(Exterior pictures of the Twingo courtesy of Hannnes at the CC Cohort)
The French auto industry: Amazingly comfortable large cars that nobody wants, Amazing Hot Hatchbacks, Amazing van that seems to be made of roofing material. France has always done cars in their own way. In 1992 Renault decided that their normal city car was just too damn normal, something needed to be done about it.
The first generation Twingo was designed to be a replacement for the iconic Renault 4. (Obligatory: You know the Pope owns one of those) Already the poor unborn Twingo was facing an uphill battle by replacing one of the most loved vehicles France has ever produced. It also presented a bit of a Catch-22. Make it too close to the 4 and you’re going to end up with people calling “betrayal” on it for being bigger, more comfortable and slightly more complicated. It’s 1992, retro hasn’t become all the rage quite yet. Turn the page and design something completely new and you risk alienating the people that made the 4 a success.
Tasked with that choice, Renault’s Chief Designer at the time, Gaston Juchet, Decided it’d be for the best if they just broke all design ties with the Renault 4 and made a new design from the ground up. Taking inspiration from the W60 project launched in 1986. The resulting product can only be called ‘cute-chic’ with its huge eyes, small grille resembling a smiling face, asymmetrical hood scoops and one-box design. It was a rolling testament that being stylish does not need to come at a high price tag. Something the French carry as a theme with their cars if not with their designer labels. There were still some compromises in the name of an affordable price tag, like the single reverse light integrated in the left taillight, but it managed to carry them with some of that je ne sais quoi that made them easier to overlook. To look at the real cost-cutting, you have to take a look inside.
Holy mish-mash, le Batman! It looks as though the nineties came in, noticed like the dash looked like a normal dashboard that had melted for some reason and proceeded to vomit all over the seats. Renault couldn’t get enough of weird seat fabrics in the nineties days and the Twingo’s was the craziest, purpliest, saved-by-the-bell-iest of them all. Notice also the lack of full-door trim, which adds a nice touch of color to the interior and roasts your arm if you carelessly rest your arm on it. This particular model is probably resprayed as all of those puke-green buttons should match the exterior of the car. The digital dash is on the center of the dashboard like on a Yaris/Scion xB. But all the idiot lights are on the little pod in front of you aswell as the (Single) indicator light. Engine wise, you had an updated version of the 1.2L engine of the Renault 5 doing duty for the first few years at the rate of 55HP. Later models got more advanced 1.0 and 1.2 engines designed for itself and the bigger Renault Clio, which made numbers rise all the way to 75HP. Curb weight was 790kg.
The Twingo I was an exceptionally long-lived vehicle, lasting all the way to 2007 on minor exterior and interior tweaks. That is, of course, unless you lived in Colombia or the surrounding areas. In which case you could walk into a dealership and buy a new one as recently as 2012. Everywhere else in the world it was replaced by the Twingo II. The II was entirely devoid of the quirkiness of his predecessor, opting for a more traditional subcompact look and interior. Presumably they got a PSA memo telling them to focus on cheap and cheerful and let big bro Citroen handle all the quirks. Having said that, it did brought us that other thing the French auto industry do very well in the form of the Twingo 133 Hot Hatch.
However, quirkiness shall prevail, as we now have the Twingo III. A complete departure from the norm. It’s currently propelled by a turbocharged 990cc three-pot engine that’s mounted on the rear. Rear wheel drive, endless customization options. And the rumor mill tells us that there is a sport version in the works. Insert your Porsche 911 jokes here. If the PSA memo I suggested actually existed, I reckon we can be sure that it has already been filed in the same warehouse as the Ark of the Covenant.
Hmmm….I do fancy some Italian today.
It appears to have a neat Parallel Windshield Wiper – remember the first car to have this feature, the 1965 full size Pontiac.
Gotta love that psychadelic interior. Otherwise………….
