The Renault Twingo Not For Ringo
You want to Ringo the Renault Twingo? Think again! The Twingo is cheap to run with very good fuel economy and low CO2 emissions helping your carbon footprint. Green is good but with just two 1.2-litre petrol engines, with either 74bhp or a turbo’d 99bhp, not a drivers car. The tiny turbo has very little lag – no more than a lightly cammy engine.
Try to Ringo the Renault Twingo on a bendy road and the chassis serves up competence rather than thrills. Although it alters direction with confidence, it’s never as much fun as it should be. The GT gets stiffer damping and tends to bounce a bit on a series of lateral ridges. The Twingo feels strangely tall – even though it grips well, degrading into understeer eventually.
The little Twingo offers plenty of room, both front and back. The rear seats slide back to create more leg space, but pushed right back the 230 l boot is tiny.
Renault decided that the plastics should be unremittingly crispy, making the car feel pretty low-rent sometimes, leaving very little of the original cheap-chic.
There are just two models, the Dynamique and the GT. The former offers alloys, remote stereo controls and electric windows. Air con is standard on the GT, as is sports suspension and automatic lights. Renault is also offering a ‘range of exterior decals’ for the Twingo, from ‘subtle’ door handle swirls to ‘loud and sporty’ stripes. Front and side airbags are standard, but curtain airbags cost extra on all models.
The Renault Twingo scored reasonable (for its size) four stars in NCAP’s crash tests, but the new Fiat 500 managed to score five. As small cars go, the Twingo is expensive and it just lacks the character of Ringo.