors and the slightly higher price than rivals, the new Renault Twingo could be a perfect mini car for you. Just don't expect the innovative, cheap and cheerful character of the first generation. The link between the new and old car is no more than the name. |
| The above report was last updated on 29 Jun 2007. All Rights Reserved. |