Always brought a smile to my face. But not sure about that PSA memo; PSA is Peugeot and Citroen (and was Chrysler Europe / Talbot too), Renault’s deadliest domestic rival.
I like the half moon headlights on that yellow one on top. Leave it to the French to come up with that. Another Le Car here in the states, hint hint ?
Non
Then this would be the new Renault Le Car wagon. In brown. With a diesel. And a stick.
(Photo: Liempie, Autoweek)
Looks like some kinda weird Nissan. Oh, I forgot: Renault IS Nissan.
Or is it the other way around ? It’s a Renault Clio, a highly successful B-segment car. The Clio Mk1 was the successor of the 5.
You’re being a little unfair to the Twingo. As one of its
victimsdrivers, I had the pleasure to drive one for a while.I did one of the most stupid choices when I rented one to drive from Andorra la Vella to Toulouse. 250km of twisty roads and then some stretches of motorway. These aren’t the places where the Twingo excels at. In fact, it sucked bigtime, as I had virtually no power to drive and I didn’t like twisting around.
However, the thing changes when you used it in the city or for suburban traffic. This car is HUGE inside. never feel cramped, with decent A/C and heating. The boot is small, but you can swing aft and for the back seats and get a lot of things inside. The gas engine was not something to be too proud of, and they never offered a diesel (until the Twingo II arrived), so it was limited but it never let you down.
Believe it or not, France is a very suburban country. Most people (except in big cities) commute to work and shop in commercial centres. This car was excellent at those duties and was cheap: at the dealer, fixing it, putting gas on it and paying taxes for it. You can still see plenty of those in France faithfully zipping around.
Those seats came straight out of a charter bus.
Fun fact ?
The two-color steering wheel on that picture is optional and, IIRC, with a leather cover.
Yup, this is slimer-green colored leather…
By the way, that interior does not belong to a 1997 Twingo.
That kind of steering wheel was discontinued after 1996.
No mention of its innovative sliding rear seat, which was almost unheard of at the time? The interior may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the original Twingo was a huge hit, and was a difficult act to follow. It was original, cute, practical, and lovable, a collection of qualities not easily generated by a car. It’s impact was outsized, and Renault actually did what might have been considered impossible: an R4 replacement that was about equally well loved. Quite the accomplishment.
Not only the sliding rear bench, all seats were highly comfortable for a car its size, and it was in fact roomier than many cars one size up, not to mention the puny Ford Ka and VW Lupo, its (later) direct competitors. That made it a highly considerable option for many in the city and the things were everywhere in no time. Besides that, the Twingo still had that famed cushy French ride – the first generation Twingo was no penalty box.
Always liked them, Renault made quite a bold move to design a car that had no design precedent but instead was exactly what an urban Frenchman/Française was looking for in a car.
Still, nobody followed up on the small-outside-huge-inside-concept. Apparently, customers needed to be put in penalty boxes if they wanted to drive small cars: enter the C1/Aygo/107. The next Twingo was the polar opposite of the first gen, sadly. At least the UK got to enjoy that one, too, unlike the first one.
I like the expression “Penalty box” a lot. That’s exactly my feeling when I look at some interiors and minimal greenhouses of 2014.
I might be wrong but I think the Twingo was the most stolen car in France for several years in a row. At some point everybody wanted one. Resale value was excellent.
The moving rear seat is definitely rare, although the 1983–1987 Honda Civic had that feature. It would potentially be a handy on a lot of A- and B-segment cars, given the tradeoffs you end up making between rear passenger and cargo space.
A sliding rear seat ? Look what the 1980 Fiat Panda had. Speaking of city cars that really stand out, the Panda is certainly one of them.
What a cute little car! Every time I see one, I smile a little–they really, really got the “cheerful” part right. But that interior…wow. I’m reminded of a mall food court…
When I went to Paris in 2000 these Twingos were probably 25%-40% of all the cars on the road. Mostly in bright skittles colors, and usually with a lot of dents and dings. Parisians are hard on cars, and this one seemed about perfect for the job.
