We had been looking for a new car for my GF to replace her 11 year old Punto, and as you might have seen from some of my posts here, the UpMiiGo triplets were in the running. We'd looked at most of the small car choices but the "right" used Citigo never came up and none of them others quite hit the spot.

 

For some reason I'd not given the Twingo much thought, and then one day while I was out cycling I went past a Renault dealer and saw one on a forecourt so we went back for a look.

 

 

Unusually for a city car, the Twingo is rear wheel drive, rear engined and in the one we bought, turbocharged. You can feel and see the effect this has had on the car in pretty much every area. Firstly, shape. With the engine sandwiched under the boot where you might expect to see a spare tyre, it's pushed the floor of the car up all the way along, and the roof has followed. You are sat quite high up which gives an excellent view of the road - it's taller than my Octavia and almost the same height as the neighbour's Zafira, though the nice step of the hips the car has means it doesn't look oddly proportioned.

 

 

With nothing taking up room under the plastic bonnet other than the battery and water bottle you've got a much longer cabin than you might expect so four adults is no squeeze and as they are all five door cars, you can get people in and out easily too. With no engine in the way, the front wheels will go to about 45 degrees giving a phenomenal turning circle. With almost no overhang it's a piece of cake to park.

 

There are two engine choices available - the two lower spec cars (Expression and Play) come with a 70bhp 1 litre normally aspirated triple that gives very similar performance to the Citigo. For Dynamique trim you also have a choice of a 900c turbocharged version with an extra 20bhp and if you step up to Dynamique S then that's the only option. That gets you a 0-60 time of about 10.5 seconds and a pleasing shove in the back as the boost arrives. It feels slightly old fashioned to get a big lump of power like that but it does make it a lot of fun, though the traction control won't let you get too tail happy. Having the engine behind you also makes it quite a quiet car once you are on the move - it cruises very nicely at motorway speeds and wind noise is the most noticable sound. We've got about 50mpg so far which is some way off claimed figures, but it's doing a lot of short journeys so far.

 

It's not just the power that changes between the two engines - the lower powered version only has drum brakes at the front, and a different (slower) steering rack, neither of which I was keen on. Interestingly the turbo car is also the more economical one, with free road tax instead of £20.

 

In terms of spec, Expression is fairly predictable with 15" steel wheels, an MP3 compatible stereo with DAB but no CD player, LED DRLs and electric windows. You don't get Aircon - for that you must shell out an extra £500 for Play. Go up to Dynamique and you get 15" Alloys, electric heated wing mirrors, front fogs, tinted windows and a spoiler. S spec adds sports stickers, pedals and interior trim plus 16" wheels.

 

You could get really carried away with the options if you wanted - there's the expected huge choice of personalisations as seen on the 500 and mini - sticker sets, different coloured interior plastics and so on. You can get a huge canvas sunroof, Nav system with reversing camera and so on. If you don't have the built in Nav then you can instead download a Renault app for Android and iOS phones that gives you extra vehicle information as seen on the Citigo's PID, Sat Nav and the ability to control the stereo which is a nice idea.

 

Build quality seems very good - everything is nice and solid, and while there is some cost saving such as pop out rear windows and no grab handles, there's nothing too important that's missing. The seats are very comfortable with really good lateral support making it ideal for chucking down country lanes. Yes, I'm sure as it's French it will fall apart in a month's time, but they offer a four year warranty as standard, which shows more confidence in their product than Skoda manage.

 

In terms of price, the Dynamique TCE is £11700, plus £225 for the non-metallic blue we chose which I didn't think was bad at all when compared to a 5 door Citigo Monte Carlo. We've had 4 years 0% finance on HP, with a £650 discount (again, not bad on a brand new model) and got 3 years servicing for £200. So far they are a rare sight on the roads - I've only seen two others and none of the very closely related Smart FourTwo and FourFor that share the same mechanicals, albeit at a higher cost.

 

Anyway, so far we are very pleased with our choice - time will tell if its the right one.

Just remembered I forgot to mention the standard cruise control, speed limiter and lane departure warning.

Anyway, here's a proper review. http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/renault/twingo/91335/long-term-test-review-renault-twingo

Interesting read, it does sound quite revolutionary with the rear engine and higher body but keeping the length down, almost smart car like. Disappointed about the lack of broadside action due to the traction control though

Given the target market, I don't think lairy tail slides would be too popular. That's why there's no off button for the TC.

Hope you enjoy the car. It seems a little expensive to me though and has had disappointing press reviews. I think the press were hoping for something cheap and fun to drive rather than something that is aiming at premium stylish and is not that fun. I can't tell as not driven one but being an enthusiast something as simple as not having a rev counter is a put off for me. I would have gone for a Panda myself but nice review.

The engine is brilliant.

 

It is hard to explain just how good it is for just 900 cc.

 

In the Dacia Logan (biggish car) it is just so competent.  

 

Quite at 75 mph, 3K revs.  

 

In the 50s mpg.    

 

Even in the Logan I think it does 0-60 in not much over 10 seconds.

 

Lots more to come from Renault, and Dacia.