I thought that was an overload of one make, then we went to Italy, where probably 75% of the cars were Unos or Puntos, or if you were in a rural area, all Pandas.
I noticed a lot of touch parking in France also.
I was sitting on a bench on the street, and a guy was doing just this in an old Fiat, to get his car out of a tight parallel spot, no more than 3 feet from us.
Light tap to the car in front, light tap to the back, pretty typical Paris parking, to a point…
After about 3 or 4 “back & forths”; I don’t know if he slipped the clutch, or what, but with the last reverse he absolutely slammed into the car parked behind him, and busted out both of its headlights when his bumper slid up over their’s, and partly lifted the rear end of his Fiat off the ground.
My friend and I must have looked pretty surprised, because the driver actually made eye contact with us, shrugged his shoulders, like “Oh well” (Or more likely: C’est la vie…), and just drove off.
In Paris, the parking spot ends when you bump into the next car.
Unpainted plastic bumpers can be a plus, because if you hit a painted bumper a bit hard, you just have to wipe your bumper a bit and, voilà !, any mark of ze incident haz vanished !
American V8s are a plus too because, with so much torque, you can BUILD you own parallel parking spot…
Minimalist, cute, cheap and cheerful, I think these were an interesting take on a French city/90’s “peoples car”, a girl that I know spent a year in France in 1998, and she drove one of these, she thought it was the cutest, most perfect little car, though she also loved her bosses new Catera when she returned stateside……
That might go over well in Portland if they made it a bit smaller.
I never thought of it before, but there is such a similarity in design elements between the Twingo 1 and the original ‘Hi may I have a headgasket’ Neon, particularly in the original ‘grey bumper’ cheap Neon versions. They both had similar smiles and taillamps, similar multicolored upholstery and even the dashboards are similar. I would hazard a guess that they both used the same cheap ABS plastic for the interior as well.
I wonder if this similarity is just due to general early 90s design trends interpreting ‘cute’ in the same way, or if some of the ex-Renault Chrysler people got a sneak peek at the Twingo.
Didn’t the original early Neons have turquoise/teal interior details too.
Although I have never driven a Twingo, I have seen them all over the place in Paris and talked to owners of them, and what I have seen confirms all of the positive comments. The Twingo accomplishes the city car mission quite well and is cheap but stylish in an offbeat way, making it perfect for its intended use. Women in particular seem to love them, especially women who generally do not like cars, for much the same reason that people in the US liked the first generation New Beetle: it is cute, unpretentious, and small and economical.
Well, even if I was mocking that color in a previous post, I’d love to have a very 1st gen Twingo with that specific green buttons.
It was a huge hit because it’s was small, cheap, easy to maintain, powerful enough to leave the city (at least on highways), and fun.
It was the cheapest french at the time with a base price of 55.000 frs IIRC.
It was easy to maintain because of its “Cléon” engine which had a no-need-to-replace-it timing chain (unlike Peugeot’s and Citroën’s engines whose timing belts had to be replaced around 80.000 miles).
Moreover that engine was known by every french mechanic because its roots went to the Dauphine’s engine.
With a 55 hp engine and a five-speed, it was credited for 96 mph so you could maintain the 80 mph on the highway.
In slopes, well, I guess you could always downshift to 4th, get behind a truck and climb the hill at a steady 55 mph (European trucks are speed governed and should not be able to exceed that speed, at least in theory).
On the other hand, passing trucks on two-lane open roads would be a game of hit or miss, because of a low ratio gearbox (to save on gas) and an engine reluctant to rev.
And, because of it ancient design, the “Cleon” was also a bit more greedy on gas that the competition.
Yet, at the time being, where else could you buy a coolest car sporting such colours as “coral red”, “ultramarine blue” (sounds better in French : “bleu outremer”), “indian yellow” and “coriander green” ?
I’ve seen in on the metal at the 1992 Paris auto world fair and still have one of the first brochures (juin 1993) describing the car.
Never to been seen again colors were available the first few model years.
I would love one in yellow or green.
And you could get a sunroof the size of the car.
that looks like a lovely brochure. Thanks for sharing!
I used to go to Taiwan frequently in the late ’90’s and these were quite common in Taipei. As were Pontiac Sunbirds, Ford Tempos and the retro-Britsh styled small Nissan … I can’t recall its name.
Figaro
My mom still drives one, a sort bright puke green, and a automatic….
Good write up but unless I skipped over it you didn’t mention that twingo III will share it’s platform and 1 of it’s engines with the new smart.
There is/was a Renault Sport Cup model with 125 horsepower. That model did 0 to 62 nearly 4 seconds faster than the 75 horsepower model, unfortunately it cost 20 to 25% more.
I actually would like a 1st gen twingo as a “city car”.
There also was this 133 hp (at 6,750 rpm) Twingo RS, 2nd gen. The engine was a naturally aspirated 1.6 liter. It could do 201 km/h.
Is my English sense of humour making me miss something?
PSA is Peugeot and Citroen, with Peugeot as the older grown up. Renault is most definitely not PSA.
Still, a great little car and it’s good to see it geting some CC exposure
The puke-green, neon green, slime green is really Bianchi ‘Celeste’! They’ve been painting their bicycles that color for over 50 years. I have one.
If Renault had made it reliable (the big one for French cars) and had a parts and service operation, this would have sold millions to the womyn and youngin’s in the US. For the little I drive, this would of been perfect if it doesn’t self destruct in 3 years.
single white reverse light is the norm in Europe. In my opinion it makes sense as if there were two, there would be no difference between a car backing up to you and driving directly towards you going forward.
What is it about cars that the French just don’t get? I have never seen an attractive French car.
I can think of a couple attractive ones…The Citroen SM for one, the 406 Coupé. of course, most of them are very much a love/hate thing. Like this Twingo, which I think is just adorable or the Renault Avantime, which is like a spaceship.
Citroen CX, GS, Dyane, 2CV, Renault 15, Peugeot 403 range, 404 wagon, 404 coupe/cabriolet, 504 wagon, 504 coupe/cabriolet, 205, 405 wagon, Matra Rancho, Ford Comete, Facel Vega HK500, Alpine A310… and that’s before I get into the pre-war Bugattis, Delages and Delahayes.
Don’t forget Simca (1300/1500, 1301/1501, Aronde, Versailles, etc…).
And, IMHO, any Peugeot sedan or wagon built prior to the 407 looks great (203, 403, 404, 204, 304, 504, 604, 505, 305, 405, 605, 406, 407).
I like the current Peugeot models 208, 308, 508 (much, MUCH better looking than the previous generations) and RCZ and the current Citroën DS model-range.
More than enough to choose from, old and new.
I remember seeing these in Auto Motor und Sport and other magazines at the time. I thoroughly miss the spirit of the original VW Golf (Rabbit), Fiat Uno, Mitsubishi Colt, Honda Civic, Renault LeCar and yes, even the Yugo. A simple little car with a lot of cargo or passenger capacity.
The car pictured at the top of the post is so very much the 1990’s. All of the juxtapositioning of odd colors and shapes, some bright, some subdued. It seemed to work back then, even the Chrysler Neon had a similar vibe going on. I really like the new Twingo, but I’m afraid that it will only come to the US as a Smart car. Hopefully, the new Smart car won’t bury the Twingo that may remain.
Thanks for the post, Gerardo. Well done.
Nice post on a nice looking car. Reminds me of my favourite baby from the mid 80s, the Honda Today.
‘Beat’ me to it (a Honda pun).
I love both and can’t decide which I’d like to own more. Each one is not only an appealing, interesting car, but a great representation of their manufacturer’s (and homeland’s) ambitions.
There were some American and Japanese cars of the 90s that made use of the same weird color palette seen inside the Renault, but none of them fully committed to it like this and most came off really half-assed. The Twingo’s interior looks like a Nickelodean cartoon from circa 1994 exploded inside of it, and I mean that in a good way!
Here’s a yellow Today to match the Twingo:
…and as it is specific for the europeans, the latest Twingo has been upsized as well…
The new one was developed in co-operation with Smart, this is the new Smart ForFour.
Like many cars Renault made, this was a first.
The first monospace in the small car category
With its sliding rear seat is was one of the most practical cars ever.
Even my over 6’4″ brothers had room in the back of the car.
And we were able to drive with 4 tall guys in it.
Renault never ever had the intention of launching something totally new, they believed this car would have a brief life, not investing in a modern engine or a RHD version of the Twingo.
This car took Renault completely by surprise, the bright colors, the no-nonsense and sex-less approach towards the automobile.
The radio aerial was installed on the left hand door m irror, the guy who was selling these parts for Renault was pushed and pressed for a better price.
(A roof antenna was initiated originally)
He’d tell Renault : the copper antenna wire costs us this much, this costs us this much,I cannot come any lower in price.
It was there and then decided to install the antenne on the left hand door mirror, so you’d save a yard and a half copper wire.
Patrick le Quement the Twingo designer wnet to see his boss after the Twingo was presented to loyal and discrete Renault customers as a prospect for a new model.
A large percentage hated the thing and dismissed it, immediately.
Another large percentage loved it and immediately started to ask when they could buy one.
Renault marketing dismissed the model but le Quement went to see Renaults CEO and explained to him : Yes, a lot of people dismiss the car, but the number of people that insist on buying one has never been this big on any prototype we’ve ever presented.
That my dears, was the only reason Renault decided to take the Twingo in production.
It became the Renault 4 successor by accident actually, this was not, I repeat not planned or intended, but both cars do have a large dosis of no-nonsense and practicality over them, only in a way the French can do with flair.
The Twingo became a hughe success overnight and opened the door for a whole new generation of mature but ultra small European cars, a segment under their own SuperMIni like the Renault 5 was.
Today Europe is littered with VW Up’s, Toyota Aygo’s, Opel Adam’s and Ford Ka’s.
Each and every manufacturer sells something in this league
But t’was the Twingo I who came first.
It reminds me of the Dacia Logan whose success also occured by accident.
Renault didn’t want to sell it in Western Europe at first.
Louis Schweitzer, Renault top CEO at the time, was mocked because he introduced the Logan as cheap, economical, tough, reliable and easy to maintain.
When asked if the Logan would be sold in France, he replied that french customers didn’t want such a vehicle, thus implying that french customers only wanted expensive, gas-guzzling, flimsy, unreliable and complicated cars…
Nevertheless, it became one of Renault’s biggest success for the last 10 years.
Dacia’s market share in France, which started at 1,5 % in 2007, is presently 5 %.
Given my neighbor’s habit of double parking, my life would be easier if I had one of those, instead of the Jetta, but I bet the Twingo would lose it’s charm on a day when I cover 400 miles of freeway.
“There were still some compromises in the name of an affordable price tag, like the single reverse light integrated in the left taillight.”
I don’t think that was done on the Twingo for cost cutting. A lot of cars in Europe are sold with only one reverse light. The “missing” reverse light is often replaced by a rear fog light which is necessary on all cars sold in Europe.
Laws in the EU require at least one reverse light on the passenger side of the car, the other side is optional; the reverse light is on the left only on UK and Ireland market cars. Always looks a little weird when seeing one while used to LHD cars, the car looks familiar but something’s different, as you can see here (LHD model to the right).
I wish they offered this in the US now. I guess I’ll have to admire minimalist, charming, cheerful, attractive 3 door cars like this from afar. A small, fun, modestly priced car doesn’t have to look like it’s contemporaries and/or retro.
You for 100% understand “the idea” behind the Twingo.